Lust for Life is the second solo studio album by the American musician Iggy Pop, released on September 9, 1977, through RCA Records.

Lust for Life was recorded at Hansa Studio by the Wall in West Berlin from May to June 1977, with production being handled by Bowie, Pop, and the engineer Colin Thurston.

The touring band of Pop, Bowie, the guitarist Ricky Gardiner, and brothers Tony Fox and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, respectively, comprised the primary lineup for the album.

Critically, Lust for Life was well-received, with many praising Pop's energetic performance throughout and his greater role compared to The Idiot; the former would later be regarded as one of his best works and has appeared on several best album lists.

After a period of drug addiction, Iggy Pop joined his friend David Bowie on his 1976 Isolar Tour and afterwards, moved to Europe with him in hopes of getting sober.

[4] Due to Bowie's major influence on its creation, The Idiot marked a departure from the proto-punk sound of the Stooges,[5] in favor of a style more akin to art rock.

With himself on keyboards, Bowie assembled a band that included Ricky Gardiner on guitar, with brothers Tony Fox and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, respectively.

The rhythm section of Hunt and Tony Sales on drums and bass, respectively, returned from the tour, along with guitarist Carlos Alomar who was brought in by Bowie as a musical director.

[23][24][25][26] However, some of its themes are similarly dark, as in "The Passenger", cited by NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray as one of Pop's "most haunting" tracks,[7] and "Tonight" and "Turn Blue", both of which deal with heroin abuse.

[23][28][29][30] According to Pop, Bowie's celebrated riff on "Lust for Life" was inspired by the Morse code opening to the American Forces Network news in Berlin.

"[22] "The Passenger" was inspired by a Jim Morrison poem that saw "modern life as a journey by car", as well as rides on the Berlin S-Bahn, according to Pop's former girlfriend Esther Friedmann.

[29][36] At just under seven minutes, "Turn Blue", the longest song on Lust for Life, was a sprawling confessional that dated back to an abortive recording session by Bowie and Pop in May 1975, when the latter was in the depths of his drug addiction.

The album's remaining tracks included "Sixteen", the only piece written entirely by Pop; "Some Weird Sin", a hard rock number featuring a "lost-boy lyric";[38] the "neo-punk" "Neighborhood Threat";[23] and "Fall in Love with Me", which grew from an impromptu jam by the band to which Pop composed lyrics apparently evoking Friedmann.

"[40] Nicholas Pegg writes that the cover provides a stark contrast to The Idiot, in that Pop's healthy appearance and smiling gaze represent Lust for Life's overall positive tone compared to its predecessor.

[15] It received little promotion from RCA, primarily due to the death of Elvis Presley two weeks earlier, whose catalog the label was adamant on reissuing.

"[42] Paul Trynka notes that whereas The Idiot had received a decent amount of press coverage, Lust for Life, which he calls "the most overtly commercial album of Iggy Pop's career"—and the record that marked his "return to health and happiness"—received little, contributing to its poor performance.

[48][43] The critic Lester Bangs of NME, who gave negative assessments for both The Idiot and Lust for Life, praised Pop's on-stage energy.

In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone critic Billy Altman considered that "purely on its own terms, Lust for Life is a successful album", but complained that Pop's "new stance is so utterly unchallenging and cautious".

[60] He later noted that of the two, he preferred Lust for Life "because it's faster and more assertive—which means, among other things, that the nihilistic satire is counteracted by the forward motion of the music itself".

[64] Reviewing the album as part of the 2020 box set The Bowie Years, Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork praised Pop's performance, writing that he managed to put more of himself into the record than The Idiot.

The album, assembled from soundboard tapes from the two prior tours and given quick touch-ups by Edu Meyer at Hansa, was released as TV Eye Live in May 1978.

The song was heavily featured in the film's marketing campaign and subsequent soundtrack album, resulting in a new UK chart peak of number 26 after being reissued as a single.

[31] The single's success inspired Pop's then-label Virgin Records to issue a greatest hits compilation titled Nude & Rude.

[78] Joe Ambrose writes that it gained the same level of resurgence as the Doors' "The End" (1967) after the latter's inclusion in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

[79] In 1999, Pop reflected on the song's renewed popularity:[43] When I made Lust for Life, I really thought America was gonna rock to this motherfucker.

All of a sudden, – a few years ago when Trainspotting came out – I was walkin' down the street and I'd heard Raw Power comin' out of the bars.Lust for Life has appeared on several best-of lists by multiple publications.