I combined the two only because one (the book) inspired the
title of the other (the record). I would like to think that Prince Myshkin
resembled Iggy Pop from the album cover.
Even if you aren’t an Iggy Pop fan, I couldn’t suggest The Idiot any more. It’s really a
tremendously good David Bowie album. It is in fact the first of two albums that
Bowie collaborated on with Pop and it was actually written and recorded before
Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy of record.
Recorded in Berlin, there are distinct Kraut rock
signatures. Also, with Bowie and long-time producer Tony Visconti at the helm,
it’s an organized and adept rock album. None of the chaos of the Stooges.
The trio’s familiarity with Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel of
the same name led to the album title.
The novel itself is pretty grand. If you don’t like Russian
literature, there’s no reason to really consider this. It’s as Russian as you
might expect in that particular style that Dostoyevsky was able to perfect.
In searching for some kind of connection between the two
pieces of art, it’s tough to come by.
Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot is about a young man’s disillusionment with upper-crust
Russian society and its ills. There’s no real coherent narrative in Iggy Pop’s
opus. So I guess it’s just a clever title for an album.
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