Iggy Pop at Capitol Theatre
Iggy Pop at Capitol Theatre (photo by Greg Cristman)

Listen to Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney's cover of "European Son" from Velvet Underground tribute

I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico will be out later this month, and Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney have just shared their cover of “European Son.” The original, which closes the album, features two short stanzas set to a chugging riff before devolving into a six-minute cacophony of improvisational noise, and Iggy and Matt do much the same here while bringing their own stye to it.

“Rock and roll’s greatest singer sang The Velvet Underground’s nastiest song,” says Matt, who notes that Iggy also plays guitar on the track. “Check his guitar solo after he spits ‘your clown’s bid you bye bye’ – it is full-on white light/white heat.” Matt also says they recorded their cover the day before lockdown at NYC’s Strange Weather and that it’s dedicated to the album’s executive producer, Hal Willner, who died last year from Covid. Check out pics from the recording session via Matt’s Instagram, below.

You can watch the “European Son” lyric video, and listen to the original track, below.

I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico also features Courtney Barnett, Michael Stipe, Kurt Vile & The Violators, St. Vincent and Thomas Bartlett, Sharon Van Etten with Angel Olsen, Thurston Moore and Bobby Gillespie, Fontaines DC, The National’s Matt Berninger, and more. It’s out September 24 via Verve.