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Lavinia Meijer (feat. Iggy Pop), 'Mom & Dad'

"Mom and dad are really gone," Iggy Pop repeats, with the graveled voice of experience, in his poem of love, loss and regret, set to music by the Amsterdam-based harpist and composer Lavinia Meijer. Even if your parents are both still alive (I'm down by one), this unexpected and moving collaboration may pierce your heart and question your life choices.

Iggy Pop places career success ("I competed / And I defeated.") and parental love on the scale of morals and finds himself lacking. "I should have loved you more," he intones with the sting of guilt. Yet, in an affecting moment near the end, he's left with just his father who holds his hand and tells him, "You've made your dream come true." The music — glistening, urgent — and the poetry get an emotional boost in the accompanying video, where a shirtless urchin, a mini-Iggy stand-in, shows twin sides of toughness and vulnerability. At a time when the pandemic has inordinately threatened the lives of the elderly, this piece is potent enough to make you call out to mom and dad. Even if they are not still with us.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tom Huizenga
Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.