Pop's popularity has ebbed and flowed throughout the course of his solo career. His best-known songs include "Lust for Life", "Real Wild Child", "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl" and "The Passenger".

Early life

Music career

Early days: 1960 to 1967

The Stooges era: 1968 to 1975

In 1968, one year after their live debut and now dubbed The Stooges, the band signed with Elektra Records, again following in the footsteps of The Doors, who were Elektra's biggest act at the time (reportedly, Pop called Moe Howard to see if it was alright to call his band "The Stooges," to which Howard responded by merely saying "I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they're not the ''Three'' Stooges!" and hung up the phone). The Stooges' first two albums ''The Stooges'', (on which Iggy was credited, much to his displeasure, as "Iggy Stooge"), produced by John Cale; and ''Fun House'', sold poorly. Shortly after the new members joined, the group disbanded because of Pop's growing heroin addiction.

In 1971, Iggy Pop and David Bowie met at Max's Kansas City, a nightclub and restaurant in New York City. Pop's career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with Pop in England. With James Williamson signed on as guitarist, the search began for a rhythm section. However, since neither Pop nor Bowie was satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite The Stooges. It would not be a true reunion insofar as Dave Alexander, due to alcoholism, was unable to play on the record (he later died in 1975). Also, Ron Asheton grudgingly moved from guitar to bass to make way for Williamson to play guitar. The recording sessions produced the rock landmark ''Raw Power''. After its release Scott Thurston was added to the band on keyboards/electric piano and Bowie continued his support, but Iggy's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album ''Metallic K.O.'' Drug abuse stalled his career again for several years.

Bowie and Berlin: 1976 to 1978

Bowie and Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their addictions. In 1977, Pop signed with RCA and Bowie helped write and produce ''The Idiot'' and ''Lust for Life,'' Pop's two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, the latter with another team of brothers, Hunt and Tony Sales, sons of comedian Soupy Sales. Among the songs Bowie and Pop wrote together were "China Girl", "Tonight", and "Sister Midnight", all of which Bowie performed on his own albums later on (the last being recorded with different lyrics as "Red Money" on the album ''Lodger''). Bowie also played keyboards in Pop's live performances, some of which are featured on the album ''TV Eye'' in 1978. In return, Pop contributed backing vocals on Bowie's ''Low''.

The Arista albums: 1979 to 1981

The album was moderately successful in Australia and New Zealand, however, and this led to Iggy Pop's first visit there to promote it. While in Melbourne, he made a memorable appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's nationwide pop show ''Countdown''. During his anarchic performance of ''I'm Bored'', Pop made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was lip-synching, and he even tried to grab the teenage girls in the audience. He was also interviewed by host Ian "Molly" Meldrum, an exchange which was frequently punctuated by the singer jumping up and down on his chair and making loud exclamations of "G'day mate" in a mock Australian accent. His ''Countdown'' appearance is generally considered one of the highlights of the show's history and it cemented his popularity with Australian punk fans; since then he has often toured there. While visiting New Zealand, Iggy Pop recorded a music video for "I'm Bored", and attended a record company function where he appeared to slap a woman and throw wine over a photographer. While in Australia, Iggy Pop was also the guest on a live late-night commercial TV interview show on the Ten Network. It is not known whether a recording of this interview exists, but the famous ''Countdown'' appearance has often been re-screened in Australia.

During the recording of ''Soldier'' (1980), Iggy Pop and Williamson quarrelled over production (the latter apparently wanted a big, Phil Spector-type sound) and Williamson was fired. Bowie appeared on the song ''Play it Safe'', performing backing vocals with the group Simple Minds. The album and its follow-up ''Party'' (1981) were both commercial failures, and Iggy Pop was dropped from Arista. His drug habit varied in intensity, but persisted.

The 1980s

The 1982 album ''Zombie Birdhouse'' on Chris Stein's Animal label, with Stein himself producing, was no more commercially successful than his Arista works, but again, in 1983, Iggy Pop's fortunes changed when David Bowie recorded a cover of the song "China Girl". The song had originally appeared on ''The Idiot'', and was a major hit on Bowie's blockbuster ''Let's Dance'' album. As co-writer of the song, Pop received substantial royalties. On ''Tonight'' in 1984, Bowie recorded two more of their co-written songs, this time from the ''Lust for Life'' album, "Tonight" and "Neighborhood Threat", assuring Iggy Pop financial security, at least for the short term. The support from Bowie enabled Pop to resolve problems and permitted him to take a three-year break during which he overcame his heroin addiction and took acting classes.

