The Passenger (song)

Song infobox
Name = The Passenger


Caption =
Type =
Artist = Iggy Pop
alt Artist =
Album = Lust for Life
Published =
Released = 1977
track_no = 4
Recorded = 1977
Genre = Rock, Punk
Length = 4:44
Writer = Iggy Pop
Ricky Gardiner
Composer =
Label = RCA
Producer = Bewlay Bros.
Tracks =
prev = "Some Weird Sin"
prev_no = 3
next = "Tonight"
next_no = 5
Misc = "The Passenger" is a song by the artist Iggy Pop. This song was first released on the "Lust for Life" album in 1977; it was also released as the B-side of the album's only single, "Success". In the summer of 2007 alternative rock radio stations around the USA resumed playing the song in concordance with Iggy Pop and The Stooges tour in that country.

The lyrics, written by Iggy Pop allegedly aboard Berlin's S-Bahn, have been interpreted as embodying the nomadic spirit of the punk outcast. The music was written by guitarist Ricky Gardiner. Whilst possessed of a distinctive riff, "The Passenger" is perhaps most recognizable by its chorus of repeated "la-la" scatting on which David Bowie originally sang backup.

In 1998 the song was released as a single in the UK after being used in a TV commercial for Toyota's new Avensis. The single peaked at number twenty-two.

Guinness used the song for a television advertisement featuring an airplane flying through a pint-glass-shaped valley with clouds representing the beer's foamy head.

In the media

The song has been featured in the movie "Radiofreccia", TV spots for the film "Waking Life", the television show "30 Days", the film "Jarhead" and the 2002 video game "Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2". More recently, the film "The Weather Man" featured the song on its teaser trailer, and is played in a shoppe early in the film. It can also be heard in "Kurt Cobain About a Son", the documentary exploration of the life and influences of Nirvana's doomed front man. "" includes the song on its music selection menu. It is also currently being used in a series of Kohl's commercials advertising the new "Simply Vera" line of clothing designed by Vera Wang.

elected list of recorded versions

*1977 Iggy Pop on "Lust for Life"
*1987 Siouxsie and the Banshees, on the covers album "Through the Looking Glass"
*1989 Pidżama Porno, cover version on the disc "Ulice jak stygmaty", with Polish lyrics written by Krzysztof Grabowski,
*1994 Kult, cover version on the disc "Muj wydafca"
*1995 Michael Hutchence, of INXS, on the "Batman Forever" soundtrack
*1996 Die Toten Hosen, cover version on the live album "Im Auftrag des Herrn" ("By Order of the Lord")
*1996 Big Cyc, cover version on the "Z gitarą wśród zwierząt" album, sang by Jarosław Janiszewski
*1998 R.E.M. covers the song during their first performance on the BBC TV show "Later with Jools Holland"; the live recording is released later that year as a B-side to the R.E.M. single "At My Most Beautiful."
*1999 Bunkeri, cover version in Georgian, called Tskhali ( _ka. წყალი)
*2000 Brazilian band Capital Inicial recorded a Portuguese version of the song (whose lyrics follow nearly to letter the original) for their MTV Unplugged album.
*2006 MC Lars uses a sample from "The Passenger" for the track "Download This Song", on his album "The Graduate"
*Lunachicks did a cover for the "We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute" album
*2006 Belgian group Absynthe Minded did a cover for the "Windkracht 10" soundtrack album
*2008 Norwegian group MoCLoV did a cover on their debut concert

iouxsie & the Banshees version

Infobox Single
Name = The Passenger


Artist = Siouxsie & the Banshees
from Album = Through the Looking Glass
B-side = "She's Cuckoo", "Something Blue"
Released = March 20, 1987
Format = 7" single, 12" single
Recorded = 1986
Genre = Reggae,Post-punk
Length =
Label = Polydor
Writer = Iggy Pop, Ricky Gardiner
Producer = Siouxsie & the Banshees
Mike Hedges
Chart position = * #41 (UK)
Last single = "This Wheel's on Fire"
(1987)
This single = "The Passenger"
(1987)
Next single = "Song from the Edge of the World"
(1987)

English post punk band Siouxsie & the Banshees covered "The Passenger" in 1987 for their all-cover-versions album "Through the Looking Glass". Released as the second single from that album, it peaked at number forty-one in the UK singles chart.