by SMF· Published November 12, 2019· Updated November 13, 2019

Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” is a song about, well, being a passenger. More specifically, it was inspired by touring trips Iggy undertook with his homey and fellow rock-music icon, David Bowie. During that era, Iggy spent a considerable amount of time as a “passenger” in David’s car, as they traversed land masses as great as Europe and North America. Additionally it is said that Iggy penned the lyrics while actually riding on Berlin’s mass-transit railway system, which is known as S-Bahn.

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Both those specific facts don’t necessarily contribute to the universal meaning of the song. That is that the artist is just relishing the travel experience in and of itself. And amongst his favorite activities are looking out the “glass” from moving vehicles and beholding the brilliant starlight in the sky. Indeed he can just ‘ride and ride’, seemingly into infinity. And it is easy to presume that the narrator is someone tantamount to a vagabond, as in a person who is constantly on the road.

“The Passenger” centers on the Nomadic Rock Musician

And on that note, “The Passenger” is a song which is said to encapsulate the ideological spirit of a hardcore rock musician. Such artists are often romanticized as being nomadic in nature. And such a drifting lifestyle is symbolic of their overall rebelliousness against society. Indeed another influence on the lyrical content of this song was a poem by none other than timeless bad boy Jim Morrison (1943-1971) , who has long served as an icon to rock musicians. And even though such a philosophy is not forthrightly expressed, the way the singer is presenting his wanderings, combined with the knowledge of what Iggy himself represented as an artist, contributes to relaying such a sentiment.

But if one were to interpret the lyrics purely on a surface level, then once again this is a track simply based on the joy of traveling. And such universal applicability may be why “The Passenger” has been steadily utilized in pop media throughout the decades.

Facts about “The Passenger”

Interestingly enough, “The Passenger” didn’t impress chart-wise. In fact the only country it seems to have reached any kind of significant milestone in is Italy. There the track manage to go gold. Despite its unimpressive chart performance, “The Passenger” is very much one of the all-time greats.

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It is actually one of the most utilized songs by pop media. In fact the videogames, TV shows, etc. “The Passenger” has been featured are too numerous to list here. But it’s safe to assume that the writers of the song, Ricky Gardiner and Iggy, are probably still making a pretty penny to this day via royalties generated from the tune.

At the time of its penning, Gardiner was just a session musician. He was employed to work on Iggy’s second album, “Lust for Life”, which this song is featured on. But he ended up partnering with David Bowie (1947-2016), who co-produced “The Passenger” with Iggy, to complete the song. Gardiner was actually responsible for the musical composition of “The Passenger”. 

Thus it was Iggy himself who wrote the lyrics. And he was partially inspired by the work of another iconic musician, Jim Morrison of The Doors.

Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”, which featured “The Passenger”, came out on 29 August 1977.