Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was What is the reality of the situation?

My Oblique responses were a new song from Mike D and The Aloof from 1994. The Bagging Area Oblique squad came up with some excellent suggestions. ilradz4evuh suggested a slew of Happy Mondays songs, all benefiting from the input of a producer (John Cale, Martin Hannett, Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, and Sunny Levine and Howie B). Al G suggested Liverpool's The Real People (a band I saw twice back in the day, once in their home town and once at G- Mex supporting Pixies). This is the song Al G proposed, from The Real People's 1991 self- titled album...

The Truth

Rol went with Soul II Soul and The Beautiful South. Ernie plumbed for Gil Scott Heron's B Movie. JC came up with The Jam and Crass (a second Oblique Saturday showing for Crass) and Edinburgh's Sons Of The Descent. Over on social media Chris threw African Head Charge and Professor Stretch in. 

The variety of responses and the sheer range of songs thrown up by a short Brian Eno penned cryptic remark is ace. 

This week's Oblique Strategy card says this- Emphasise differences.

In 1973 Iggy Pop had a third roll of the dice with The Stooges, now Iggy and The Stooges. The monstrous groove of the original band had become something more akin to hard rock with the addition of new guitarist James Williamson. The failure of the first two albums, the debut and Funhouse, had seen the band spiral into chaos and addiction. They broke up, Iggy was on smack, Dave Alexander was an alcoholic. Singing as a solo artist with Colombia he moved to London with Williamson to make an album. Once there they failed to find a rhythm section that worked and so they flew former- Stooges the Asheton brothers over, with Ron reluctantly accepting he'd play the bass. With Bowie producing they recorded an album- Raw Power. 

Raw Power is a high octane blast of, well, raw power. From the opening frenzy of Search And Destroy it rattles and shakes, roars and thunders, proto- punk, one of those albums that inspired a thousand others. It ends with Death Trip...

Death Trip (1997 Iggy Pop remix)

'Sick boy sick boy going wrong/ Memory losing grip/ Girl I wanna take you out with me/ Come along on my death trip'

Iggy was on a one way trip at this point, heading towards the exit door. A death trip.

Incidentally, the version above is from Iggy's remixed/ remastered 1997 version, an opinion splitting version. Bowie's original 1973 version was often criticised for being muddy and unclear. Iggy redid it, in an attempt to compete with late 90s rock radio, everything pushed into the red but clarified for radio. Lots of people hated the new version- both Asheton brothers for two, Robert Quine and Don Fleming for two more and David Bowie himself. 

The Iggy mix does emphasise the differences, the distortion is audible but the instruments are separated and punchy. For two generations brought up on Bowie's 1973 mix though the wound up tension and ferocity of the original would always be the one. 

From Death Trip in 1973 to Lust For Life in 1977. 

Lust For Life

In between Iggy had finished off the second version of The Stooges on tour, the band and a bunch of bikers coming to blows while the band played (captured on Metallic K.O.). Iggy's drug issues deepened and he checked himself into a mental institution. Bowie rescued him, took him on the Station To Station tour and the pair then relocated to West Berlin in an attempt to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions (Bowie cocaine, Pop heroin). I guess it made some sense at the time but West Berlin was one of the strangest places in the world in 1977. Going there to get off drugs was a brave decision. It paid off. The made two of the best records of Iggy's and David's careers. Of anyone's careers in fact. The Idiot and Lust For Life (both should really be seen as part of Bowie's Berlin trilogy).

The road from Death Trip to Lust For Life is in itself an exercise in emphasising differences. Bowie and Pop were too, Bowie cerebral and arty, a megastar, a life as a work of art while Pop was a washed up rocker, an exercise in living as hard as you can all the time, primal.

'I'm worth a million in prizes/ I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk/ No more beat my brains/ With liquor and drugs/ I got a lust For Life'.

Another way of emphasising differences is to look at where a band starts and where they finish. In the seven years between 1976 and 1983 The Clash went from this...

White Riot

...to this...

Death Is A Star

I'm not sure many bands ever traveled as far musically and stylistically as The Clash. Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon emphasising the difference, between White Riot and Death Is A Star, between ferocious two chord punk and impressionistic cinematic modern jazz. 

Feel free to drop your own emphasising differences suggestions in the comment box.