Just for One Day

🙏🙏🙏

Wicked Good

 

Chris Stein writes: Just found this. Andy and Margaret Hamilton w Debbie portraits.

View the contact sheet HERE.

 From Warhol's "Witch in Myths" series (1981)

As seen in “Margaret Hamilton From Cleveland, Ohio to the Land of Oz,” the first-ever book dedicated to the late actress.

(Photo by Victor Bockris)

In his Aug. 12, 1980, diary entry, Andy recalled:

At 12:00 I had an appointment to meet Debbie Harry at the office (cab $4). I was early and Debbie and Chris were on time. We worked all afternoon. Debbie was sweet, every picture came out perfect. Vincent was taping her for the Andy Warhol's TV show and he had Lisa Robinson there interviewing her and Chris. I sat in on it so that I'd have a higher profile on the tape for the show. Lisa is a good interviewer. They were there till 4:00.

And I've decided that I'm not going to call girls anymore and invite them places because they're too difficult. I called Sean Young, the really pretty actress who I met with Linda Stein, because I thought that Richard Weisman would like her. But she wouldn't give me her number so I could call her back and it's too hard. I asked her if she wanted to go to a baseball game and she said she'd been to one already. She's in some James Ivory movie that's about to come out.

I had to leave early because I invited Bianca to the Peking Opera, she said yes, and I invited John Samuels, too. We ran into the Met Opera House and just missed the curtain so we had to wait with Chinese people screaming why couldn't they go in. ... 

Then after ten minutes we could go in. Fran Lebowitz was there with Jed. The opera was boring. Good costumes, lots of tumbling. Drag queens.

I saw Margaret Hamilton, the witch in "The Wizard of Oz," and got so excited and went over to her and told her how wonderful she was. She does the Maxwell House commercials now. She's really small.

I Hadn’t Ate [sic] in Days

This incredible Instagram post about the Official Blondie International Fan Club from my pal Mark Allen reminded me that I hadn't mentioned that Blondie archivist Barry L. Kramer was recently in town, which allowed me to get his signature on one of my copies of his legendary Fan Mail, the official publication of the Debbie Harry Collector's Society. (Barry is a real mensch!) How I have known Mark for over two decades and I'm just now learning about his "Eat to the Beat" photo project -- perhaps the greatest thing of all time -- is anyone's guess. Enjoy below! xo 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Allen (@markallennyc)

Impulse Purchase

 

Love it -- but where's Dagwood? Prints available HERE.

P.S. I'm really starting to look forward to Chris Stein's coming memoir, "Under a Rock," which promises to far more detailed than what Debbie Harry's editor was able to drag out of her!

"The recording took six weeks. The final session found everyone half asleep on the Record Plant floor at 6 a.m."

"It was a great apartment… I’d shipped a Teac four-track back from Tokyo, the first one I owned, and I set up in the living room using a kitchen appliance rack for gear." 

Blogger's Problem

Sigh. I was 10 years old and had never heard of Blondie when this billboard stood high above Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, adding yet another page in my forthcoming book, "Why I Wish I'd Been Born 5-10 Years Earlier." 

Jimmy Destri writes: 

Things were just starting to pop. Thanks to London and Los Angeles. This was our first billboard on Sunset Strip.

I have no interest in talking to a machine to turn my lights on/off or write emails for me, to print anything in 3D or trade in cryptocurrencies. 

Right now my main goal is to exit the planet of natural causes before I have to know what a Dua Lipa or a "metaverse" is. 😆

Fill in the Blank (Stares)

Oh, buccaneer. I'm shocked three people got "______ of Lost Souls"!

Song of the Day: 'No Exit' by Blondie Featuring Coolio

 

It probably won't surprise you to hear that I didn't realize until yesterday that the rapper on that Blondie comeback album was the same guy who sang that song from the Michelle Pfeiffer movie. 

But here we are -- and Coolio is no longer with us, gone way too soon at 59. 

