Iggy Pop kills a house plant
This video from 1977 changed my life. Or at least my attitude. I was nine years old, the whoile family was watching Toppop, everybody did in those days, to see which songs led the charts, what was new, how your favorite tunes were doing.
Then this came up, this wild man attacking the plants and what looks like a giant rubbish bin, molesting some guy, even making some women flee for their lives. My father the house tyrant got so angry, and I loved it so much. I loved so much that someone openly and without shame broke the rules, was not afraid to offend and even scare people. Defied civilized society, turned everything upside down, literally.
Around that time Bowie had a song out, too. Boys Keep Swinging. In the video he showed up on a catwalk, dressed as three different women who pulled off their wigs and smeared their lipstick while guitars screamed like banshees. Same sensation. It was everything my father hated and everything I loved. It was pure genius and it made a bigger impression on me than God and the Holy Bible, and I was a very pious boy at the time. Very afraid of God, but after seeing Pop and Bowie, a little less. (PB)
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