Stray Dog

Album: Music Complete (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This brooding spoken-word piece features a guest appearance by Iggy Pop. New Order originally met the former Stooges frontman via a 2014 Tibet House charity gig organised by minimalist composer Philip Glass in New York, where he performed "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

    Vocalist Bernard Sumner recalled to NME: "It was quite a special moment to play with him, actually, because the first time I ever went round to (late Joy Division vocalist) Ian Curtis's house, he said, 'Have you heard this?', and he put on the brand new Iggy record, and I thought it was absolutely brilliant."
  • The track is based on a poem Sumner wrote in a melancholy moment shortly after Christmas 2014. He told NME: "When I wrote this poem, immediately, I could hear him on it. So I did this really bad Iggy impression, sent it to him. Got an email back saying he could do it, and we put it together from three takes."
  • Another Iggy Pop track with a canine theme is The Stooges 1969 classic number "I Wanna Be Your Dog."

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