The other day I was listening to an old Mark Mothersbaugh interview (well, technically it was a “Booji Boy” interview, ) and at one point, in talking about the Krautrock band Neu!, he threw a bit of shade at David Bowie, saying Bowie had ripped off Neu! for a song he produced for Iggy Pop. This peaked my interest so I quickly googled “Bowie, Iggy, Neu!” and the first search result was the wikipedia page for Iggy’s “Funtime.” According to that post, “Funtime” bears marked similarities to “Lila Engel” by Neu!
“Funtime” is a song written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop first released by Iggy Pop on his 1977 album entitled The Idiot It reflects Iggy and Bowie’s growing fascination with the German music scene, It has been covered by numerous others.
I found most interesting was how often the song had been covered by so many different other artists.
I was previously unaware of any other versions of the track, and very quickly I found several. And really, they’re all pretty great in their own way—definitely worth sharing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=rziPkIA1jQg
First up, check out The Cars’ cover of the tune. This was cut during the Shake It Up sessions with Ben Orr on vocals. According to the liner notes for Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology, Iggy was present at the recording session and complimented Orr’s vocal impersonation, telling him “you sound more like me than me.”
I hate to admit it, but I like this cover better than the original:
The Fat Angel Sings 