History Music / TheIdiot

''The Idiot'' is the debut studio album by Music/IggyPop, released in 1977. Made after the breakup of Music/TheStooges, the album was written and recorded with help from Music/DavidBowie. Recorded just before Bowie's album ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' but released two months after, ''The Idiot'' acts as a direct prototype for Bowie's [[ThematicSeries Berlin Trilogy]] (which makes up 1977's ''Low'' & ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and 1979's ''Music/{{Lodger}}''), featuring a similar {{Krautrock}} and {{ambient}}-infused style of art rock that builds off Bowie's earlier avant-funk experiments on ''Music/StationToStation''. Bowie would co-write and co-produce two more of Pop's solo albums, ''Music/LustForLife'' later in 1977 and ''Blah-Blah-Blah'' in 1986.

In the years since its release, the album would, alongside the Berlin Trilogy, be cited as a major influence on a number of PostPunk, SynthPop, and {{industrial}} musicians in the following decades. Music/DavidBowie would later rewrite "Sister Midnight" as "Red Money" for ''Lodger'', later covering "China Girl" on ''Music/LetsDance'' (1983).

To promote ''The Idiot'', Bowie eschewed the possibility of a supporting tour for ''Low'' and instead acted as a sideman for Pop during his own tour. Bowie would remain. Two other stage players on the circuit, Music/ToddRundgren collaborators Tony Fox Sales and Hunt Sales (sons of Creator/{{Soupy|Sales}}), would later become Bowie's bandmates in the HardRock {{supergroup}} Tin Machine just over a decade later.

To promote ''The Idiot'', Bowie eschewed the possibility of a supporting tour for ''Low'' and instead acted as a sideman for Pop during his own tour. Bowie would remain Two other stage players on the circuit, Music/ToddRundgren collaborators Tony Fox Sales and Hunt Sales (sons of Creator/{{Soupy|Sales}}), would later become Bowie's bandmates in the HardRock {{supergroup}} Tin Machine just over a decade later.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Dum Dum Boys" was written by Iggy in remembrance of real-life people he knew who succumbed to their wild lifestyle.

--> ''When you only want just a tiny girl''
--> ''And you hope she'll sing''.
--> ''So you turn around''
--> ''Toward the tiny girls''
--> ''Who have got no tricks''
--> ''Who have got no past''

* EvilColonialist: "China Girl" is an interesting case because Pop effectively admits to being one himself. The song was cowritten by Bowie, who detested racism. (The line about "visions of swastikas in my head" probably relates to how the swastika is a good luck symbol in UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}} and UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} that was appropriated and perverted by the Nazis.)
--> ''I'd stumble into town''
--> ''Just like a SacredCow''
--> ''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''

* LyricalDissonance: The lyrics to "Funtime" are energetic-sounding on paper, describing a particularly joyous and all-including night out. The sound meanwhile is the exact opposite, being a frigid and bone-splitting {{industrial}} tune with droning vocals.

--> ''Nightclubbing we're nightclubbing''
--> ''We're walking through town''
--> ''Nightclubbing we're nightclubbing''
--> ''We walk like a ghost''
--> ''We learn dances brand new dances''
--> ''Like the nuclear bomb''
--> ''When we're nightclubbing''
--> ''Bright white clubbing''
--> ''Oh isn't it wild ...?''

** "Funtime" references ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''.

* TooDumbToLive: "Dum Dum Boys" about people who were so stupid to take drugs and die from it.

* OddballInTheSeries: Compared to the ProtoPunk of Music/TheStooges and the art punk of Pop's later solo work, ''The Idiot'' sticks out with its doomy {{industrial}} style, the end result of producer Music/DavidBowie using it as a way to lay the groundwork for his own album ''Music/{{Low|DavidBowieAlbum}}''.

* OneWordTitle: "Nightclubbing", "Funtime", "Baby".

''The Idiot'' is the debut studio album by Music/IggyPop, released in 1977. Made after the breakup of Music/TheStooges, the album was written and recorded with help from Music/DavidBowie. Recorded just before Bowie's album ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'' but released two months after, ''The Idiot'' acts as a direct prototype for Bowie's [[ThematicSeries Berlin Trilogy]] (which makes up 1977's ''Low'' & ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and 1979's ''Music/{{Lodger}}''), featuring a similar {{Krautrock}} and {{ambient}}-infused style of art rock that builds off Bowie's earlier avant-funk experiments on ''Music/StationToStation''. Bowie would co-write and co-produce two more of Pop's solo albums, ''Music/LustForLife'' later in 1977 and ''Blah-Blah-Blah'' in 1986.

''The Idiot'' is the debut studio album by Music/IggyPop, released in 1977. Made after the breakup of Music/TheStooges, the album was written and recorded with help from Music/DavidBowie. Recorded just before Bowie's album ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'' but released two months after, ''The Idiot'' acts as a direct prototype for Bowie's [[ThematicSeries Berlin Trilogy]] (which makes up 1977's ''Low'' & ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'' and 1979's ''Music/{{Lodger}}''), featuring a similar {{Krautrock}} and {{ambient}}-infused style of art rock that builds off Bowie's earlier avant-funk experiments on ''Music/StationToStation''. Bowie would co-write and co-produce two more of Pop's solo albums, ''Music/LustForLife'' later in 1977 and ''Blah-Blah-Blah'' in 1986.

** The album cover was inspired by German impressionist painter Erich Heckel's ''Roquairol''. Cover photographer Masayoshi Sukita would use the same painting as the basis for the ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'' album art later that year.