Iggy’s notorious 1977 performance of “Lust For Life” on Dutch TV show TopPop was a media sensation. Frustrated by having to lipsynch with no band, Iggy went apeshit and tore up some scenery, knocked over some potted plants and body slammed a stagehand. It got him tons of press and record sales. “Lust For Life” was propelled into the Dutch Top Ten.

Iggy’s no fool, so when he returned to Holland the following year he was prepared for another bit of performance art and so were the press. As you can see in the sequence where he is lipsynching to “I Gotta Right” he’s surrounded by a ring of cameramen. While not as dramatic as the previous year’s telecast, Iggy still gave an intensely deranged performance.

Iggy made no attempt whatsoever to even pretend to be singing the songs. Instead he used his body as a diversion from the artificiality of the moment and made it real. Almost mocking the situation

As I watched these clips it hit me that Iggy is among a very small handful of artists who are keeping Antonin Artaud’s Theater Of Cruelty and Julian Beck’s Living Theater concepts alive. Can you a imagine a more inspired bit of casting than to have Iggy portray Artaud in a film of the French provocateurs life. “I Wanna Be Your Frog.”  Or the Bunuel version: “I Wanna Be Your Andalusian Dog.”

Here’s Iggy being a very bad bad boy.