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Tom waits
Iggy pops
Interviews are a strange ritual aren’t they?
Two strangers in a room or on the telephone, one asking questions
while the other answers. Aside from the reclusive minority, most
musical performers do them, as a matter of fact anyone intending
to make music their career should realise that it’s going
to be as much a part of their future job as having their photo taken
& actually performing. And why not? Interviews are the cheapest
publicity that a musician can get & be in their control. It’s
not as if a journalist spontaneously knocks on the door for a chat
& a cuppa, generally they will be summoned by a publicist via
e mail, letting them know the day & time the musician will be
available in order to push a product, a new release, a live performance
or other money making venture.
So that’s why you suddenly see an interview
with some performer in every magazine, on television & on the
radio, some proclaiming it an “exclusive”, whether they
have anything to say or not. It’s part of a marketing campaign.
When it comes to the actual interview, it’s generally the
interviewee who is in control, certainly a good interviewer who
establishes rapport & asks interesting questions can make a
good interview better, but it ultimately comes down to the responder
who calls the shots, in spite of the fact that some people express
themselves musically for the very reason that they are unable to
confidently express themselves verbally. For some, plugging the
product is paramount, repetitious automatons who give the same answers,
even repeating the same anecdotes over & over, a talking press
release, while others mumble & snigger with “rawk”
stupidity (light yet another cigarette Jet), or use it as a soapbox
(take a bow Bono), or psycho analysis (Cat Power your appointment
is over), or the confessional (any number of performers who talk
about their drug abuse AFTER it’s over) & then there are
the rare exceptions who take the opportunity to interact in a human
way . Those who transcend the absurdity of the situation & deliver
information, entertainment & part of themselves to the interviewer
& therefore the audience of fans who crave the enhancement of
their favourite musician’s art.
After having interviewed someone the question
that most of my friends ask me is “ What are they really like?
“, there’s a natural curiosity about the person behind
the art, the character of the creator. Few bring as much character
& commitment to the interview format as Tom Waits, seemingly
viewing interviews as performance & as much about amusing himself
as much as anyone else, Tom’s idiosyncratic character &
unique verbal expression transcends the artificiality & banality
of the question & answer situation & he still gets the job
done. All of this is on ample display between the covers of INNOCENT
WHEN YOU DREAM; THE TOM WAITS READER edited by Mac Montadon. Covering
30 years in 40 chapters over 400 pages, the collection assembles
interviews, profiles, record & live reviews, press releases
(written by the man himself), transcribed conversations & poetry
that create a word picture of an artist workshopping himself, the
evolution of his persona & personality melding & mutating
into the eccentric creative artist & master musician that he
has become in the process. Even Australia gets a look-in courtesy
of a transcript of an excruciating & hilarious “interview
“ on the Don Lane show during his only visit downunder! With
an introduction by Frank Black & closing with Tom’s favourite
Charles Bukowski poem, it’s an essential & hilarious look
at the man behind & in the music.
A friend of Tom’s that has shared coffee
& cigarettes with him, Iggy Pop, recently turned 60 & typically
celebrated it on stage, stripped to the waist contorting his mutant
musculature to the driving sound of his recently revived Stooges.
I’m sure he’s as surprised as anyone that he has made
it this far & certainly you will be after you read the biography
OPEN UP & BLEED by ex Mojo magazine editor Paul Trynka. Meticulously
researched from over 250 interviews including with the man himself,
it’s a compelling story of a trailer park straight-A high
school student James Osterberg, voted the student most likely to
succeed by his peers & his transformation into the wild one
of rock n roll & his subsequent debauched life journey. This
450 page deftly told tale is the definitive book on the man himself
& the Jekyll & Hyde relationship between Jim & Iggy.
As one of The Stooges comments “ I wouldn’t want to
be onstage with Jim & I wouldn’t want Iggy in my house!”
Faithful to no one but himself & even that was doubtful at times,
with addictions to sex, groupies, alcohol, heroin & cocaine,
Iggy has been blessed (or cursed) with a remarkable constitution
that has led him through an incredibly sleazy & selfish life
& out the other side.
The book is graphic but not salacious as it examines
the excesses & appetites of the slow-motion car crash that is
his reckless life. How ever wild you may have thought Iggy is, I
guarantee that you will be shocked & amazed at the damage that
he has done to himself & virtually everyone he has come in contact
with, year after year (especially the women), a combination of tragedy
& victory. Neither sympathetic nor condemnatory, Trynka’s
style is graphic & direct propelling the reader on the white
knuckle journey through a constantly shocking but incredibly entertaining
over the top odyssey.
Open up & read!
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