Iggy Pop

Open Up and Bleed

By: Paul Trynka

Narrated by: William Dufris

Iggy Pop's legendary career has been tumultuous, reaching great heights with mega-hits and then hitting rock-bottom lows in jail and mental institutions. Along the way, he's become a cult-rock hero, an inspiration for dozens of other famous rockers, and has had a pretty good time of it, too. But the image of Iggy Pop versus the man behind that image, James Newell Osterberg, Jr., is surprisingly contradictory. The "nude and rude" punk rocker was the vice president of his high school class and is considered an intellectual by many.

Living in Ann Arbor among Iggy's childhood friends and pre-fame lovers, and interviewing dozens of musicians including Iggy himself, Paul Trynka has created a sincere and fascinating portrayal of the real man behind the rock star.

©2007 Paul Trynka (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Trynka captures Iggy's debauchery in an obsessively detailed and compulsively readable biography that is as high-energy and entertaining as its subject." ( Publishers Weekly)
"This fitting biography...finally tells the full story of Iggy's life, rescuing coherence from a tale of thrills, contradictions, debauchery, betrayal, and (ultimately) redemption." ( Booklist)
"Journalist Trynka...deftly walks the line between fan boy and dogged researcher...The result is a complete portrait of the man and his work...This is the definitive word on Iggy, elbowing past even his autobiography." ( Library Journal)

my life in yhe 70's so great

i still have the creem and other magazines a history i livedand almost forgot the definition of proto punk

Not a big fan

If you’re a big fan of Iggy and/or the Stooges there is very little interesting information here you probably don’t already know about. I could probably condense all the interesting information in this down to like 7 or 8 paragraphs.

-The author tries to infer things about Iggy’s mental health/status which seems to be unfounded.

-Stooges lyrics are misquoted a handful of times throughout this book. For example he says “Take a ride on the pretty music” when the lyric is actually “I took a record of pretty music”. This book even tries to dramatically end with this misquote, which would be pretty hilarious if I didn’t spend 14 hours getting through this.

-Also I disliked the narrator of this audiobook. His voice is annoying the way he emphasizes certain words and tries to inflect emotion when he shouldn’t. Also the voice he uses when reading quotations is horrible, like some kind of half assed impersonation, but all the same impersonation regardless of who is being quoted. Stereotypical Gen X grunge slacker voice for everyone.

A compelling + entertaining read!

If you're into Iggy Pop, the Stooges, are the origins of punk dash this book is for YOU!

Trynka serves up a detailed account of the rise of the Stooges, their precipitous fall, Iggy's up-and-down solo career, and the Stooges eventual triumphant reformation.

while I don't agree with all Trynka's critical assessments of the Stooges an Iggy's musical output, nor his assassination of the band Sponge, overall he's detailed and considerate biographer.

And for that reason alone, I highly recommend this book!

fabulous

A real must read for any Iggy fan or true rock fan, it is amazing.

iggy is so punk rock

Jim aka Iggy was an intelligent guy who was very into drugs. A crazy & very windy journey that covers over 30 years of his life.
It's tough to read at times with how much he hurts himself, but overall, it's a classic slice of rock n roll & punk.