Additionally, Iggy Pop contributed the title song to the 1984 film ''Repo Man'' (with Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols, on guitar) as well as an instrumental called "Repo Man Theme" that was played during the opening credits.

In 1985, Pop recorded some demos with Jones. He played these demos to Bowie, who was sufficiently impressed to offer to produce an album for Pop: 1986's New Wave-influenced ''Blah Blah Blah'', featuring the single "Real Wild Child", a cover of "The Wild One" originally written and recorded by Australian rock 'n' roll pioneer Johnny O'Keefe in 1958. The single was a Top 10 hit in the UK and was successful around the world, especially in Australia, where for the last twenty years it has been used as the theme music for the ABC's late-night music video show ''Rage''. It remains Pop's solitary brush with major commercial success. ''Blah Blah Blah'' was Pop's highest-charting album in the U.S. since ''The Idiot'' in 1977, peaking at #75 on the ''Billboard'' Top 200 albums chart.

Also in 1985, the movie ''Rock & Rule'' was released featuring performances by Iggy Pop and Lou Reed for the character Mok. Pop's song in the film was "Pain & Suffering" from the final sequence of the film.

In 1987, Pop appeared (along with Bootsy Collins) on a mostly instrumental album, ''Neo Geo'', by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The music video for "Risky", written and directed by Meiert Avis, won the first ever MTV Breakthrough Video Award. The groundbreaking video explores transhumanist philosopher FM-2030's ideas of ''Nostalgia for the Future'' in the form of an imagined love affair between a robot and one of Man Ray's models in Paris in the late 1930s. Additional inspiration was drawn from Jean Baudrillard, Edvard Munch's 1894 painting ''Puberty'', and Roland Barthes ''Death of the Author''. The surrealist black-and-white video uses stop motion, light painting, and other retro in-camera effects techniques. Meiert Avis shot Sakamoto while at work on the score for ''The Last Emperor'' in London. Sakamoto also appears in the video painting words and messages to an open shutter camera. Iggy Pop, who performs the vocals on "Risky", chose not to appear in the video, allowing his performance space to be occupied by the surrealist era robot.

Pop's follow-up to ''Blah Blah Blah'', ''Instinct'' (1988), was a turnaround in musical direction. Its stripped-back, guitar-based sound leaned further towards the sound of the Stooges than any of his solo albums to date. His record label, which had most likely been expecting another ''Blah Blah Blah'', dropped him. Nevertheless, the ''King Biscuit'' radio show recording of the ''Instinct'' tour (featuring guitarist Andy McCoy and Alvin Gibbs on bass) reaching Boston on July 19, 1988, remains one of punk-rock's most enduring live albums. Working with rock attorney Stann Findelle, Pop scored more movie soundtrack inclusions in 1989, "Living on the Edge of the Night" in the Ridley Scott Michael Douglas thriller, Black Rain and "Love Transfusion" in Wes Craven's Shocker.

The 1990s

Also in 1990, Pop starred in the controversial opera ''The Manson Family'' by composer John Moran, released on Point Music/Phillip Classics, where he sang the role of prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. That year he was also contributed to the Red Hot Organization's AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, singing a version of "Well Did You Evah!" in a duet with Deborah Harry.

In 1991, Pop and Kirst contributed the song "Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead)" to the soundtrack of the film ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''. The song also plays over the end credits of the film, with a compilation of clips from the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' series running alongside the end credits.

In 1992, he collaborated with Goran Bregović on the soundtrack for the movie ''Arizona Dream'' by Emir Kusturica. Pop sang four of the songs: ''In the Deathcar'', ''TV Screen'', ''Get the Money'', and ''This is a Film''. Also in 1992, he collaborated with the New York City band White Zombie. He recorded spoken word vocals on the intro and outro of the song "Black Sunshine" as well as playing the character of a writer in the video shot for the song. He is singled out for special thanks in the liner notes of the band's album ''La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1''.

In 1993, Pop released ''American Caesar'', including two successful singles, "Wild America" and "Beside You." The following year Pop contributed to Buckethead's album ''Giant Robot'', including the songs "Buckethead's Toy Store" and "Post Office Buddy". He appears also on the Les Rita Mitsouko album ''Système D'' where he sings the duet "My Love is Bad" with Catherine Ringer.

