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Blah-Blah-Blah (1986)

Where the lyrics of Blah-Blah-Blah take you, and where it was really made.

Pop's most commercially successful album is one he reportedly disowned: biographer David Buckley called it a Bowie album in all but name.

Key places

Recorded and mixed at Mountain Studios (1986)

Recording site Mountain Studios — The album was recorded and mixed at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. The release credits list this studio as the main recording location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Additional recording in Los Angeles (1986)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Additional recording was done at Olivier Ferrand Studio in Los Angeles, according to the release credits. Only the city-level location is known. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Blah-Blah-Blah: seventh studio album by American musician Iggy Pop
• Released in September 1986 on the label A&M
• Iggy Pop's most commercially successful album
• Appeared after a four-year hiatus for Pop
• David Bowie was his prime collaborator; it was their final collaboration
• A successful tour followed the album's release

Background

• Pop's first album for A&M
• Bowie co-wrote the remaining tracks and co-produced the album with David Richards
• Three original songs were co-written with former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones
• The collection includes a cover of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One", titled "Real Wild Child (Wild One)"
• Bowie biographer David Buckley reported that Pop "virtually disowned" the record
• In 1990, Pop credited Bowie with setting up a framework that let him tell his story in a way people could hear
• It has never been specified which tracks, if any, came from the sessions of Bowie's 1984 album Tonight

Recording

• Recorded and mixed at Mountain Studios, Montreux
• Additional recording at Olivier Ferrand Studio, Los Angeles
• David Richards worked as engineer
• Bowie did not play any instruments but contributed backing vocals
• Kevin Armstrong played guitar; Erdal Kızılçay handled synthesizer, bass, drums and string arrangements

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• James Newell Osterberg Jr., born April 21, 1947 in Muskegon, Michigan, known as Iggy Pop.
• Began as drummer in Ann Arbor high school bands, including the Iguanas and the Prime Movers, where he got the nickname "Iggy".
• Formed the Psychedelic Stooges with Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander; he became the lead vocalist, nicknamed "Pop".
• Signed with Elektra Records in 1968, following the Doors.

Members

• Original Stooges lineup: Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), Scott Asheton (drums), Dave Alexander (bass).
• Later lineup included James Williamson (guitar) and Scott Thurston; the band reunited with Mike Watt and Steve Mackay in 2003-2005.

Career

• The Stooges' albums sold poorly, but they became known for confrontational live performances, including self-mutilation and stage-diving.
• Raw Power (1973) became influential on the Sex Pistols, the Smiths and Nirvana.
• Solo debut with David Bowie: The Idiot and Lust for Life (1977), with Bowie producing; "China Girl" was later a hit for Bowie in 1983.
• Only Top 40 US hit "Candy" (1990), a duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52's.
• "Lust for Life" was featured in the film Trainspotting (1996).
• The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010; Pop received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
• Also an actor and voice performer in films and television, and hosts the radio show Iggy Confidential on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's contemporary review complained of a "nagging homogeneity to side one" but went on to say that "even at its most familiar, Blah-Blah-Blah is as spiritually outraged and emotionally direct as commercial pop gets these days"
• Rolling Stone described "Cry for Love" as "a ripping fusion of classic Iggy rage, Bowie cabaret and unexpected romantic vulnerability"
• NME critic Don Watson called it a fine if predictable album of "Adulted Orientated Decadence" geared towards the CD format
• Watson wrote that, unlike contemporary Rolling Stones, it "never sounds desperate, only sad"
• Robert Christgau in The Village Voice dismissed Pop for "copping to conscience"
• Classic Rock said the safe-as-milk new image and art-pop songs had strayed far from the rabid Stooge of old, and Pop then moved to anthemic heavy metal for Instinct (1988)

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Mark Deming called it "the most calculatedly commercial album of Iggy's career"
• Deming said it gave up the art rock of The Idiot for a slick, "very '80s" pop sound dominated by preprogrammed percussion and swirling keyboards
• Deming regards the overall album as one of Pop's least interesting and most dated, though he highlights a couple of memorable songs
• Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune deemed it a "sanitized reunion with Bowie"
• Mark Coleman of The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) called it a slick Bowie reunion that "mysteriously fails to spark either participants' batteries"
• Phil Freeman of Stereogum ranked it the sixth best Iggy Pop record in 2016
• Freeman found the songs "actually really good" and called the album "overdue for reassessment and celebration"
• Trouser Press called it "a strange and sometimes mainstream-sounding maelstrom of styles" whose lyrics give it intellectual cohesiveness

Records

• Certified gold in Canada, with more than 50,000 copies sold
• Peaked at No. 75 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart in the U.S.
• "Real Wild Child" reached No. 27 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts and became Pop's first Top 10 hit in the UK
• "Cry for Love" reached No. 19 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music chart and No. 34 on the Mainstream Rock charts

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The song "Real Wild Child" was featured on the soundtrack for the 1988 film Crocodile Dundee II
• Iggy Pop's Blah-Blah-Blah shares its music with Bowie's Tonight sessions only as an unconfirmed question, since the tracks that came from those sessions have never been specified
• Demo versions of some songs circulate online
• Steve Jones played the guitar solo on "Cry for Love"
• Bowie co-produced the album, but his biography is the source for Pop's own "virtually disowned" account

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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