Blondie is a Group

Rip It Up, Issue 28, 1 November 1979, Page 10

Blondie is a Group

Duncan Campbell

No other band in recent times has had more accusations levelled, more labels attached The media, and to a lesser extent, the public, have laboured under many misapprehensions when talking about this band. Their emergence at the height of the British New Wave landed them with the unwelcome ‘punk’ tag, and this severely retarded their breakthrough in their home country. Guitarist Chris Stein once claimed that Jimmy Carter put a stop to new wave music, considering it politically dangerous. Whatever happened, American radio stations at first refused to play Blondie’s music because they were considered a new wave band. ROUGH AND READY Their first album, produced by Richard Gottehrer, was certainly a rough and ready effort, with a sound that Debbie Harry says was much rawer than their live performances of the time. Titles like "X Offender” and ‘‘Rip It To Shreds” simply helped to reinforce the notion that here were a bunch of upstart Yanks trying to cash in on a trend that was not native to them. Reviews ranged from condemning to condescending, and the British press, in true hypocritical fashion, later turned around and said Blondie was their best effort. The follow-up, Plastic Letters, was again produced by Gottehrer, but a change was evident. Numbers like "Youth Nabbed As Sniper” and "Cautious Lip” were reminiscent of the first album, but the best moments were “Denis” and “I'm Always Touched By Your Presence, Dear,” which were pure Phil Spector, first class radio music, the like of which hadn't been heard in years. This, then, was the new direction, to be consolidated on the third album. Parallel Lines saw a switch of producers, and while the choice of Mike Chapman, he of Suzi Quatro, Smokie and now Racey fame, may not have looked impressive on paper, there was little doubt about how it worked on vinyl. Parallel Lines made Blondie a pop band to be reckoned with. Their slightly leathery image was swapped for something much cleaner and more wholesome, and “Heart Of Glass” went to No.l in the States. "Picture This”, “Sunday Girl” and “One Way Or Another” had that happy, bouncy feel that no radio programmer worth his salt could afford to ignore. Jackpot. SELLOUT And out came the knives, the cries of “sellout!” Credibility, whatever that is, had been dumped in favour of commercial success and the Almighty Buck. NME’s Tony Parsons ridiculed Debbie for treating hecklers nicely, instead of stepping on their faces. Not that this worried Blondie too much. “Everyone asks if we’re selling out by going commercial,” said Stein in 78. “But I view it as a challenge to try to produce something that has mass appeal. To me, it’s more a challenge to try and write hit songs than to do something esoteric.” The band’s biggest problem, however, has been That Lady. Debbie, after all, is hard to ignore, and nobody can deny it was her looks that gave Blondie their start. “My image is really strong,” she admits, “but that’s like a gift. That's my gift. The glamour is part of Blondie, the best sort of groups have always had that visual, plus music, plus entertaining ” Keyboards player James Destri puts it more succinctly: “If The Rolling Stones were called The Big

'Lips after Mick Jagger, it'd.still' be the. same unit of energy. It’s just like identifying' with the singer, and she’s the focal point. It’s worth the occasional slagging from the press that the ] band are just her, backing musicians, which we I know personally^ is not true. After a while, the , press will realise there’s something else here.” Not for nothing have their more . recent promo ads carried the heading “Blondie Is A FGroup)^HHHBHi STOP THE HYPE Blondie, the group, have always had the maturity not to let the hype throw them. ; And with their fourty and latest album; Eat To The Beat, they can happily wash it away once and for all. Eat To The Beat is their most consistent effort to date, and also marks the. emergence of Harry and Stein as a truly awesome songwriting team. Debbie and Chris, have between them produced four of The, songs, and 1 Debbie co-writes i four more with other members of the band. The girl is no Dumb Blondie. The album opens on a gloriously, high note with the single “Dreaming”, for money I tlTej band’s best 45 ever. p A , neady, irresistible romp, propelled by Clem exuberant drums, it leaves you;with an idiotic grin and feeling years jyouhgernßQ9HßlflHßP9p^WW “The Hardest Part” is a slightly. disco-fied tale of a plot to heist an armoured car. It has a

?New York toughness about it, mean but sharp " as well. Debbie makes a great gangster's moll. SPECTOR SOUND “Union City Blue” invokes the ghost of Spector again. Chapman’s production is six miles wide, as lyrics that are barely more than random couplets depict a beautiful pair of people, out to get noticed. “Shayla” puts Debbie firmly among the ranks of the great lady pop singers, the Dusty Springfields and Petula Clarks. Stein’s tearfully ‘lovely song tells of a golden girl who quits the humdrum existence of a factory to seek some experience and memories: Green trees call to me I am free, but life is so cheap The title track is a surfie romp, recalling the Ventures and the Surfaris. A transistor radio in one hand, a pizza in the other, and a junk food hangover to follow. More interesting is Destri’s "Accidents Never Happen”, a stylish rocker plotting a similar course to “Detroit 442” and “Contact In Red Square”. Destri doesn’t believe in love at first sight: I don't believe in luck I don't believe in circumstance... Accidents never happen in a perfect world complications disappear Like a Magi on a hill, I can divinate your presence from afar Now you love me, I can tell.

“Die Young, Stay Pretty” quotes freely from the philosophy according to Nick Romana in the Bogart movie Knock On Any Door: 'Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.' For inexplicable reasons, the song contains the line “Dylan is senility.” Draw your own conclusions while sampling the reggae beat, which Blondie handle with a good deal of panache. “Slow Motion” is probably the weakest track, danceable and well sung, with more Spector treatment. MORE DISCO

“Atomic” could be another disco smash, but it has more meat to it than “Heart Of Glass”. To a thumping backbeat, a jiving couple gaze soulfully into each other’s eyes, each one demanding the ultimate performance from the other, on the dance floor, and hopefully later: Make me tonight, make it magnificent... “Sound-A-Sleep” is a pcst-coital lullaby. How many red blooded boys have dreamt of having Debbie sing them to sleep? Too bad it’s lulling them into a false sense of security. “Victor” is the nightmare that follows. Over searing power chords and a maudlin Gregorian chant, Debbie screams “Don’t leave me alone, I don’t want you to go.” It jars the senses, to be brought back to reality on the closing track, “Living In The Real World.” Debbie prays before the altar of stardom, and gets stretched on the rack for it: “Every day you got to wake up, disappear behind your makeup ... Take away your calendar watch, you can't keep track until your heart attack Hey, I'm living in a magazine, page to page with my teenage dreams I'm not living in a real world no more. The song is Destri’s, but it reflects a dilemma that Debbie is only just coming to terms with. Her candour about her early days as a groupie and a junkie has led to media concentration on her image and its associated sexuality- “ Yeah, it’s my own fault,” she says. “I should have kept my big mouth shut.” Never mind, Debbie. Everyone has a past they want to forget. You now have something to be proud of. Eat To The Beat is a notable achievement, melding the 60’s and 70’s, working from strength and not weakness, to produce pop music taking us into the next decade. Blondie should now be able to create on their own terms, without taking ill-judged flack. Their sound is now as distinctive as Abba, and I’m not being derogatory. The band has a collective identity too strong to be ignored. Blondie is a group. And don’t you forget it.