In 1995, Pop again found mainstream fame when his 1977 song "Lust for Life" was featured in the film ''Trainspotting''. A new video was recorded for the song, with clips from the film and studio footage of Iggy dancing with one of its stars, Ewen Bremner. An Iggy Pop concert also served as a plot point in the film. The song has also been used in TV commercials for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (with many music critics denouncing the usage of the song to promote peppy cruises) and as the theme music to ''The Jim Rome Show'', a nationally-syndicated American sports talk show.

In 1996, Pop released ''Naughty Little Doggie'', with Whitey Kirst returning on guitar, and the single "I Wanna Live". In 1997, he remixed ''Raw Power'' to give it a rougher, more hard-edged sound; fans had complained for years that Bowie's official "rescue effort" mix was muddy and lacking in bass. Pop testified in the reissue's liner notes that on the new mix, "everything's still in the red". He co-produced his 1999 album ''Avenue B'' with Don Was, releasing the single "Corruption." Pop produced 2001's ''Beat 'Em Up'', which gave birth to The Trolls, releasing the single "Football" featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex.

In the early to middle 1990s, Pop would make several guest appearances on the Nickelodeon show ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete''. He played James Mecklenberg, Nona Mecklenberg's father.

The Stooges reunion: 2003 to present

Iggy and The Stooges played the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007. Their set included material from the 2007 album ''The Weirdness'' and classics such as "No Fun and "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Pop also caused controversy in June 2007 when he was interviewed on the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival. He used the phrase "paki shop", prompting three complaints and an apology from the BBC.

On March 10, 2008 Pop appeared at Madonna's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Together with The Stooges he sang raucous versions of two Madonna hits "Burning Up" and "Ray of Light." Before leaving the stage he looked directly at Madonna, quoting "You make me feel shiny and new, like a virgin, touched for the very first time.", from Madonna's hit song "Like A Virgin". According to guitarist Ron Asheton, Madonna asked The Stooges to perform in her place, as a protest to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not inducting The Stooges despite six appearances on the nomination ballot. Pop also sang on the "No Fun" cover by Asian Dub Foundation on their 2008 album ''Punkara''.

On January 6, 2009, original Stooges guitarist, and Iggy's self-described best friend Ron Asheton, was found dead from an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old.

In 2009 James Williamson rejoined the band after 29 years.

On December 15, 2009 it was announced that The Stooges will be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010. Pop had "about two hours of a strong emotional reaction" to the news.

In March 2010 the Stooges and Iggy Pop were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Recent career

For New Year's Eve 1997, Iggy was the headliner for the annual Australian three-day concert the Falls Festival. He gave one of the most memorable performances in the history of the festival. A member of the audience got to do the countdown for the new year with Pop as part of a competition to guess Pop's new year's resolution. (It was "To do nothing and make a lot of money!")

In 2005 Pop appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and The Roots' Questlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone. In early 2006, Iggy and the Stooges played in Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out. They also began work on a new album, ''The Weirdness'', which was recorded by Steve Albini and released in March 2007. In August 2006 Iggy and the Stooges performed at the Lowlands pop festival in the Netherlands, Hodokvas in Slovakia and in the Sziget Festival in Budapest.

Author Paul Trynka completed a biography of Iggy Pop (with his blessing) called ''Open Up and Bleed'', published in early 2007. More recently, Iggy and the Stooges played at Bam Margera's wedding and Pop appeared on the single "Punkrocker" with the Teddybears in a Cadillac television commercial. Pop was also the voice of Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central cartoon ''Lil' Bush'' and confirmed that he has done voices for ''American Dad'' and ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', which also included The Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (though the game's manual credited Iggy Pop as the artist).

Pop guested on ''Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)'', the new album by the Bill Laswell-helmed group Praxis, which was released on January 1, 2008.

He fronts (from January 2009) a £25 million TV ad campaign for Swiftcover, using the strapline "Get a Life".

Pop collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on the album "Dark Night of the Soul", singing the track ''pain.''

Pop's new solo album, ''Préliminaires'', was released on June 2, 2009. Inspired by a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq (born Michel Thomas) called ''La Possibilité d'une île'' (2005; Trans. as ''The Possibility of an Island'' by Gavin Bowd, 2006), Iggy was approached to provide the soundtrack for a documentary film on Michel and his attempts to make a film from his novel. Iggy's favourite character from Michel's novel is a little white dog named Fox. Iggy describes this new release as a "quieter album with some jazz overtones", the first single off the album, "King of the Dogs", bearing a sound strongly influenced by New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Iggy also admits that it's his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music". The album is available on legal download sites, CD, and a Deluxe Boxset is available at only 6000 units worldwide. This boxset contains the ''Préliminaires'' album, a collector "Les Feuilles Mortes" b/w "King Of The Dogs" 7 inch, the cover of which is Iggy's portrait by Marjane Satrapi, and a 38 page booklet of drawings also by Marjane Satrapi.

