Five Foot One

No comments on Five Foot One?!? Not ONE?!? All those supposed big Iggy fans out there in the 21st Century, and, What?, so they only listen to Lust For Life and The Passenger?!?

I don’t know exactly what Iggy was feeling when he wrote it but he seems to be comparing his “act” with that of a little person working in an amusement park, a clear nod to “freaks” (small ‘f’). He seems to believe that his fans don’t really see him as a human being, or at least not “like them”. They’re there to see the “freak show” or to witness a “car crash”, and Iggy was once considered a “freak among freaks”, even among the “maniac-and-drugs-and-maniacs-ON-drugs”-filled music scene of the 70s. Bleeding onstage, spreading peanut butter on his torso, whipping his dick out and laying it on a vibrating speaker so that fans could watch it “dance” - Iggy is definitely a “show-er”, not a “grower” - these are the tales that have followed Iggy around since his days leading The Stooges. This is the reason self-professed freaks these days can only look at Iggy’s journey and bow their heads in respect and admiration. Iggy is STILL ALIVE! This is AT LEAST as unexpected and noteworthy as is the fact that Keith Richards and Shane MacGowan are still sucking wind. He’s already outlived his friend/collaborator Bowie by 6+ years, and Lou Reed by almost a decade now (that one isn’t a surprise, Lou always finished second to KR in the “Who will be the next rock star to OD & die?” Sweepstakes of the 70s…either Iggy didn’t sell enough records for the press to care to “rank” him or they thought he was ready dead (Iggy must come from what Keith Richards likes to refer to as “good stock” - This phrase used to refer to “bloodlines” of the rich and/or aristocratic. Now it means something more akin to “I’m (luckily) not predisposed to cancer”).