The Story Behind The Song: Iggy Pop remembers old friends in ‘Dum Dum Boys’
Emerging at the tail end of the hippie era with a fittingly unapologetic demeanour, Iggy Pop and his pioneering early work with The Stooges not only helped redefine the parameters of rock ‘n’ roll but also earned him the ‘Godfather of Punk’ title. With a characteristically raw and aggressive sound, Iggy’s presence and performances epitomised the punk attitude, setting a rhythm for the 1970s.
In 1974, following their classic 1973 album Raw Power, The Stooges disbanded in disarray as Iggy fell into a spiral with his ongoing issues with drug addiction. This dark patch for Iggy reached its lowest ebb before he checked into a Californian mental institute for a time while he attempted to gather his marbles. In 1976, David Bowie, who had befriended The Stooges frontman while producing Raw Power, tempted Iggy from the institute to join him on his Isolar Tour.
At the end of the tour, Iggy and Bowie agreed to geographically distance themselves from their drug problems. Initially, they travelled to Château d’Hérouville, the same French location where Bowie recorded his covers album, Pin-Ups, in 1973. Here, Bowie began recording his experimental 1977 masterpiece, Low, which would become the first instalment of his critically lauded Berlin trilogy. Meanwhile, Bowie would also help Iggy kickstart a solo career with The Idiot.
Early in the writing process, Iggy found himself at a loss, staring vacantly at the piano before him and combing his brain for words. “I only had a few notes on the piano; I couldn’t quite finish the tune,” Iggy recalled in 1997 via Nicholas Pegg’s The Complete David Bowie. “Bowie said, ‘Don’t you think we could make a song with that? Why don’t you tell the story of the Stooges?’ He gave me the concept of the song and … the title.”
Under the working title of ‘Dum Dum Days’, Iggy began to craft ‘Dum Dum Boys’ as his origin story but ended up pining poetically for his long-lost bandmates from The Stooges. As keys cue in the song’s intro, a calm before the perfect storm, Iggy utters in spoken word form: “What happened to Zeke?/He’s dead on Jones, man/ How about Dave?/OD’d on alcohol/ Oh, what’s Rock doing?/ Oh, he’s living with his mother/ What about James?/He’s gone straight”.
Zeke Zettner had been a roadie for The Stooges for several years but replaced the band’s original bassist, Dave Alexander, after the 1970 album Fun House until the end of the year. Sadly, his relationship with drink and drugs made him unreliable on stage, and he was soon ousted in favour of Jimmy Recca. In the first line of ‘Dum Dum Boys’, Iggy refers to Zeke’s death by heroin overdose in November 1973.
Iggy continues to take stock, documenting the fate of Alexander, who died of pneumonia in 1975 after being hospitalised with alcohol-fueled pancreatitis. Next, Iggy mentions “Rock”, a nickname for Scott Asheton, who stuck around in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The list ends with guitarist James Williamson, who, on a lighter note, managed to clean up.
After the gloomy introduction, a skeletal, overdriven lead guitar riff adorns most of the track as Iggy’s quaking vocals yearn for The Stooges. “Things have been tough without the dum dum boys/ I can’t seem to speak the language (…) Where are you now, my dum dum boys?/ Are you alive or dead?/ Have you left me the last?”
The riff that elevates ‘Dum Dum Boys’ to the height of its majesty was originally laid down by Bowie. However, after hearing back his loose recordings, Bowie roped in the consummate session guitarist Phil Palmer to overdub some parts.
‘Dum Dum Boys’ is an essential ingredient to the delectable dish that is The Idiot, arguably Iggy’s solo career masterpiece. Teeming with Bowie DNA, the moody album was released at the height of the punk movement but had already skipped a few pages ahead, beckoning the post-punk era with creative urgency. It’s no surprise that Joy Division’s Ian Curtis was particularly fond of the album.
“[The Idiot was my] album of freedom,” Iggy said of the album in Joe Ambrose’s 2004 book Gimme Danger: The Story of Iggy Pop. “I’m not saying that it’s a great album or some fantastic work of art, but I love it, and it means a lot to me.”
Listen to Iggy Pop’s ‘Dum Dum Boys’ below.