Paraguay

Album: Post Pop Depression (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Iggy Pop concludes his Pop Pop Depression album with this bluesy duet with producer Josh Homme. Fed up with "whippin' fools and keepin' score," Iggy sings of retiring to South America where he plans to see out the rest of his days in peace. Homme told Mojo: "When he played that, the lyrics killed me. 'I just couldn't take no more. Of whipping fools and keeping score'. The fact that the record ends with this song, where he's going out to the jungle like Colonel Kurtz, seemed very fitting."
  • The song ends with a spoken-word, expletive-laden rant by Pop. Homme said: "I had this other part, like a slave chant, and all of a sudden he starts talking over it. We only played it five times, and he had five different rants, a very earnest go-f--k yourself. Improvised. I was like, 'Did you just tell whoever was listening to go and f--k off?!'"

    "We actually debated if that's what we should do. Then I just said, 'Yeah – it's not like it's from somebody that doesn't matter.'"
  • In American Valhalla, a documentary about the making of Post Pop Depression, Pop's rant at the end of "Paraguay" was so vitriolic that Homme was slightly unsettled.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Zakk Wylde

Zakk WyldeSongwriter Interviews

When he was playing Ozzfest with Black Label Society, a kid told Zakk he was the best Ozzy guitarist - Zakk had to correct him.

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"They're Playing My Song

Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."