Reading
No.9
Reader
Iggy Pop
Singer + songwriter
Recorded in Miami
Artwork
Cornelia Parker
One Day This Glass
Will Break
Photogravure
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.
And some in dreams assurèd were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.
And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
What fitter Mariner than the Passenger? What better beast than the world’s only sea lizard? Iggy, from the Iguanas (the name of his first band), leaving the shores of James Newell Osterberg, his other self, behind. Cold blooded and hungry, with a lust for life, driven into the sun, onto and under the waters to survive. Pop but not always popular. Decades on stage facing down indifference from the wrong crowds. 'What evil looks had I from young and old.' Indeed. Now he alone survives to tell the tale, and returns to remind us what he’s seen.
Michael Holden