Iggy Pop & James Williamson - Sticky Fingers Kill City

As I understand it, Kill City was originally a set of demos that the Iggster recorded in ’75 with James Williamson in an attempt to get a record contract after the Stooges imploded. The demos were released in ’77 despite Iggy’s protests. The “album” was notoriously poor quality and I personally had never bothered to listen it. It was remixed, remastered and rerelease by Bomp late last year and I’ve been hearing a lot of hype so why not check it out:



1. “Kill City” – Best track here. Basically a typical Stooges riff alternated with the the Stones’ “Brown Sugar.” Nothing wrong with that. Some (most) of the best songs in rock history are lifted from someone else’s tune.

2. “Sell Your Love” – Could be an alright song if you cut out all that wanky-ass sax.

3. “Beyond the Law” – What the fuck? This is “Brown Sugar” again.

4. “I Got Nothin’” – A slow one. Kinda got a “first half of ‘Freebird’” vibe. Not too bad.

5. “Johanna” – See #2. Sounds like the fucking SNL theme song.

6. “Night Theme” – Very nice little instrumental interlude with guitars and noisy saxaphone. Only about a minute long.

7. “Night Theme (Reprise) – This is the exact same track with some backwards drums tacked onto the end.

8. “Consolation Prizes” – This sounds like another Stones song but I can’t quite put my finger on which one. “Honky Tonk Woman?” Nah. It’ll come to me later.

9. “No Sense of Crime” – “Gimme Shelter”

10. “Lucky Monkeys” – This is what happens when you slow down “Brown Sugar” and give it a stupid song title.

11. “Master Charge” – Another instrumental. Slide guitars and cheesy synths (in a good way). Uh oh, here comes the sax again.

Overall, Iggy’s performance is pretty good but there’s no sign of James Williamson’s razor blade guitar sound that I’ve come to expect from Raw Power and Metallic K.O. And what is up with the sax? Where the hell is Steve Mackay? Did you lose his number?