FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
IN THIS PHOTO: Debbie Harry (Blondie)/PHOTO CREDIT: @christein
Part Two: Blondie
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IN the second part of this feature…
I am concentrating on a band who have put out so many incredible records. Blondie are an American band founded by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band were pioneers in the early American New Wave and Punk scenes of the mid-late 1970s. The band’s lead, Debbie Harry, turns seventy-five on 1st July, and she remains as cool and iconic as she did back in the 1970s. Blondie have a lot of fans, but there are people out there who are not aware or might need some guidance regarding the albums to buy. In this guide, I have collected together the albums worth buying, and a book about the band that is pretty interesting. In this Blondie mix are…
SOME real treats.
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The Four Essential Albums
Blondie
Release Date: December 1976
Label: Private Stock (later re-released on Chrysalis)
Producer: Richard Gottehrer
Standout Tracks: Little Girl Lies/In the Flesh/Rip Her to Shreds
Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blondie/dp/B00005MNP5
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/54V45InMvJ6uVtRtO6h1Co
Review:
“If new wave was about reconfiguring and recontextualizing simple pop/rock forms of the '50s and '60s in new, ironic, and aggressive ways, then Blondie, which took the girl group style of the early and mid-'60s and added a '70s archness, fit right in. True punksters may have deplored the group early on (they never had the hip cachet of Talking Heads or even the Ramones), but Blondie's secret weapon, which was deployed increasingly over their career, was a canny pop straddle -- they sent the music up and celebrated it at the same time. So, for instance, songs like "X Offender" (their first single) and "In the Flesh" (their first hit, in Australia) had the tough-girl-with-a-tender-heart tone of the Shangri-Las (the disc was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who had handled the Angels ["My Boyfriend's Back"] among others, and Brill Building songwriter Ellie Greenwich even sang backup on "In the Flesh"), while going one step too far into hard-edged decadence -- that is, if you chose to see that. (The tag line of "Look Good in Blue," for example, went, "I could give you some head and shoulders to lie on.") The whole point was that you could take Blondie either way, and lead singer Deborah Harry's vocals, which combined rock fervor with a kiss-off quality, reinforced that, as did the band's energetic, trashy sound. This album, released on independent label Private Sound, was not a major hit, but it provided a template for the future” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: X Offender
Plastic Letters
Release Date: February 1978
Label: Chrysalis
Producer: Richard Gottehrer
Standout Tracks: (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear/Love at the Pier/Kidnapper
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0N12rQBwFaD13ELCuEmUDl
Review:
“In artistic terms, Plastic Letters, Blondie's second album, was a classic example of the sophomore slump. If their debut, Blondie, was a precise update of the early-'60s girl group sound, delivered with an ironic, '70s sensibility, its follow-up seemed to consist of leftovers, the songwriting never emerging from obscurity and pedestrian musical tracks. The production (again courtesy of Richard Gottehrer) was once again bright and sharp, but in the service of inferior material it alone couldn't save the collection. The two exceptions to the general mediocrity were "Denis," a revival of Randy & the Rainbows' 1963 hit "Denise," for which Deborah Harry sang a verse in French to justify the name and gender change, and "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear," written by Gary Valentine, who had left Blondie shortly before the recording of the album. Due to these two songs, the album became a commercial success, at least overseas. British-based Chrysalis Records had bought out Private Stock, giving Blondie greater distribution and more of an international marketing focus. The result was that "Denis" broke them in Europe, nearly topping the U.K. charts and followed into the Top Ten by "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear," with the album also peaking in the Top Ten. In the U.S., Blondie finally charted, making the Top 100. The songwriting problem did not seem to bode well, but they would take a distinctly different approach next time out.” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Denis
Parallel Lines
Release Date: 23rd September, 1978
Label: Chrysalis
Producer: Mike Chapman
Standout Tracks: Hanging on the Telephone/One Way or Another/Sunday Girl
Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parallel-Lines-Blondie/dp/B00005MNP8
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4M6s2jbhKWEcOdXZ8WiHts
Review:
