Nude & Rude: The Best of Iggy Pop

by

Iggy Pop

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Want to set the record straight as to why some of the obvious hits were left off of this collection. According to an interview given a few years ago, Pop stated that the omissions were due to restrictions the various record companies for which he has recorded placed on Virgin Records: Elektra allowed two songs off of either The Stooges or Fun House but not both; Columbia allowed two songs from Raw Power as long as it wasn't Search & Destroy AND Raw Power (by the way, the versions of Search & Destroy and Gimme Danger on Nude & Rude were taken from the original Bowie-produced Raw Power which I believe is now out of print [Update 4/13/10: Sony Legacy has since re-released the original Bowie mix on a 2-CD Deluxe Raw Power]); Arista would not participate whatsoever so anything from New Values, Soldier and Party was off limits; and Bomp! chipped in with the essential I'm Sick Of You and Kill City. Given all the handcuffing, I think Virgin did a good job with this CD, and wrapping things up with Wild America is a nice touch as the Ig comes full circle to the kind of music he started out with. This is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with Pop's work. If you like what you hear here, proceed directly to Fun House.

Granted, you would need a double-disc to thoroughly cover both the Stooges AND Iggy's solo career, and that's probably the approach Virgin should have taken for this project if they weren't so cheap. Instead, they tried to cram twenty years of output onto a single disc, which is a shame considering Iggy's influence on modern music. I agree with the above reviewer who criticized the complete neglect of Iggy's Arista recordings, particularly NEW VALUES, an album of particular importance due to the fact that it not only included some of Iggy's best tunes ("New Values", "Five Foot One", "I'm Bored"), but it also featured Stooges' guitarist James Williamson both playing and producing. The inclusion of a few key tracks from these sessions would have been nice here, especially since they are STILL out-of-print domestically and only available as German imports (West German, to show you their age) Also, nothing from ZOMBIE BIRDHOUSE. So basically, Virgin dropped the ball on this one. I suppose it's sufficient if you want the hits and not necessarily the good songs.