Though his popularity has fluctuated through the years, many of Pop's songs have become well-known, including "Lust for Life", "The Passenger", "Real Wild Child", "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl", "Nightclubbing", "Search and Destroy" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog".
In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Pop was the lead singer of The Stooges, a late 1960s/early 1970s band that featured brothers Ron and Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander and was highly influential in the development of hard rock. The debut album was produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale. The band's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is a garage punk standard.
Raw Power was first released in1973, perhaps the first record that could truly be called punk. It was the confluence of The Stooges ages, hormones, creativity, ability, experience, tastes, lack of supervision, contempt for authority and ambition that has made Raw Power one of the most influential albums of all time.
The Stooges were infamous for performances in which Pop leapt off the stage (hence, the "stage dive"), smeared raw meat or peanut butter over his chest and cut himself with broken bottles. A glimpse of the vibrating intensity of Iggy live can be seen in the Ramones movie "End of the Century." Guitarist James Williamson became a key collaborator, a partnership documented on the 1978 album Kill City.
In 25 years as a solo artist, Pop's best-known songs have included the thumping Lust for Life, to be heard on the soundtrack of the find-a-vein, shoot-it-up movie Trainspotting, I'm Bored and The Passenger (the latter based on a poem written by Jim Morrison). David Bowie played a key role in reinvigorating Pop's post-Stooges career and was a collaborator on the albums Lust for Life and The Idiot. Iggy may be under-rated as a songwriter. Bowie and Tina Turner covered his "Tonight". Bowie also put out his own version of "China Girl," while Grace Jones covered the icey "Nightclubbing".
Girls
Iggy Pop Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With my China Girl
I'm just a wreck without
My little China Girl
I'd hear her heart beating
Loud as thunder
Saw the stars crashing
My China Girl
Wake up mornings, there's
No China Girl
I'd hear hearts beating
Loud as thunder
I'd see stars crashing down
I'd feel tragic, like I
Was Marlon Brando
When I'd look at my China Girl
I could pretend that nothing
Really meant too much
When I'd look at my China Girl
I'd stumble into town
Just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
And plans for everyone
It's in the white of my eyes
My little China Girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
I'll give you television
I'll give you eyes of blue
I'll give you men who want to rule the world
And when I get excited
My little China Girl says
"Oh Jimmy, just you shut your mouth"
She says "shhhh..."
The lyrics of Iggy Pop's song China Girl reveal a story of a love-struck man who is completely smitten by his partner, the "China Girl." The lyrics depict a man who is emotionally dependent on his China Girl and cannot function without her. He compares missing her to a feeling of being a wreck and a tragic Marlon Brando. The China Girl seems to be his savior, and he believes his life would be lost without them. In the mornings, he is lost without his China Girl, and he can hear her heartbeat as loud as thunder, and see the stars crashing down. Iggy Pop wants to give everything to his China Girl, even to the point of ruining everything she is. When he becomes excited and starts talking about his plans, the China girl simply responds by asking him to quiet himself.
Line by Line Meaning
I couldn't escape this feeling
With my China Girl
My attachment to my China Girl is so strong that I am unable to escape this feeling.
I'm just a wreck without
My little China Girl
Without my China Girl, I am completely broken and distraught.
I'd hear her heart beating
Loud as thunder
Saw the stars crashing
My connection with my China Girl is so intense that I could hear her heartbeats like it is thunder and see stars crashing.
I'm a mess without
My China Girl
Wake up mornings, there's
No China Girl
I am a mess and lost without my China Girl, and waking up without her every morning makes me feel incomplete.
I'd hear hearts beating
Loud as thunder
I'd see stars crashing down
My feeling of being so deeply in love with my China Girl is so powerful that I could hear hearts beating like thunder and see stars crashing down.
I'd feel tragic, like I
Was Marlon Brando
When I'd look at my China Girl
I could pretend that nothing
Really meant too much
When I'd look at my China Girl
My love for my China Girl is so huge that looking at her, I feel like a tragic figure and as if nothing else matters.
I'd stumble into town
Just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
And plans for everyone
It's in the white of my eyes
I move around like a lost soul and have disturbing visions with ambitions to change the world. These overwhelming feelings are written all over my face.
My little China Girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
I'll give you television
I'll give you eyes of blue
I'll give you men who want to rule the world
I am a dangerous and destructive person, and I may ruin you altogether. I can manipulate and control you with power games and superficial desires.
And when I get excited
My little China Girl says
"Oh Jimmy, just you shut your mouth"
She says "shhhh..."
When I get aroused, my China Girl wants me to keep quiet and tells me to calm down by saying, "Shhhh...".
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: David Bowie, James Osterberg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@madeleinehague648
I love Iggy. He rocks so hard, but at the same he makes me laugh. You can't judge a book by its cover: James Newell Osterberg, Jr. is a brilliant man.
@nikons
I love how he can laugh at himself
@paulhanratty2708
Coolest cat in the music biz check out his John peel lecture on his career and the music industry its on here brilliant
@TheCenteroftheUniverse
Not to mention the fact that not just anyone can write a song called "Now I Want To Be Your Dog" and make it work.
@NormAppleton
He's a rabid dog and a clown in one man. Smart guy too, especially after all this shit on the astral plane he did. Old Detroit man still got it.
@wmprokipchak
just a brilliantly constructed song. Great spoken intro...tasty guitarwork every single second on every layer..great riff ...one of a kind talk/sung/growled/purred Iggy vox..brilliant & tasty guitar solo break at 1:45..then "Summertiiiimmmmmmme oh and the livin is EEEEasy". Can't listen to it just once=this album is brilliant all around but this may be THE pinnacle of the entire album. Five+ stars****** even 33 years later.(and I had to listen to it yet again)
@NormAppleton
My fave post stooges record
@chrisradano
Good. 1979 was pretty good music year!
@Guy4755
Iggy expresses his appreciation for girls. And of course his backup musicians do a bang-up job of pushing that sentiment forward.
@chipbridges8345
"Some have beautiful shapes... I want to live to be 98!"