Lust For The Lush Life: Iggy Pop Sings Standards

Fresh Air

Published May 29, 2009 at 4:43 PM EDT

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Iggy Pop was frontman for the seminal punk band The Stooges, which put out three albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and an indefatigable solo artist as well. His newest album is called <em>Preliminaires.</em> — Iggy Pop was frontman for the seminal punk band The Stooges, which put out three albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and an indefatigable solo artist as well. His newest album is called *Preliminaires.*

Iggy Pop: He's the Godfather of Punk, the former lead singer of The Stooges, famous for his explosive bare-chested performances and for the verbal abuse he hurls at his audiences. Also for his self-mutilation and heroin addiction.

But last year the artist once known as James Newell Osterburg Jr. turned 60, and his newest work reflects the changes that have come with age.

His album Preliminaires, in fact, takes inspiration from sources that may surprise some: Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and French novelist Michel Houellebecq. It features standards like "Autumn Leaves" and "How Insensitive."

The result? Iggy Pop, like you've never heard him, on today's Fresh Air.