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The WILD Story of ‘Soldier’ by Iggy Pop

Poetic Wax | October 30, 2025



It’s a miracle Iggy Pop finished ‘Soldier’ with the amount of chaos an infighting that took place during the recording sessions late in 1979. Within the album is a fever dream cast of stars from David Bowie and ex Sex Pistols’ bassist Glen Matlock to XTC’s Barry Andrews and The Patti Smith Group’s Ivan Kral. Love it or hate it, this is the wild story of how the album came to be, and how Iggy Pop rang in the new decade with his 1980 release ‘Soldier’.

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WATCH NEXT:
✓ The Failed Television & Brian Eno Demo Sessions: https://youtu.be/tGWKqeSjNN4
✓ The Legend of The Stooges Painted Guitar: https://youtu.be/ScjgsWlsljI
✓ Rock’s Strangest Prank: Iggy, Elton, and the Gorilla Costume: https://youtu.be/YboUQ6ujj88
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Poetic Wax is hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Iggy Pop Never Should Have Finished ‘Soldier’
2:41 Iggy & Ziggy Off the Deep End
5:08 The Stars Amidst The Rockfield Ruckus
10:09 The Rumored James Williamson and David Bowie Clash
14:21 The Steve New Vs David Bowie Fight
17:05 The Retribution of Iggy Pop on Steve New

FEATURED CLIPS:
🎥 Interview with Ron Young in San Antonio, 1983: https://youtu.be/bzsts5h3Be0?si=2aKFJiZT6Zc1mDUB
🎥 David Bowie Station to Station Isolar Tour 1976: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF7lFHuwi3E
🎥 Iggy Performing Lust for Life at Manchester Apollo, 1977: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2D4S1K8HWI
🎥 I’m A Conservative (Live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnDVOKzDcMQ
🎥 Iggy Pop – Play It Safe (Live, November 27th, 1979): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMc5iNTijo

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Written by Poetic Wax

Comments

This post currently has 45 comments.

  2. @Jaxy451

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    I like 'Ambition' a lot. 'Dog Food' is an interesting song. But I would probably just lift ambition and put it on a better album. The rest are not bad, but not great.

  5. @Poseiden2

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    I find Iggy's albums all interesting from that 'Arista' period – New Values is excellent, with only African Man being a blemish, and Party (though far from a good record) always cheers me up. On Soldier I like Barry Andrews' keyboards, and perhaps the lack of lead guitar makes it feel more dynamic than NV. It's a curate's egg: Loco Mosquito's a great opener, Play It Safe should have been longer and Take Care Of Me is one of Iggy's most underrated songs – only he could write those lyrics!

  12. @davidhirsch2912

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    I'm a huge fan of Iggy. Always loved all of his music. I have seen him Live aroung a dozen times througout his career. I had the Great Pleasure of meeting him back in October1980. he was doing of string of Gigs at the 688 Club in Atlanta. Long story short, Iggy invited Myself, my Girlfriend at the time & a friend of mine back stage to the "Green Room". Just the four of us. We drank a beer, smoked some Hash & had a "Real Cool Time" for around a half an hour. He was a really nice, down to earth guy.We had some great conversation, Not the Wild Man he is on stage. I like the Soldier Album,
    still play it to this day. Rock on Iggy !!

  14. @RunLikeAVillain

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    It’s great that you made a video about this, but anyone who already was a fan of this album already knew pretty much every point you discussed. But I guess that’s not the point / target audience. I still appreciate it regardless and watched the whole thing. It’s not an album or even time period that gets mentioned very often.

  18. @vidarbonsak7855

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    For me, the big problem with this album is that side A (the first six songs) is so much better than side B. Still, half an album is better than no album, so it's a keeper.

  19. @fabienh3943

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    As much as I love Iggy and Lou Reed, they were bloody lucky Bowie was such a fan, as the albums he "produced" for them lifted both of them out of their relative mediocrity as solo artists (I don't call them mediocre compared to any guy, just compared to when they were in their former bands). After those collaborations with him nothing really breathtaking came out of those two (still went to see them several times though). In the early 80ies I dove into the late 70-early 80ies stuff of Iggy… You had to be much more than a fan to find that stuff very inspiring, "I'm bored" taken aside.
    Ok, Berlin by Lou Reed was fabulous and he did that solo.

  20. @Ian_KH

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    I bought this album when it was released (I was 15) and I loved it from the first time I listened to it. I still do. One of my favourite albums.

  22. @evaplavalaguna

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    That's a great video. Iggy's late 70s / early 80s solo albums are often overlooked. Personnaly, I think 'Soldier' is probably the worst Iggy record, alongside 'Party'. Both records have only a few good songs on them. Soldier has 'I need more', 'Dog food' and "Knocking 'Em Down". And that's about it… However, both Soldier and Party have a sound to them, and i regularly go back to them, just to see if they still sound that bad as I thought they did. Even "Zombie Birdhouse" is a superior album; because it was deliberately experimental. 'Soldier' and 'Party' were still aiming at some sort of commercial success, but failed miserably. Iggy sounds horrendous, like he was too messed up to sing and the engineers kept whatever 'okay' take he would do. You can see there was zero budget put either to promote the album, or for the videos… Someone posted a video of the demos recorded for Soldier, clearly they sound like different songs. Go listen to it if you haven't

  23. @jacehendrix3194

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    Gerbil eyes….close together and beady….as you speak like some sort of mainstream critic, or journalist pretending to be a hard rocker…..but youre really just living vicariously through these bands you enjoy… like a teenage fan boy waiting to move out of your moms house

  31. @TheChadTI

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    8:14 Peter Gabriel gave Phil Collins the same direction on his third album (titled Peter Gabriel like his 2 previous albums 🙄). The limitation gave birth to that gated, cavernous, (and ubiquitous) 80's drum sound that EVERYONE jumped on. Phil would use it on "In the Air Tonight" the following year. Didn't work for Iggy, though.😅

  33. @ColKorn1965

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    I saw Iggy in 1981 when I was 16. Small venue, and he played all the hits like "I Need More", etc. He had a meet and greet after the show. He was very down to earth.

  34. @TheGibby3340

    October 30, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    Thx for this piece. Although I love ZBH, I have always passed up on the Soldier album, even though “Knocking them down” is one of my favourites. Might need to pick this up now, appreciating the back story a little better, thx to your efforts. 👍🍻

Comments are closed.

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