Re: The Official Blondie Thread
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
[email protected] 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