Blondie

Rip It Up, Issue 6, 1 November 1977, Page 11

Blondie

Jeremy Templer

Chrysalis Records

It’s the influence of Richard Gottehrer (co-writer of "My Boyfriend’s Back", producer for the McCoys) that makes Blondie’s debut album more old wave than new, more like '6os nostalgia for the ’7os audience. Blondie is a New York group from CBGB's; Gottehrer is the producer of this, their first album. The song titles (“X Offender”, “Rip Her to Shreds”) suggest something of the aggressive and raw sound Blondie are said to have in concert but on record the songs are tempered by Gottehrer’s ’6os approach; altogether too cute question and answer choruses with occasional handclaps and finger snaps. To be honest, Gottehrer is only exaggerating the essential character

of the band; vocalist Debbie Harry recalls the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes and the Chiffons; keyboard player James Destri seems bent on reviving the Farfisa; drummer Clement Burke adds perhaps too many drum rolls and the group even looks the part. And his songs are all between two to three an a half minutes long. , All this would be too much were it not for the sexuality and bitchiness of Debbie Harry, the blond in Blondie, and the underlying aggressiveness of songs such as “Rip Her to Shreds” (“She looks like the Sunday i comics”) coupled with the band’s apparent good humour ("The Attack of the Giant Ants”, a parody of cheap sci-fi flicks). Which makes Blondie’s first album good, not great. And a lot of fun.