Iggy sings on "We're All Gonna Die" on Slash's first solo album ''Slash'' which was released in April 2010.

Iggy appeared as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song The Passenger and also lent his voice for the in game tutorial.

With reference to the song ''The Passenger, Iggy Pop'' has appeared on NZ television advertising phone networks to show how he can get a band to play together by conference call.

After a March 2010 stage diving accident, Pop claimed he would no longer stage dive. However, he did so on three occasions at a concert in Madrid, Spain on April 30, 2010. And it was much the same in London at the Hammersmith Apollo on May 2, 2010. On July 9, 2010 he again stage dived in Zottegem, Belgium, causing Iggy to bleed from the face.

In June 2010, Iggy Pop appeared at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto with the reformed Stooges on the NXNE main stage. The sheer size of the audience closed a central artery of Yonge Street.

In 2011 he teamed up with The Lilies, a collaboration between Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes and French group Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family to record the single 'Why?'.

On April 7, 2011, at age 63, Pop performed "Real Wild Child" on the tenth season of American Idol; the ''Los Angeles Times'' music blog "Pop & Hiss" described Pop as being "still magnetic, still disturbing."

Film career

He has been featured in five television series, including ''Tales from the Crypt'',''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'', where he played Nona's dad in the second and third season, and ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', in which he played Yelgrun in "The Magnificent Ferengi" episode. With The Stooges, he was also featured in an episode of MTV's Bam's Unholy Union as the main band performing at Bam's wedding. Additionally, a portion of the music video for Iggy's ''Butt Town'' was featured on an episode of ''Beavis and Butthead''.

Pop has been profiled in four rockumentaries and has had songs on eighteen soundtracks, including ''Crocodile Dundee 2'', ''Trainspotting'', ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', ''Haggard'', ''Arizona Dream'', the main theme of ''Repo Man'', "Black Rain" and "Shocker" (1989) and ''Kurt Cobain: About a Son''.

In the movie ''Velvet Goldmine'', Ewan McGregor portrays Curt Wilde, a character loosely based on Iggy Pop. McGregor performs Pop's songs "TV Eye" and "Gimme Danger" in the film.

Pop voiced Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central show ''Lil' Bush''.

Iggy Pop played himself as the DJ of the fictional rock station Liberty Rock Radio 97.8 in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Pop provided the voice for a character in the English language version of the 2007 animated film ''Persepolis''.

Iggy Pop also voiced a cameo in the ''American Dad!'' episode ''American Dream Factory'' as Jerry, the drummer, in Steve's band.

Iggy makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.

In 2008, Iggy's music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel ''Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance''.

In January 2009, Iggy was signed up as the face of Swiftcover, the UK-based online insurance company. The advert was then banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on April 28, 2009 for being misleading – it implied that Iggy Pop himself had an insurance policy with Swiftcover when at the time the company did not insure musicians.

Iggy Pop featured along side indie starlet Greta Gerwig (Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, Baghead, Nights and Weekends) in the film "Art House" which will world premiere at the Nashville Film Festival in April 2010.

Iggy Pop also featured as a voice talent in the 2004 ATARI video game DRIV3R, which was produced by Reflections Interactive.

In 2010, the Stooges song "Search and Destroy" was featured in the Lost: Final Chapter episode 04, The Substitute.

Iggy's cover of the Richard Berry song ''Louie Louie'' is used during the opening credits of Michael Moore's 2009 film ''Capitalism: A Love Story''

Iggy was also referenced in ''The Venture Brothers'' Episode ''Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I)'' and ''Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)'' alongside ''Klaus Nomi'' as the bodyguards to ''The Sovereign'' who is in fact ''David Bowie'', Iggy along with Klaus who defect to ''Phantom Limb'' who then tries to kill David Bowie with a large glowing ball that he can summon at will to kill people on the command "POP!" He was quoted as saying to him before he kills him, "Too long have I been made to play the idiot, now you're going to be MY DOG!"

In the Super Mario Bros. video game series, the character, Iggy Koopa was named after him.

