Okay, it’s the 40th anniversary for Iggy Pop’s second studio album. It’s Christmas, after all, so what could be more in keeping with the season than Iggy Pop?!

His album features two of his most famous song and, along with its debauchery fueled lyrics, it’s one of the most thunderously upbeat albums out there. Hurray!

Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life

The album cover features a rather innocent looking Pop (real name James Osterberg Jr.) grinning away maniacally.

He’s still with us, of course, and is 70 now and a bit calmer, if as shirtless as ever.

He was famous/notorious for his berserk on-stage performances, which regularly saw him naked and writhing about on stage.

Such antics were, thankfully, backed up by awesome songs.

The eponymous title track goes at a furious rate and features some pretty demented lyrics about some guy called Johnny.

David Bowie co-wrote this with Mr. Pop (the former provided the music, the latter the lyrics).

The famous pounding drumming, provided by Hunt Sales, was inspired by the Supremes’ song You Can’t Hurry Love.

As the song was a hit in Holland, the band went over for a live performance over there and Pop, probably out of his mind, performed the song shirtless whilst destroying the stage. Nice.

Some Weird Sin is another subtle gem. It’s about some weird sin. The clue is in the title, fool.

There are nine tracks off the album, let us be clear, but we picked our favourites.

Above is the Passenger, which has a catchy guitar hook—after the success of Trainspotting (see below) and a resurgence in Pop’s career, it was released as a single in 1998.

Don’t you know? However, it’s actually inspired by one of Jim Morrison’s poems. Groovy.

Lust For Life in Trainspotting

Lust for Life (the song, rather than just the album) got a kick up the arse in 1996 when it was included in the surprise international hit film Trainspotting.

That’s another good opportunity for us no mentioned one of our favourite films on this site, plus the excellent sequel which arrived earlier in 2017.

Culture, eh? Where would be without it!?