David Byrne Vs Iggy Pop

[Goat Boy]

Iggy's the greatest rock n roll performer of all time.

David Byrne had an oversized suit.

[Hightea]

David over Iggy



Interesting debate for me. Big fan of both and at the same time could pick on both of them.
in the case for Byrne its his output with the Talking Heads that gives him my pick. TH's first 6 albums are all great in my eyes. When I listen to them there are no songs that get skipped. I think Naked is their only just okay album. After his TH days I find his albums delve into less interesting stuff. Although I'm a big fan of My Life In the Bush of Ghosts(with Eno).

In regards to seeing Mr Byrne he was a stable in NYC(sure he still is but I don't live there anymore). I've seen Byrne riding his bike around the city(several times), I've seen him at several concerts(Arcade Fire(once on stage) and once I stood next to him at a church AC show)), he has been in the same restaurant as me, I saw him at a special event and got to talk to him (such a nice guy).

As for Iggy. Mr Pop was about as original as it gets. In my eyes he is the beginning and one of the leaders of making Punk. Screw the whole punk began in the mid 70's, Iggy was doing it way before. This leads me to the problem with Iggy I never felt he did anything else and just isn't diverse enough for me. Although I've got to admit I've not heard all he has done. I like a lot of his albums but get tired of his songs quickly. Plus can he put a damn shirt on already!!!!!!!! Although I do love his live show!

Both are highly still influential in the rock and indie rock world.

[Minnie the Minx]

I hope he never wears a shirt again as long as he lives.

[sloopjohnc]

This leads me to the problem with Iggy I never felt he did anything else and just isn't diverse enough for me.

Really?

I think Lust for Life, New Values and Zombie Birdhouse are a big break from the Stooges.

Sure, he had Bowie and James Williamson as collaborators, but I felt like they fed off him as much as he fed off them.

[toomanyhatz]

I agree Iggy should put his shirt on, but wild abandon - even if it's past its sell-by date - is at least appropriate to the music. Byrne is so resolutely sexless, and doesn't even seem to have a sense of humor about it. As I've said here plenty, I try not to get stuck in a scenario where it's a requirement, but Byrne seems so powerfully opposed to everything rock and roll is supposedly about that I wonder why he hasn't found another milieu entirely. I guess he has to a degree.

Iggy by miles, needless to say.

[bobzilla77]

If we were talking about, who was overall the better artist, there's a lot of layers to sift through. Both made great contributions and both had moments of weakness.

As a front man though, it's not a contest.

I saw the Heads in 82 and Byrne pretty much stared straight ahead and strummed his guitar while singing. I was surprised when I saw Stop Making Sense, that he had added cheoregraphed dance moves to his repertoire. I know that because of the movie, that has become their reputation as a live act, but that was the only tour they did where he was like that. Most people I know who had seen them up to 1979, thought they were kind of dull live, as a visual act.

Iggy is STILL an absolute force of nature when he gets on that stage. He has never not been like that. He's in the top five most riveting performers I've ever seen in person.

[sloopjohnc]

Enjoy - I was at this show. Iggy Pop in San Francisco, 1981. If you have an hour. . .

[Darkness_Fish]

Iggy's solo career is pretty crappy, but I saw him at the Download festival years ago, and he was easily the best performer there, if that's not damning him with faint praise. I remember quite a few of the other acts on the bill where watching him from the sides of the stage, which isn't something I saw for anyone else.

I really do like David Byrne's oversize suit though.

[Sneelock]

I think the key phrase here is “front man”. I like Byrne a lot - he still does tracks that are worth my time. Certainly he is an interesting guy but that’s a weird qualification for a frontman. All Ig has to do is stand there and look wasted but he does SO much more. A natural born front man.

[Joe Baxter]

I don't like either, I voted for Byrne because anyone's better than the talentless Iggy.

[naughty boy]

Byrne has better mike technique, eh Joe?

[Loki]

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

I feel the same about Tom Verlaine, by the way.

I knew he was going to come up in this thread as a point of comparison.

I knew a sensitive and smart BCB'er would reply in this fashion.

In my particular world of feelings, I sensed that the punk/new wave era represented a sea change. Rock and roll lived on, but in an ironical fashion. We got the Ramones, the Pistols, the Damned, and their ilk. I was a huge fan, mind, bought everything and enjoyed it. Their music felt like a kind of re-enacting that what in all of its naiveté meant so much to me years before 1975.

On the other hand, we got Televison and the Talking Heads. Their stuff, from the perspective of 2018, was more insighful and serious. For me it reflected "being a person who sees politics, economy, and social structures from an outsider's point of view.". There are medical words for this: depersonalization, dissociation, derealization. I don't care about these terms. Everything is medicalized these days, and for every constructed "condition", there is a pill. Only for the benefit of Big Pharma (and Big Tobacco, and Big Finance, etc. ad infinitum et ad nauseam)

IIRC David Thomas, he of Pere Ubu, said it right: we (his band c. 1978-2000 and after) make the true hit songs of this present era. (Not Britney Spears, my addition).

He was right.

I think that the reason why current pop and rock does not interest me much any more is for a great part because western societies are in serious decay. Without "the social", art has a hard task, if not an impossible one.

Yes, I got older. So did we all.

But I found other forms of art. I re-discovered Bach, for instance. The interpretations by Fretwork are heavenly. As for literature: I am currently re-reading Dickens' Bleak House and Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Minnie? I know that you are waiting.

[Minnie the Minx]

How great is that photo.

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Yes, it is, for Prince's fans -

and I like some of his output.

Around The World In A Day is my favourite. Musicianship at its finest. No matter that 'serious publications' saw that otherwise. I say him live in 1987, which was a high point in my concert-going career. He just did what he could do best, despite the awful conditions (soccer stadium, rain, thunder, and the like).

I can't really fathom why he went the way of overproduction, and overproducing, in the years that came after.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Iggy's the greatest rock n roll performer of all time.

David Byrne had an oversized suit.

That's the long and short of it.
The best thing David Byrne ever did was starting Luaka Bop.

[Nikki Gradual]

I loved everything about Byrne when I was young and so utterly pretentious it dismays me to even think about it, but it just makes me cringe now. It's trying so hard to be kooky and different, but it's really just slick marketing in disguise. And forced. It's the musical equivalent of Peter Greenaway's movies or Damien Hirst's "art".
Iggy is rock and roll.

[naughty boy]

I loved everything about Byrne when I was young and so utterly pretentious it dismays me to even think about it, but it just makes me cringe now. It's trying so hard to be kooky and different, but it's really just slick marketing in disguise. And forced. It's the musical equivalent of Peter Greenaway's movies or Damien Hirst's "art".
Iggy is rock and roll.

That's a gross over-simplification.

I'm as big an Iggy fan as anyone here, but he's just a fella leaping about who took drugs for too long. Byrne is a genuine geek, autistic, managed to find a place in rock and roll. They were both lucky, and talented.

[Nikki Gradual]

I loved everything about Byrne when I was young and so utterly pretentious it dismays me to even think about it, but it just makes me cringe now. It's trying so hard to be kooky and different, but it's really just slick marketing in disguise. And forced. It's the musical equivalent of Peter Greenaway's movies or Damien Hirst's "art".
Iggy is rock and roll.

That's a gross over-simplification.

I'm as big an Iggy fan as anyone here, but he's just a fella leaping about who took drugs for too long. Byrne is a genuine geek, autistic, managed to find a place in rock and roll. They were both lucky, and talented.

Get yourself back to Drowning by Numbers, the bit with Juliet Stevenson and the ice lolly is coming up soon.

[naughty boy]

Oooh!