Future biopic

Pop liked the script but refused to take part in the film. He said:

The script ain't chopped liver... It was a work of art. But subjectively, I don't want to be involved in any way. A producer and the writer sent me a very decent letter, and asked me to write back if I didn't want them to do it... I don't feel negative about it at all.

Classical scholarship

Discography

Albums

With The Stooges

With James Williamson

Solo

Personal life

Further Reading/Info

References

External links

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Thomas James "Tom" Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows ''The Tomorrow Show'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ''The Late Late Show'', on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s.

Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the primetime ''NBC News Update'', in the 1970s and early 1980s, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates in primetime.

Early life

Newscasting career

''Tomorrow with Tom Snyder''

Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, John Lydon of PiL and The Sex Pistols in 1980, John Lennon in 1975, actor and writer Sterling Hayden, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand. A one-on-one program with David Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.

An infamous edition of The Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock group KISS. During the episode, a visibly irritated Gene Simmons (bass) and Paul Stanley (guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk) Ace Frehley (lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the content and conversation taking place between Snyder and the rest of the band. Drummer Peter Criss made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on the Kissology - The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978-1991 (2007) DVD.

When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on ''Saturday Night Live'' (12 occasions, 1976–1979 and 1995).

Following a disastrous experiment with turning ''Tomorrow'' into a more typical talk show—renaming it ''Tomorrow Coast to Coast'' and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in 1982 to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman.

After ''Tomorrow''

An older, slightly more mellow Snyder returned to virtually the same format on ABC Radio. The show's three-hour format was a natural for Snyder. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest, during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news, and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel. One of Snyder's's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson on the hit television sitcom ''The Jeffersons''. The ''Tom Snyder Show'' for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992, in part due to the rapid rise in popularity of ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which aired in the same time slot and which ABC had already been airing on many of its own stations. Snyder returned to television on CNBC in the early 1990s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show "the Colorcast", reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to hype its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

''The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder''

''The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder'' aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin. One of the many memorable ''Late Late Show'' interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt about her son's suicide, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake very soon before Blake was charged with murder. In 1999 Snyder left ''The Late Late Show,'' which was then reformatted for Craig Kilborn. It has since been turned over to Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson.

In February 2000, Snyder hosted two shows of The Late Show Backstage done during the time Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.

Snyder also hosted a video production called ''A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains'', commemorating 100 years of Lionel Trains. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called ''Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder'', featuring his own collection of trains.

Colortini.com

On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005, his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories". However, some 140 pages have been preserved at web.archive.org. The domain name has since been reused for other purposes.

Final years and death

Snyder died on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco at the age of 71 from complications of leukemia. He had one child, Anne Mari Snyder, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, and two grandchildren.

References

External links

Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Television news anchors in Los Angeles, California Category:New York City television anchors Category:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania television anchors Category:People from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Category:People from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Marquette University alumni Category:Deaths from leukemia Category:KYW-TV Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:1936 births Category:2007 deaths

Bregović has composed for such varied artists as Iggy Pop and Cesária Évora. He rose to fame playing guitar with his rock band Bijelo dugme. Among his better known scores are Emir Kusturica’s films (''Time of the Gypsies'', ''Arizona Dream'', ''Underground'').

Musical style

Bregović's music carries Bosnian, Serbian and Romani themes and is a fusion of popular music with traditional polyphonic music from the Balkans, tango and brass bands.

Early life and career

Bregović was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then SFR Yugoslavia) to Croatian father and Serbian mother. His father was an officer in the Yugoslav People's Army. When his parents divorced he remained living with his mother in Sarajevo.

Goran played violin in a music school. However, deemed untalented, he was thrown out during second grade. His musical education was thus reduced to what his friend taught him until Goran's mother bought him his first guitar in his early teens. Bregović wanted to enroll in a fine arts high school, but his aunt told his mother that it was supposedly full of homosexuals, which precipitated his mother's decision to send him to a technical (traffic) school. As a compromise for not getting his way, she allowed him to grow his hair long. Upon entering high school, Goran joined the school band "''Izohipse''" where he began on bass guitar. Soon, however, he was kicked out of that school too (this time for misbehaviour - he crashed a school-owned Mercedes-Benz). Bregović then entered grammar school and its school band "''Beštije''" (again as a bass guitar player). When he was 16, his mother left him and moved to the coast, meaning that other than having a few relatives to rely on, he mostly had to take care of himself. He did that by playing folk music in a kafana in Konjic, working on construction sites, and selling newspapers.

