IGGY POP

Roadkill Rising … The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009

[Shout! Factory]

Fans of Iggy Pop know the deal by now: There is a seemingly endless number of live recordings out there (mostly of illegitimate origin) that document the singer’s manic energy and raw onstage aggression, but most are tinny audience recordings. The four-disc box set Roadkill Rising finds Pop himself culling performances from some of the best—and best-sounding—bootlegs on the market, in the process constructing a shadow history of his artistic evolution from crazed Stooge to wily modernist and back again. Pop has never stopped being one of rock’s most authentically unpredictable and even dangerous concert acts, and both his under-acknowledged artistry and knack for anarchy are in full flower throughout the proceedings here.

The set organizes songs from many locations and sources neatly by decade: Pop is an unchained rocker on the ’70s disc, flirts with pop conventions on the ’80s disc, assumes his mantle as alt-rock godfather in the ’90s and rediscovers his roots on the concluding ’00s CD. In addition to selections from his own catalog—with and without his erstwhile band, the Stooges—Roadkill Rising finds Pop exercising his penchant for gonzo cover versions of everything from “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” to “Willow Weep for Me”; most enjoyable is a riff-happy rendition of “Louie Louie” with a gleefully profane lyric rewrite. While the sound quality isn’t always ideal, Pop diehards can rest easy knowing that Roadkill Rising ably gathers the cream of a notoriously inconsistent bootleg crop. –Chris Neal