Today's the birthday of Iggy Pop or — as I regularly refer to him — the Greatest Living American!
To honor the great man on his special day, I’m posting what could possibly be the most perfect video of all time. Some inspired soul decided to use a certain bit of 16mm, black and white silent film of Astor Place that I’ve posted here several times (shot, presumably, in the early-to-mid-60s?), and used “Down on the Street” from the Stooges’ seminal 1970 opus, Funhouse (which I’ve also rapturously waxed about here several times) to score it. It's an awesome pairing. Check it out....
Despite being from Michigan, Iggy has, of course, a long history with New York City. For years, he lived in the Christadora House over on Avenue B (hence the name of his otherwise uncharacteristically dour 1999 album, Avenue B) before defecting to Miami. I also remember hearing that he lived for a spell over on Mercer Street, adjacent to Washington Square Village.
I did see him out and about once ... I was walking west on St. Mark's Place (just across the park from the Christadora), and Iggy was seated just inside the door of Sin-E. I couldn't help myself from exclaiming "IGGY!" and he flashed me an endearingly goofy, bug-eyed grin and a thumbs-up. That pretty much made my year.
I’ve wheeled this one out before as well, but here’s Iggy giving a tour of his then-`hood in 1993. You’d barely recognize it.
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