Spotting him at a Beštije gig in 1969, Željko Bebek invited 18-year-old Bregović to play bass guitar in his band Kodeksi, which Goran gladly accepted.

Eventually, Kodeksi shifted setup so Goran moved from bass to lead guitar, resulting in Kodeksi having the following line-up during summer 1970: Goran Bregović, Željko Bebek, Zoran Redžić and Milić Vukašinović. All of them would eventually become members of Bijelo dugme at some point in the future. At the time, they were largely influenced by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. During the fall of 1970, this resulted in departure of Željko Bebek, who (both as rhythm guitar player and singer) got phased out of the band. At the end of the year, Goran's mother and Zoran's brother arrived to Naples and took them back to Sarajevo.

Then in the autumn of 1971, Goran entered university and decided to study philosophy and sociology. He soon quit, however. At the same time, Milić Vukašinović left for London, so Goran and Zoran started playing in a band named Jutro ("Morning"). In the next few years, the band changed lineups frequently, and on 1 January 1974 changed its name to Bijelo dugme ("White Button").

Bijelo dugme

Bregović played lead guitar and composed most of the music for the rock group Bijelo dugme (''White Button''). They were one of the most popular bands in SFR Yugoslavia right from their arrival on the scene in 1974 until their folding in 1989.

After Bijelo dugme

In 1997, he worked with Turkish singer Sezen Aksu on her album ''Düğün ve Cenaze'' (''Wedding and Funeral''). After that album, he continued making composite albums with other musicians that were based on his music and singers' lyrics.

He made an album with George Dalaras in 1999 named ''Thessaloniki - Yannena with Two Canvas Shoes''. In the same year, Bregović recorded an album called ''Kayah i Bregović'' (Kayah and Bregović) with popular Polish singer Kayah which sold over 650,000 copies in Poland (six times platinum record).

In 2001, he recorded another album with another Polish singer, Krzysztof Krawczyk, titled "Daj mi drugie życie" ("Give Me Second Life").

In 2005, Bregović took part in three large farewell concerts of Bijelo dugme.

A number of works by Bregović can be heard on the soundtrack to the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, most notably "Đurđevdan." The film itself actually features more Bregović samples than the soundtrack.

Weddings and Funerals Orchestra

Since 1998, Bregović has been performing his music mainly in the form of concerts all over the world with his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra. This consists of 10 people (in the small version) or 37 (in the large version, although at some instances this number will be different, depending on participants from the host country).

The small orchestra consists of Alen Ademović (vocals, drums), Bokan Stanković (first trumpet), Dalibor Lukić (second trumpet), Stojan Dimov (sax, clarinet), Aleksandar Rajković (first trombone, glockenspiel), Miloš Mihajlović (second trombone), Dejan Manigodić (tuba) and Goran himself. The uniqueness of the orchestra comes from the voices of the Bulgarian singers Daniela Radkova-Aleksandrova and Ludmila Radkova-Traikova. The large orchestra usually has singers from the Belgrade Orthodox male choir, string performers from Poland, or from the country in which they perform, as well as other local performers.

Eurovision

Personal

The couple has three daughters: Ema (born in March 1995), Una (February 2002) and Lulu (May 2004).

Bregović owns real-estate properties all over the world, but spends most of his time between Belgrade, where most of his musical collaborators reside, and Paris, where his spouse lives with their three daughters.

He also has a daughter named Željka (born out of wedlock from a previous relationship) who gave birth to Goran's grand daughter, Bianca. He has a brother named Predrag who lives in New York City and sister Dajana who lives in Split.

On 12 June 2008, Bregović injured his spine in a fall from a tree. He fell four meters from a cherry tree in the garden of his home in Senjak, a Belgrade district, breaking vertebrae. However, according to the doctors, his condition was "stable without neurological complications." After surgery, he made a quick recovery and on 8 July and 9 July, he held two big concerts in New York City, where for more than two hours each night, he proved his performance skills had not suffered from the accident.

Bregović prefers to avoid delving into politics. "Yugoslavia is the intersection of so many worlds: Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim," says Bregović. "With music, I don't have to represent anyone except myself -- because I speak the first language of the world, the one everyone understands: music."

List of film scores

List of solo and movie soundtrack albums

References

External links

Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Yugoslav musicians Category:People from Sarajevo Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina rock musicians Category:Guitarists Category:Serbian film score composers Category:Golden Arena winners