302: NEW VALUES | IGGY POP

There are far too few words written about this masterpiece. But I found a particularly good article (below).

A great article from Jeremy Shaton: When Iggy Pop signed to Arista in 1978, it seemed a natural continuation of the label’s reach for downtown rock & roll credibility with first Patti Smith and then Lou Reed.

But there was a big difference: Arista president Clive Davis had already encountered Iggy’s chaotic ways when he was convinced to bankroll Raw Power during the last year of his leadership at Columbia Records. The story has it that Iggy climbed onto Davis’s desk and serenaded him with a Sinatra song and tales of world-dominating sales. The latter part may have seemed convincing because he had lined up as his producer none other than David Bowie, who had recently delivered hits for both Mott The Hoople and Reed.

While Raw Power is a stone-cold classic, featuring many classic songs and adding the heat-seeking guitar of James Williamson to the mix, it contained no hit singles, however, and there was nothing Sinatra-smooth about its creation either. Davis was likely happy to see Iggy self-destruct after its release, so at least so he wouldn’t darken his office door again with another wild sales pitch. Yet that’s exactly what happened. Within a year or two The Stooges flamed out and Iggy was at a low point, addicted to heroin and without a label or a band.

However, after a stint in rehab, Bowie got him to Berlin where they cut The Idiot and Lust For Life during the same prolific period that produced Low and “Heroes”. Both albums did fairly well in the UK, cracking the Top 30, and received enough critical acclaim to confirm Iggy was once again a going concern, now as a solo artist. 

Even so, Davis was not pleased when Ben Edmonds, Arista’s UK A&R person, inked a deal with Iggy behind his back. Instead of killing the deal, Davis simply put the kibosh on any American releases for whatever the former Stooge cooked up. New Values, the first album he delivered for Arista, surprised everyone at the label by selling strongly and getting great reviews when it was released in England, prompting Davis to give it an American release almost immediately.

Here are five reasons why it’s not only a great record, but also Iggy’s last masterpiece….

Wiki: New Values is the third studio album by Iggy Pop and his first record since The Stooges' Funhouse and post-Stooges Kill City not to have any involvement from David Bowie. It was released in April 1979 by record label Arista.

New Values was Pop's first record for Arista and the first collaboration by Pop and James Williamson since Kill City. The album also reunited Pop and Williamson with multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston, who had played live piano for The Stooges on Metallic K.O. and Kill City.