A-side "Success" Length 4:44 | Genre Proto-punk Label RCA | |
Released August 29, 1977 (1977-08-29) Recorded April – June 1977 at Hansa Studio by the Wall, Berlin | ||
"The Passenger" is a song by Iggy Pop and Ricky Gardiner, recorded and released by Iggy Pop on the Lust for Life album in 1977. It was also released as the B-side of the album's only single, "Success". It was released as a single in its own right in March 1998, reaching number 22 in the UK Charts.
Contents
- Background and conception
- In the media
- Personnel
- Siouxsie and the Banshees version
- Other cover versions
- References
The lyrics, written by Iggy Pop allegedly aboard Berlin's S-Bahn, have been interpreted as embodying the nomadic spirit of the punk outcast. Guitarist Ricky Gardiner composed the music. The song is loosely based on a poem by Jim Morrison.
Background and conception
In an interview with The Guardian, Iggy Pop spoke about how "The Passenger" was partly inspired by travelling with David Bowie on tour, "...I’d been riding around North America and Europe in David’s car ad infinitum. I didn’t have a driver’s licence or a vehicle."
In the media
The song has been featured in the movies This Must Be the Place, Radiofreccia, TV spots for the film Waking Life, the television show 30 Days, the film Jarhead and the 2002 video game Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2. More recently, the films Up in the Air and The Weather Man featured the song on its teaser trailer, and is played in a shop early in the film. It can also be heard in Kurt Cobain: About a Son, the documentary exploration of the life and influences of the late musician. Scarface: The World Is Yours includes the song on its music selection menu. It was also used in a series of Kohl's commercials advertising the new "Simply Vera" line of clothing designed by Vera Wang. Guinness used the song for a television advertisement featuring an airplane flying through a pint-glass-shaped valley with clouds representing the beer's foamy head. The instrumental lead-in riff of this song is also the intro theme music for the CNN program Anderson Cooper 360. The song is also included in the music/rhythm game Lego Rock Band, complete with a Lego-style avatar of Iggy Pop at vocals. In 2012, the song was played in the Season 5 episode of Sons of Anarchy.
The song is also featured briefly in the opening montage of the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People directed by Michael Winterbottom. It is also featured in the 2014 film If I Stay.
In 2009, New Zealand broadband internet provider Orcon held a promotion where eight fans re-recorded the song via the internet. The recording featured instruments foreign to the original, such as a flute.
The song has been used in various TV commercials around the world such as for the Avensis car in 1998 and Captain Morgan in 2011. It was re-released as a single in the UK in 1998 in the wake of the Toyota Avensis commercial, peaking at #22. It was used in a Dublin Bus commercial in Ireland.
It was also included in the book The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present published in 2008.
In 2010 the German mobile phone provider T-Mobile launched their "Welcome Home" flash-mob advert on British television. Amongst the songs performed using only voices was "The Passenger", sung by local Brighton resident George Ikediashi.
The song was used in promos for season 5 (2015) of the CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, and Iggy appeared in episode 2 of that season.
The song was featured in the movie War Dogs.
Personnel
Siouxsie and the Banshees version
English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees covered "The Passenger" in 1987 for their all-cover-versions album Through the Looking Glass. The group revamped the song by adding brass arrangements. Released as the second single from that album, it peaked at number 41 in the UK singles chart.
Iggy Pop praised their version and stated: "That's good. She sings it well and she threw a little note in when she sings it, that I wish I had thought of, it's kind of improved it [...]. The horn thing is good."