“Blondie turned more than a few punk purist heads with Parallel Lines. Originally born out of the New York punk rock scene of the mid-1970s, the band made a surprising shift toward more pop-oriented material on their third album, a deft mix of new wave, pop and disco produced by Mike Chapman. The album’s biggest hit, of course, is “Heart of Glass,” its swirling synths and Chic-like guitar riffs radiating off a drum machine beat and singer Deborah Harry’s sweet, honey-dipped vocal. (One can only imagine what disco maven Giorgio Moroder could have done with the track, but the fact is that he probably wouldn’t have changed a single thing.) Harry displays a remarkable range throughout the album, her voice purring like a kitten and then building to a mean growl on tracks like “Hanging on the Telephone” and “Picture This.” Many of the songs find Harry in some state of wont desire: she simultaneously predicts and dreads her lover’s rock stardom on “Will Anything Happen,” and stalks him during the creepy b-section of “One Way or Another” (“I will drive past your house/And if the lights are all down/I’ll see who’s around”). The song’s quick meter shifts and carnival-esque finale add to its sinister vibe. “Fade Away & Radiate” starts off just as ominous with a coquettish Harry praising some kind of deity; the track builds from cool synth tones and lone tom-drum beats to jangly guitars, tight drum fills and multiple chord changes, revealing that Harry’s god is actually a television set. The ‘60s-girl-group-pop meets ‘70s-new-wave of “Pretty Baby” and “Sunday Girl” give Parallel Lines its two most whimsical moments. The former chugs along with tongue-in-cheek splendor, offering spoken bits (in French no less), while the latter finds a girlish Harry capturing her own rock-goddess essence: “I know a girl from a lonely street/Cold as ice cream but still as sweet.” Just as her band struck an infuriating balance of punk and pop on Parallel Lines, Harry paved the road for multihued, genre-defying female rockers like Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and even Pink” – SLANT
Choice Cut: Heart of Glass
Eat to the Beat
Release Date: 13th October, 1979
Label: Chrysalis
Producer: Mike Chapman
Standout Tracks: Dreaming/Union City Blue/Eat to the Beat
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gbZS6jj6ufbiSG4C8jLv5
Review:
“Behind all this was, again, the genius (and superhuman levels of attention to detail, spending hours listening to playbacks at eardrum bursting volume) of bubblegum producer, Mike Chapman. He may have recognised in Blondie the ability to be moulded like the Sweet, Mud and all his other RAK creations at the beginning of the 70s, yet the band was equally responsible for this chart assault - writing the material that fitted Chapman's vision. One look at the credits shows exactly how democratic a place Blondie was to be as a band member. Everyone gets a mention at some point.
Maybe this accounts for the stylistic ragbag that emerges. Eat To The Beat still bears the traces of the art punk roots that had given birth to them back in their CBGB's days in New York (on the title track, the manic Accidents Never Happen and Living In The Real World); but at times the album reads like a veritable history of chart styles: Here was their first proper foray into reggae with Die Young Stay Pretty, the Duane Eddy-at-the-disco grandeur of Atomic, the skittering, Spectorish pure pop of Dreaming and Union City Blue and the Motown stomp of Slow Motion. Sound-A-Sleep goes even further back into the kind of 50s dream pop that might feature in a David Lynch film.
Americans, still hamstrung by the double-edged values of the late 60s, were always suspicious that a band first marketed as 'new wave' could be so mercenary and saw it as ersatz 'selling out', giving the album a lukewarm reception. Meanwhile in Europe their ability to soundtrack every great disco, wedding and barmitzvah was rightly valued. In the end, pop is pop and Blondie, at this point, were making the timeless variety that still sounds box fresh today” – BBC
Choice Cut: Atomic
The Underrated Gem
No Exit
Release Date: 23rd February, 1999
Label: Beyond
Producer: Craig Leon
Standout Tracks: No Exit/Nothing Is Real but the Girl/Out in the Streets
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0suodQyBq4rdq7xh23XaCE
Review:
“Otherwise, No Exit‘s sanitized mix puts too much emphasis on Harry’s thin voice and not enough on Burke and the boys. Blow-dried ballads such as “Forgive and Forget,” “Night Wind Sent” and “Double Take” could have been lifted off a Top Gun-era movie soundtrack, with their schmaltzy keyboards and dire lyrics (“In the silence of your steps/I can see into the depths”). And instead of teeth-rattling power pop in the tradition of “Hanging on the Telephone” or “Dreaming,” Blondie indulge in the kind of dilettantish genre dabbling that preceded their 1982 demise: lounge swing (“Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room”), defanged blues (“Happy Dog [For Caggy]”), languid reggae (“Divine”) and a can of country corn (“The Dream’s Lost on Me”).
