9. Iggy Pop & The StoogesRaw Power
Henry Rollins may favour our Moz as the butt of his spoken word routines on the whiney, defeatist and pasty-faced nature of the English male, but the pair nevertheless share an enduring affection for this proto-punk masterpiece. While the influence on Rollins’ subsequent work and outlook is obvious however, the album’s lasting impact on Morrissey may at first seem less apparent. But it’s easy to imagine the young Steven Patrick earnestly identifying with Iggy’s claim to be "the world’s forgotten boy," while the Sinatra-in-Hell croon that Pop developed on the album’s slower songs, such as ‘Gimme Danger’ and ‘Penetration,’ surely influenced Morrissey’s own baritone warble just as much as it did the vocal style of his close contemporary, Ian Curtis. And while the Bard of Salford’s fateful alliance with Johnny Marr is usually mythologized with reference to such classic songwriting partnerships as Lieber and Stoller or Lennon and McCartney, it’s entirely possible that Morrissey himself saw their relationship as more akin to that of Iggy Pop and James Williamson, as displayed on this album: the flamboyant, iconoclastic but misunderstood frontman finally finding the gifted and versatile, dynamic and ambitious catalyst and guitar foil he needed in order to realise his true artistic vision. Certainly, for all his supposedly fey and fragile ways, Morrissey has never strayed too far from rock’s primal thump, for which this LP remains a seminal touchstone. Ben Graham
