Less than a week after performing his new song “We Are the People” with Laurie Anderson at the annual Tibet House benefit in New York, Iggy Pop dropped a video for the track. The song appears on his latest LP, Free, released last fall.
The minimal, stark video features Pop staring into the camera, reciting the words to the song. “We are the crystal gaze/Returned through the density and immensity of a berserk nation,” he declares. “We are the victims of the untold manifesto of the lack of depth.”
“We Are the People” was derived from a poem written by Lou Reed in 1970; Monday, March 2nd, would have been the late icon’s 78th birthday. “That totally resonated with me,” Pop recently told the BBC. “Like, ‘wham’, like ‘pow’. I thought, ‘My God, this is the country today as I understand it, or at least one legitimate portrayal of the country today.’ It really spoke to me.”
Pop will release test-pressings of Free on March 7th, limited to 340 copies. He teamed up with artist Maurizio Cattelan, who designed the cover art. Also included is a 7-inch of “Brahms Lullaby” and “Epistle to Tromba,” two unreleased tracks. The Pop and Cattelan will appear at a signing at New York’s Perrotin gallery on March 7th.
On July 17th, Rhino will release an expansive 50th-anniversary box set of the Stooges’ Fun House, featuring 15 LPs and two 7-inch singles. A 28-page book will accompany the music, with liner notes written by Flea, Henry Rollins, Tom Morello, and others. Third Man Records in Detroit will also host an exhibit on the album this summer, running until August 7th.
