Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing

We nightclubbing. We’re what’s happening.

(Iggy Pop, lyric from Nightclubbing (The Idiot, 1977))

Reissues and later covers still begin with the March 1977 studio recording. The dry synths are in that take, and so is the dry guitar. Grace Jones’s version put another vocal on the same beat. DJs still use the slowed Glitter pattern. Compilations and radio edits did not replace the original recording.

Bowie’s co-write and the sessions between France and Berlin sit behind that vocal. Pop was rebuilding after L.A. The finished track lists the night, states the habit, and stops.

The Idiot came out in March 1977, and listeners still set it beside Low and “Heroes” when they call it an unofficial fourth Berlin album. Nightclubbing is the track that takes Rock and Roll Part 2 and plays the parade beat colder. Pop does not tell a story about one night out. He lists poses, and “we nightclubbing” returns like the next line on that list. The synth does not add a wash. The guitar does not either. Both stay dry, which leaves the vocal flat and the beat heavy.

Grace Jones could carry the song into another decade because the 1977 arrangement was bare enough to hold a different vocal. DJs who come back to Pop’s recording come back for the slowed Glitter pattern, not for a later remix that replaces it. Lust For Life, from the same partnership, is the record that bounces. Nightclubbing is the one that does not. Bowie co-wrote this song and co-produced it. The sessions stayed on the move between France and Berlin while Pop rebuilt after L.A. The release month is March 1977. Pop’s vocal stays with the list.

Related stories

• Iggy Pop – The Stooges scream that outlived the band
• Iggy Pop – Lust For Life
• Interview of Iggy Pop (1977)
• Trainspotting
• Iggy Pop – The Passenger