Iggy Pop “Lust For Life” released on this date, August 29th, 1977. Doesn’t he look ridiculously happy on the cover? He deserved to be – this album is a masterpiece. Recorded with David Bowie, who also played piano and contributed backing vocals as well as writing and production work, Lust For Life reached #28 in the UK but just #120 in the US, stymied by Elvis Presley’s death and RCA’s move to focus on the promotion of Presley’s back catalogue reissues.

“Tonight” and “Success” are the most obvious Bowie-influenced tracks on the album, the former a deep blue tinged mid tempo rocker (Bowie covered the track on his 1984 release Tonight) and the latter infused with funk-jazz experimentation that disintegrates into hilarity with a call-and-response of “oh shit.” “Sixteen” is awesomely raw, vaguely dangerous in a funky bar wearing leather boots. “Fall In Love With Me” is cocky and jaunty, painting the picture of the girl he likely just saw pass by some Berlin club that he totally crushed on (“your plastic raincoat and your plastic shoes, they look good too standing in the snow..”). “The Passenger” is one of my all-time favorite songs that has made it on to many mix tapes over the years. It is perfect for long road trips: a relentlessly hedonistic and buoyant beat written for cruising. And of course the title track, “Lust For Life” rates up there as one of the best songs ever. I’ve kinda kiddingly over the years imagined that if I had a theme song – the one that would be played when I walked on set, for instance – it would be “Lust For Life.” Not so much because the lyrics match me (I’m not so into beating my brains with liquor and drugs, stripteases or hypnotizing chickens, though maybe I am worth a million in prizes) but rather the exuberant urgency of the music and excitement for just living life.