Blondie (Official Thread)

[Dave78]

Looks like she's got "wall-eyes".



Punk, Disco, New Wave.... call them what you will, they recorded some great music in their time. I'll spare you all my list of favorite songs.

[TheFeldster]

Got tickets to see Blondie in November, on a double bill with The Pretenders. Ought to be a great night. I can't wait and there's still 5 months to go

Such a great band

[Foxhound]

Here are a couple of good unposed pictures of Deborah backstage:

[FretBuzz]

Originally Posted by TheFeldster Got tickets to see Blondie in November, on a double bill with The Pretenders. Ought to be a great night. I can't wait and there's still 5 months to go Such a great band

You're in for a great night! I saw Blondie on their reunion tour about 10 years ago, and shortly after that in the same venue I saw the Pretenders. Both shows were SMOKIN'....! I would love to see them on the same bill.

P.S. There is dvd out of 'Blondie - Behind the Music' . If you're into Blondie, its well worth watching.

[Foxhound]

Blondie's drummer Clem Burke was part of a medical study on the cardiovascular energy expended by drummers:

Clem Burke Study

[Foxhound]

Here's perhaps the best picture of Blondie that I've ever seen:

[Foxhound]

Here's a good early pic of Deborah Harry:

[Foxhound]

Here are a couple of colour variants of the famous Andy Warhol poster of Deborah Harry:

[Foxhound]

All Blondie fans are directed to this poll where Deborah and the boys are under siege:

http://www.classicrockforums.com/for...us-heart-9313/

The situation is dire.

[snakes&ladders]

I always said Debs and the lads and The Knack saved the otherwise WIMPY 80s from total oblivion......thanx Debs

[Foxhound]

I agree. With the likes of Van Halen, WHAM and Culture Club on the charts, the eighties badly needed needed Blondie. Especially since the lead singer had really nice tits.

[snakes&ladders]

Originally Posted by Foxhound I agree. With the likes of Van Halen, WHAM and Culture Club on the charts, the eighties badly needed needed Blondie. Especially since the lead singer had really nice tits.

I totally agreecheers2.....but Debs' got that quid more in her voice 2

[Soot and Stars]

Checked out the debut:



I didn't know a single song off of this! It had some elements I wasn't familiar with but I liked. For example it had some doowoppey song that I thought Deborah Harry's voice was great for. I really liked this song in particular:

In The Flesh
(sexy and classy)


They also had a surf rock song as well with "In The Sun". I'm starting to see why people say that the group was so versatile as before listening I knew they had already dabbled in disco, punk, ska and even hip-hop on top of their regular material. "Man Overboard" is the catchiest track on the album. That one track has a lot of layers with it's Caribbean like vibe. I love the guitar in the last half of the song.

Man Overboard


The closing track is just fun. I love the yips and yahs! Everything about this song from the subject matter to the vocals to the frenzied drums to the closing moments is ridiculous in a good way!

The Attack of the Giant Ants

[snakes&ladders]

I found this on a cool site.....................

Late set at Old Waldorf, San Franciso, September 21, 1977

Leave it to Patti Smith to explain it best why we need to remember 1975 when punk first broke. At the closing of CBGB's on Monday night [Oct 16], she sang the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter again making a bridge to the past. She explained:

"We are still who we are. I did my duty to the club. But my band -- we still have our own identity. And that's what we do. We were doing the same thing in 1974. Our message then was, rock & roll was losing its power. We have to take it over again. But it was not a message for myself. It was a message for new generations, the people after us. I considered us a bridge. You could walk over us and get to the other side.

"I guess it's just the kind of person I am and how I see my duty. I still feel the same way. I'm going to be sixty this year. I've seen a lot of stuff, gone through a lot of things. But I'm still here. I've got new ideas, and I have some things to impart.

"One thing I feel about our present condition is, I'm the same age as George Bush. So I'm not looking at my generation to save the world. The hope is in the future. I can't speak with intense pride about how my generation is conducting itself in this world. I have to look to the new generations to do better than we did."

But Patti also explained the spirit of enterprise isn't the ownership of Americans. She said, "[w]hen our band went to London and Brussels and Denmark, kids even then were so intimidated about CBGB. I said, 'Screw CBGB. It's nothing. What makes it is the people and their collective energy. The people make CBGB. You can all start your own.' That was always part of our philosophy." Don't try this in $ingapore kids. First you'd need a pair.

This week's ROIO is Blondie before they became a pop band, big in England. Here they are as part of the nowave scene in New York. Just check out Debbie Harry's rendition of The Doors' Moonlight Mile. She's never returned to do this cover. Back then it wasn't about being a celebrity, it was about carrying the responsibility of an artist, the power to create and transform.

The Old Waldorf in San Francisco might be close and intimate but it had a great sound so much so that KSAN-FM felt encouraged to broadcast the shows. This is what cream-puff-war, who now resides on the internet, posted: "On many nights I went there to see excellent artists perform such as Blondie (1977), U2, X, XTC, John Cale, John Cipolllina... a soundboard tape would be played over the PA - the tapes sounded superb, recorded from concurrent shows by artists who played at the Old Waldorf (say the week before), such as Elvis Costello, Squeeze, so forth and so on."

So it should not come as a surprise that this in-your-face set sounds terrific. Even though Blondie were formed in 1974, by 1977 the group was a well-tuned outfit. While some see them as the house band at New York's CBGB, they had toured with Iggy Pop earlier that year; played with Joan Jett and even did a UK tour in May supporting Television.

Blondie had released their self-titled debut album in 1976 while their second album, Plastic Letters, was released in March 1977. As can be expected, the set consisted of tracks from both albums and, as a special treat, they even covered the Yardbirds' Heart Full Of Soul and the Doors' Moonlight Drive, with Debbie Harry in blistering form.

Overall, an eclectic mix of punk and new wave, even if it is a relatively short set, Blondie do come across as refreshingly energetic, no doubt buoyed by what sounded like a partisan crowd.

Thanks to arcorman for sharing the tracks. In his notes, arcorman also thanked metrosdepot and musigny23 for their efforts in sharing the music.

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality, stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released.

These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you want to download these tracks at a later time.



Track 01 X-Offender
Track 02 Youth Nabbed As Sniper
Track 03 Fan Mail
Track 04 Cautious Lip
Track 05 I'm On E
Track 06 Detroit 442
Track 07 I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No
Track 08 Bermuda Trianle Blues (Flight 45)
Track 09 (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear
Track 10 Contact In Red Square
Track 11 A Shark In Jet's Clothing
Track 12 In The Sun
Track 13 Heart Full Of Soul (Yardbirds)
Track 14 Playing With Fire
Track 15 Moonlight Drive (Doors)


By blackglove at 2011-01-21

[Lord Grendel]

That's is a good article, although I have to say I was never part of the group that felt music was in dire straights back when Punk/New Wave arrived to reinvigorate the music world.

Thanks for sharing that S&L.