March of ‘06, I was on spring break in north London and decided to take a side trip to Florence to visit a friend who was doing a semester abroad. Only flight I could find was out of Gatwick.

I do not like Gatwick.

Every time I’ve flown in or out of Gatwick there has always been a problem, this was no exception. My flight was supposed to leave at about 7 pm, cut to three hours later and there was still no word on when or if we would be taking off. As my fellow passengers and I were dealing with our mounting frustration I was reading the excellent Please Kill Me, and I can’t recall who it was, but someone had said that “to me the first punk song ever is ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges.” So thanks to the modern age I pick up my iPod, scroll through and see if I have any of The Stooges’ stuff, I had “Raw Power” and a song that was on the “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” soundtrack, as luck would have it Guy Ritchie decided to use the aforementioned track so I pop it on. This was the true beginning of my trip to Florence.

The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Now I don’t know if it was exhaustion and the resulting delirium, but this song hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m sure I had heard it before, especially since I had listened to the soundtrack in full multiple times, but how I just glanced over this track amazed me, because as soon as the track ended I had to listen to it again, and again, and again, and again. Suddenly I find that it’s about midnight, still no updates on the flight but at this point it didn’t matter, I was in a separate state, I could not stop listening to this track at all. Finally there was an announcement that the flight would not be leaving until the morning so we were to board the shuttle buses to lodging for the night, still had the track going strong on the ride to the B&B, while I grabbed a quick pint, while I drank the pint in my room, first thing the next day, ride back to Gatwick, on the flight to Pisa, on the bus from Pisa to Florence and my entire stay in Florence and all the way back to England. I’m sure you get the point.

So what is it about this track? For me it has to be one of the best executed uses of repetition I’ve ever heard. Whether it’s that guitar riff, the sole note on the piano or the bells, all going at the same pace. The piano/bells especially are what makes the song. I remember a few months after my trip I was at a house party in Wrigleyville, Chicago and the band started playing this but no one was at the keys! So after a few failed attempts I finally found the right note much to the delight of the band. Also the fact that the guitar solo doesn’t come in until the very end only to be faded out with the rest of the song; sometimes the fadeout is a cop out, but with this track I like to think that it still continues, but only they know the rest. That’s what a good fadeout should sound like, “Piss off! You’ve heard what we want you to hear, the rest is for us and only us.”

But this is not to take away from Iggy, his performance is flippin’ ace. When I listen to this I always picture him in the studio dancing like a loon and only coming up to the mic when he needs to do his bit. He’s very much proclaiming not love, but pure carnal lust, he wants to be used by this woman, he is at her bidding, but best of all he wants it in his room, he wants to be damn near a slave in the one place where people who sleep alone know they are in charge.

If this song doesn’t get you goin’ then I may question what exactly does.

As an added bonus here is an excellent version that Sonic Youth did with Iggy (plus it’s a rare gig where Mr. Pop is fully clothed!)