Dear Bleaders,
The Best American
Poetry Blog seems to have an affection for the poetry of lyrics and
with that in mind I offer the lyric to this keen ecstatic classic, which I think one
rarely sees but only hears. Bowie
wrote the music.
Iggy Pop LUST FOR LIFE
lyrics
Here
comes Johnny Yen again
With
the liquor and drugs
And a
flesh machine
He's
gonna do another strip tease
Hey
man, where'd you get that lotion?
I've
been hurting since I bought the gimmick
About
something called love
Yeah,
something called love
Well,
that's like hypnotising chickens
Well,
I'm just a modern guy
Of
course, I've had it in the ear before
'Cause
of a lust for life
'Cause
of a lust for life
I'm
worth a million in prizes
With my
torture film
Drive a
G.T.O.
Wear a
uniform
All on
government loan
I'm
worth a million in prizes
Yeah,
I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk
No more
beating my brains
No more
beating my brains
With
the liquor and drugs
With
the liquor and drugs
Well,
I'm just a modern guy
Of
course, I've had it in my ear before …
I bring
this to your attention because I have a poem in the current New Yorker. Page 84, all the way at the back. It is very beautiful to me, as is the
Contributor’s page, which speaks of me as if we were old friends. It is a sweet week, seeing my issue in
strangers’ hot strange hands on the subway.
Anyway, here is My Hero.
See
that? Thus Quoth Iggy.
Like
billions of others, I have a long and storied relationship to this song not
least because of the hypnotized chickens.
Also because of getting to say I’m worth a million in prizes. Which must have meant something to me,
hmm? But also the utter buttered
uddery-ness of the milky “Well, I’m just a modern guy/Of course, I’ve had it in
my ear before.” That has always
made me happy. The first time I
heard it I thought, can a person say that? A person can.
But
there’s also “Here comes Johnny Yen again,” which comes to mind at times as I
know what it is like to run like a demon to the sugar bowl. I suspect cookie monster hears that line growl
its way into his mind and out his mouth.
Still, like
trillions of other emotional wretches I’m weak for the line “Lust for Life.” Just saying it is a kind of
paradise. Now that I think about it
as a slogan it sounds like anti-abortion prostitutes. It could happen.
Seeing
the Stooges live a bunch of times helped muscle me through a BA and a PhD. Including times I barely clocked in at taking it one heartbeat at a time. At times, I wasn't taking it. Somewhere there is a video
of Iggy leaning down to where I stood in the pit against the stage and allowing
us to scream some lyrics together, “Now I want to be your dog,” if you must
know. It doesn’t sound quite right
in this context but I assure you it was a romantic triumph. Also somewhere there
is video of me crowdsurfing in the pit.
So here
we are. Now I only surf remotely. I do not remotely surf. I do not have a million in
prizes, but I am, at last, a modern guy.
I have to get back to Bertrand Russell but I want to see if I can get
Iggy to read this post, and so please indulge me this allowance.
Hi
Iggy. I hope you like my
poem. I love you.
Okay, I
guess that wraps it.
kisses
of the appropriate nature to all of you,
Jennifer