Even more gimmicky is the title song, a slice of gothic hip-hop bombast with contributions from Coolio, and “Dig Up the Conjo,” a big-beat goof that at least evinces some of Blondie’s smartass personality. Only a spectral remake of the Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets” — a trippy girl-group homage that Madonna might covet — shows any imagination from a production standpoint. It’s the kind of seductive pop moment that used to be routine, back in the days when Blondie sounded like a band” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: Maria
The Latest/Final Album
Pollinator
Release Date: 5th May, 2017
Labels: BMG/Infectious
Producer: John Congleton
Standout Tracks: Long Time/My Monster /Too Much
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6o4STrKI7oQoWppn6Nkdp5
Review:
“It doesn’t bode well when formerly prolific bands reach for outside songwriters, but a cast stretching from Johnny Marr to Sia to Charli XCX and the Strokes’ Nick Valensi have helped recreate Blondie’s classic late-1970s band sound, albeit with a modern sheen. Clem Burke’s trademark machine-gun drumming propels songs with teasingly familiar big hooks and earworm choruses.
Four writers – including TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek – collaborate on Fun’s Chic-style disco-funk. However, the old Chris Stein/Debbie Harry partnership contributes excellent opener Doom Or Destiny, sung with Joan Jett. Love Level has a glorious pop brass riff. Already Naked and When I Gave Up on You find Harry at her most warm and emotional.
One or two songs drop the ball, but the Dev Hynes/Harry-penned electro shimmer Long Time shares the DNA of Sunday Girl and Heart of Glass. The 71-year-old singer’s tales of youthful “racing down the Bowery” are wonderfully evocative, as Blondie rediscover their Midas touch” – The Guardian
Choice Cut: Fun
The Blondie Book
Face It: A Memoir
Author: Debbie Harry
Publication Date: 1st October, 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Synopsis:
“As a musician, an actor, a muse, an icon, the breadth of Debbie Harry’s impact on our culture has been matched by her almost Sphinx-like reticence about her inner life. Through it all – while being acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, prized by a galaxy of leading photographers and fashion designers, beloved by legions of fans for her relentless, high-octane performances, selling 50 million albums or being painted by Andy Warhol – Debbie Harry has infused her perennial Blondie persona with a heady mix of raw sexuality and sophisticated punk cool.
In Face It, Debbie Harry invites us into the complexity of who she is and how her life and career have played out over the last seven decades. Upending the standard music memoir, with a cutting-edge style keeping with the distinctive qualities of her multi-disciplined artistry, Face It includes a thoughtful introduction by Chris Stein, rare personal photos, original illustrations, fan artwork installations and more.
Peppered with colourful characters, Face It features everyone from bands Blondie came up with on the 1970s music scene – The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie – to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marina AbramoviÄ and H.R. Giger of Alien fame. It explores her successful acting career (she has starred in over 30 film roles, including David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and John Waters’s Hairspray), her weekends with William S. Burroughs and her attempted abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy. Ranging from the hardscrabble grit and grime of the early New York City years to times of glorious commercial success, interrupted by a plunge into heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie’s break-up as a band, an amazing solo career and then a stunning return with Blondie, this is a cinematic story of an artist who has always set her own path. Inspirational, entertaining, shocking, humorous and eye-opening, Face It is a memoir as dynamic as its subject” – Waterstones
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/face-it/debbie-harry/9780008229429