Blondie

Blondie were a total mass of contradictions revolving around Deborah Harry & Chris Stein.  Debbie was an ex-junkie, sex maniac and Playboy bunny who hooked up with Stein photographer, musician and boyfriend. An intelligent pair who just wanted to make snappy pop, they became part of the early seventies US Punk scene of close-knit but diverse set of bands that included The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads and the Heartbreakers etc.

By 1977 they had been plugging away for five years as the band least likely to succeed.  Success came as media attention focused on the incredibly photogenic Ms Harry normally in something revealing, available and as a baby doll coupled with such gloriously poppy songs as Denis. The initial adverts portrayed Debbie as ‘available’ and virtually asked the question ‘Wouldn’t you like to rip her to shreds (fuck her)? and not very subtly at that!

Realising that there was an acceptable face of punk to be marketed the band was put with our old friend producer Chapman who did the business and helped them give the world Parallel Lines.  With America scared of the new wave, it was left to the UK to take them to their hearts and give them the start of their success. Mind you the pairing with Television for gigs was an interesting choice! Another excellent album Eat To The Beat followed but rising internal band tension and anger at the focus on Ms Harry (the badges said ‘Blondie is a group’) meant the band was in a downward spiral finally ending with the poor album The Hunter.

For a brief period Blondie were sheer pop punk perfection. Glorious tunes sung by a beautiful lead singer and I defy anyone to watch the video to ‘Denis’ and not be moved. The band had certainly moved on from those early days, to the mature sounding ‘Union City Blues’ and the innovative ‘Rapture‘. Crap contracts, dissension and balls ups agogo meant the band were dysfunctional from day one and held pretty much together by Ms Harry’s looks/success. 

The thing was Debbie and Chris were caught in an age-old trap. Success had eluded them and when they got it, it was on the record company terms as a ‘sexy blonde’ and in the end I think they just didn’t want it; there was more to life.  There was a lot more to Debbie than blonde hair…. as an actress, writer etc but their time was up in Blondie. Well for a while because as we know they came back 🙂

Debbie Harry “The idea was to be desirable, feminine, and vulnerable, but a resilient, tenacious wit…rather than poor female sapped of her strength by hearthrob..”

‘Making Tracks’, Victor Bockris

Years later Madonna would travel the same route but with a greater hunger. Rather than a role model, Blondie were a lesson to all bands of what can happen and you can arguably place them midway between Suzi Quatro & The Runaways and the new charge of The Slits and Siouxsie who definitely were not going to be dictated to.

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