Style and Themes
At the time of its release, Pop described The Idiot as a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk. Bowie biographer David Buckley has called it "a funky, robotic hellhole of an album". The funk influence was most pronounced on "Sister Midnight", based on a riff by Carlos Alomar and laced with Pop’s oedipal dream imagery. Its lack of overtly electronic instrumentation belied what critic Dave Thompson has described as a "defiantly futuristic ambience".
Pop, speaking of Bowie, described the Krautrock-influenced "Nightclubbing" as "my comment on what it was like hanging out with him every night". The track was recorded one night after the other musicians had left, Bowie playing the melody on piano with an old rhythm machine for backing. When Pop pronounced himself happy with the result, Bowie protested that they needed real drums to finish it off. Pop insisted on keeping the rhythm machine, saying "it kicks ass, it's better than a drummer". Pop largely wrote the lyrics on the spot "in ten minutes", Bowie suggesting that he write about "walking through the night like ghosts". The riff has been described as a mischievous quote of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll".
"China Girl", originally called "Borderline", was a tale of unrequited love inspired by Kuelan Nguyen, partner of French actor/singer Jacques Higelin, who was also recording at Château d'Hérouville at the time. The protagonist's "Shhh..." was a direct quote from Nguyen after Pop confessed his feelings for her one night. Production-wise it was raw and unpolished compared to Bowie's hit remake in 1983. Other songs included "Funtime", a proto-gothic number that Bowie advised Pop to sing "like Mae West"; "Dum Dum Boys", a tribute/lament for Pop's former Stooges band mates ("an exceptionally insensitive use of old colleagues for theatrical effect", in the words of biographer Joe Ambrose); and "Mass Production", a harsh, grinding piece of early industrial electronica.
Read more about this topic: The Idiot (album)
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