Iggy Pop (May 12, 1977) Circus Magazine – Album Review

SOURCE DETAILS

Publication: Circus Magazine

Date: May 12, 1977

Country: United States

Section / Pages: Album Review Column

Title: The Idiot — Iggy Pop (RCA Victor)

Writer: Wesley Strick

THE STORY

In this review, Wesley Strick reflects on Iggy Pop’s collaboration with David Bowie on The Idiot, noting its eerie, mechanised quality and comparing it to what a late-period Jim Morrison album might have sounded like. He highlights the death-rattle vocals on “Sister Midnight”, the detached delivery of lines like “We learn dances, brand new dances / Like the nuclear bomb,” and draws parallels to Lou Reed’s Berlin and Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash.”

CONTEXT AND NOTES

Released in March 1977, The Idiot marked Iggy Pop’s artistic rebirth after the Stooges era. Recorded in Berlin with David Bowie, the album’s cold, industrial sound represented a stark departure from raw garage rock toward a more controlled, avant-garde aesthetic that would heavily influence post-punk and industrial music

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

Event: Review of Iggy Pop’s album The Idiot

Era: 1977 – Berlin period / Post-Stooges era

Tone: Analytical, dark and macabre

Photography: Text-only column layout

Audience: Circus readers and serious rock fans

WHAT THE CLIPPING SHOWS

A single-column review with the bold header “The Idiot—Iggy Pop (RCA Victor)” by Wesley Strick. The text explores the album’s haunting atmosphere, Iggy’s transformed vocal style, and its place in the evolving rock landscape of the mid-1970s.

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