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Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for sharing the classic rock music video of Iggy Pop performing Lust For Life in honor of the fact that on August 29, 1977, Iggy Pop released his second album "Lust for Life", a collaboration with David Bowie.
Lust For Life - David Bowie co-wrote this song with Iggy Pop.
Lyrics
"Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another striptease
Hey man where'd you get that lotion?
I been hurting
Since I bought the gimmick
About something called love
Yeah something called love
That's like hypnotizing chickens
Well I am just a modern guy
Of course I've had it in the ear before
'Cause of a lust for life
'Cause of a lust for life
I got a lust for life
I'm worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a G.T.O
Wear a uniform
All on a government loan
I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah I'm through with sleeping on the
Sidewalk - no more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With the liquor and drugs
With the liquor and drugs
Well I am just a modern guy
Of course…"
Background on the song
"This song is about Iggy Pop's lifestyle as a hard-living heroin addict. The title is taken from the 1956 film of the same name, which itself is an adaptation of Irving Stone's 1934 biographical novel about the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
The song makes several references to Johnny Yen, a character in American writer William S. Burroughs' 1962 novel The Ticket That Exploded. References to the novel also account for the lyrical preoccupation with stripteases, drugs, and hypnotizing chickens.
David Bowie co-wrote this song with Iggy Pop, with Bowie composing the music on a ukulele. It was inspired by the opening to the American Forces Network News, which the pair listened to in Berlin. Iggy recalled to Q magazine April 2013: "Once a week the Armed Forces Network would play Starsky & Hutch and that was our little ritual. AFN would broadcast an ID when they came on the air, a representation of a radio tower, and it made a signal sound, 'beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-ba-beep.' And we went, 'Aha we'll take that!'. David grabbed his ukulele, worked out the chords, and away we went."
The song was re-released as a single in 1996, featuring on the soundtrack for the British film Trainspotting (where drug abuse was a central theme). While the song didn't chart when it was first released, this reissue reached #26 in the UK. This success might explain the subsequent release in 1998 of "The Passenger," another song from the same album, which made #22 UK.
A remix of the song by The Prodigy led off the soundtrack for the movie's sequel, T2 Trainspotting, which was released 20 years later.
Because of its chorus that can be interpreted as a message to live life to its fullest, this song is often used in commercials, including one for Royal Caribbean Cruises where the advertisement jumps from the opening line "Here comes Johnny Yen again" straight to the chorus "Lust for life," conveniently omitting all the interim references to liquor, drugs, "flesh machines," and stripteases. The campaign began in 2001 and ran for nearly a decade, befuddling fans who marveled at the incongruity, but effectively marketing the product, as Royal Caribbean was reaching out to a younger demographic and positioning their cruises as more of an adventure and less about the shuffleboard and buffets.
Most viewers didn't make the heroin association, but that's true of the song in general, as the rousing chorus is what cuts through. And while some of Pop's fans were outraged, he loved it. Pop controlled the rights to his performance of the song, which is what Royal Caribbean used, but couldn't stop companies from using re-recorded versions which often appeared without his approval. With this campaign, he got paid, and not eager to bite the hand, said, "I actually enjoyed Royal Caribbean's usage. And to me, it's just great that it's out there in any form for someone to hear."
This song was used as the opening theme to the syndicated sports talk program The Jim Rome Show. >>
The line "I've had it in the ear before" is an expression meaning you've been screwed over. >>
The recognizable drum and guitar riffs are notably replicated in the Australian garage rock band Jet's 2003 single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl." The similarities were subject to media scrutiny, though both bands have admitted that the primary inspiration for their tracks were Motown hits, such as The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" and Martha & the Vandellas' "I'm Ready for Love."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5218
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT Mark Halmrast PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Lust For Life - David Bowie co-wrote this song with Iggy Pop.
Lyrics
"Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another striptease
Hey man where'd you get that lotion?
I been hurting
Since I bought the gimmick
About something called love
Yeah something called love
That's like hypnotizing chickens
Well I am just a modern guy
Of course I've had it in the ear before
'Cause of a lust for life
'Cause of a lust for life
I got a lust for life
I'm worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a G.T.O
Wear a uniform
All on a government loan
I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah I'm through with sleeping on the
Sidewalk - no more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With the liquor and drugs
With the liquor and drugs
Well I am just a modern guy
Of course…"
Background on the song
"This song is about Iggy Pop's lifestyle as a hard-living heroin addict. The title is taken from the 1956 film of the same name, which itself is an adaptation of Irving Stone's 1934 biographical novel about the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
The song makes several references to Johnny Yen, a character in American writer William S. Burroughs' 1962 novel The Ticket That Exploded. References to the novel also account for the lyrical preoccupation with stripteases, drugs, and hypnotizing chickens.
David Bowie co-wrote this song with Iggy Pop, with Bowie composing the music on a ukulele. It was inspired by the opening to the American Forces Network News, which the pair listened to in Berlin. Iggy recalled to Q magazine April 2013: "Once a week the Armed Forces Network would play Starsky & Hutch and that was our little ritual. AFN would broadcast an ID when they came on the air, a representation of a radio tower, and it made a signal sound, 'beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-ba-beep.' And we went, 'Aha we'll take that!'. David grabbed his ukulele, worked out the chords, and away we went."
The song was re-released as a single in 1996, featuring on the soundtrack for the British film Trainspotting (where drug abuse was a central theme). While the song didn't chart when it was first released, this reissue reached #26 in the UK. This success might explain the subsequent release in 1998 of "The Passenger," another song from the same album, which made #22 UK.
A remix of the song by The Prodigy led off the soundtrack for the movie's sequel, T2 Trainspotting, which was released 20 years later.
Because of its chorus that can be interpreted as a message to live life to its fullest, this song is often used in commercials, including one for Royal Caribbean Cruises where the advertisement jumps from the opening line "Here comes Johnny Yen again" straight to the chorus "Lust for life," conveniently omitting all the interim references to liquor, drugs, "flesh machines," and stripteases. The campaign began in 2001 and ran for nearly a decade, befuddling fans who marveled at the incongruity, but effectively marketing the product, as Royal Caribbean was reaching out to a younger demographic and positioning their cruises as more of an adventure and less about the shuffleboard and buffets.
Most viewers didn't make the heroin association, but that's true of the song in general, as the rousing chorus is what cuts through. And while some of Pop's fans were outraged, he loved it. Pop controlled the rights to his performance of the song, which is what Royal Caribbean used, but couldn't stop companies from using re-recorded versions which often appeared without his approval. With this campaign, he got paid, and not eager to bite the hand, said, "I actually enjoyed Royal Caribbean's usage. And to me, it's just great that it's out there in any form for someone to hear."
This song was used as the opening theme to the syndicated sports talk program The Jim Rome Show. >>
The line "I've had it in the ear before" is an expression meaning you've been screwed over. >>
The recognizable drum and guitar riffs are notably replicated in the Australian garage rock band Jet's 2003 single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl." The similarities were subject to media scrutiny, though both bands have admitted that the primary inspiration for their tracks were Motown hits, such as The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" and Martha & the Vandellas' "I'm Ready for Love."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5218
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT Mark Halmrast PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Lust For Life by Iggy Pop Songfacts
Lust For Life by Iggy Pop song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position
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