The Passenger (song)
"The Passenger" is a song by proto-punk 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 soundtrack. Scarface: The World is Yours 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.
Selected 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"
- 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")
- 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."
- 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
Siouxsie & the Banshees version
| "The Passenger" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "She's Cuckoo", "Something Blue" |
English punk rock 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.