Song of the Day: 'Europa' by Blondie

Day 3 of instrumentals I actually don't skip: One of the funnest things included in the new Blondie box set is a radio spot for the 1980 album "Autoamerican" that must have left the general public -- and DJs -- scratching their heads. (It begins with "Here's Looking at You" and only gets weirder from there!) Today's pick is the quasi title track from said album, which set the tone for the band's most experimental work to date. 

It's the Chance I Had to Take

Chris Stein tweets: The Blondie "Against the Odds" material is out on all platforms today! Some great odd stuff. Here's my home tape rig, borrowed Teac 4 track, in my 1st Ave apartment c 1972.

Putting aside the fact that this is about 20 years too late, I was sorta bummed to see that the music is in fact streaming -- what's a streaming "box set"? shouldn't there be some reward for people who shell out the cash? -- mainly because I ordered the three-disc bonus tracks set (NO WAY am I paying for the first six albums for the 1,000th time!) and it still hasn't arrived, yet I can already listen to it online. Still, Blondie's my band so I'll get over it. (They cover Ike and Tina Turner's "Sexy Ida"! “Flight 45” with piano! It sounds like Jimmy's singing the "Angels on the Balcony" demo! The home demo of "The Hardest Part" is exhilarating! That alt take of "I'm on E"!) 

It started here on Aug. 6, 2016, at Chris Stein's place up in Woodstock. 

Via NYT: As Chris Stein searched for rare recordings to include in “Against the Odds: 1974-1982,” a handsome chronicle of the new wave band Blondie’s emergence from underdogs to pop stars, he rummaged diligently inside a packed barn on his property near Woodstock and -- “I don’t have a barn,” Stein exclaimed in a recent interview, in a tone that was exasperated but also comedic. “The boxed set says I have a barn?” He sighed. “It’s a garage.”

UPDATE:

It's here! 

Song of the Day: 'I Love You Honey, Give Me A Beer (Go Through It)' by Blondie

I'm completely dying over this early version of "Autoamerican" classic "Go Through It" -- who knew a big chunk of song could change that much for the better? My only complaint is that I'm almost wishing they wouldn't continue to leak the bonus material from the upcoming "Against the Odds" box set -- we already got "Moonlight Drive" -- because I want to have something to look forward to!

Song of the Day: 'Shayla' by Blondie

Mind-blowing to see that today is Debbie Harry's 77th birthday. (Carly Simon also hit the milestone on June 25; they're just 3 1/2 years younger than my mother!) We all know that aging is different than it used to be. But Debbie takes it to such a new level -- she doesn't comport herself like an older person -- that I've almost begun to take her granted, skipping tours and feeling like she'll always be around. (Shame on me.) To mark her special day, here's a photo taken by Miss Guy plus one of her by Chris Stein in the recording studio yesterday along with one of Blondie's most beautiful songs. Happy birthday, Deb! 

CORRECTION: Turns out Carly had long lied about her age -- maybe because she was five years older than James Taylor? -- so actually turned 79.

"She's just a number ..."

With producer John Congleton. 

Song of the Day: 'Moonlight Drive' by Blondie

My first reaction to the announcement of the long-delayed and pricey Blondie box set (nearly 500 smackers) was that it was about 15 years too late for me to have much interest, But then I saw the marketing plan and I have to give them credit for making it available in enough formats that I may just have to bite. While I can't bring myself to buy the band's first six albums for the, what, fifth time? -- let alone replace vinyl I finally had to leave in a Dumpster at my apartment building in Dupont Circle 25 years ago -- I was surprised to see that despite many bootlegs and reissues containing rare tracks in the past, there's still three discs worth of stuff I have mostly never heard -- including today's SOTD. Once a staple of the band's early live shows, this previously unreleased studio version of "Moonlight Drive" cleverly reduces it to just the second half of the classic Doors song. 

Also of note are demos of "Live It Up" and "Angels on the Balcony" from when Giorgio Moroder was briefly at the helm of "Autoamerican." After teaming up to produce the No. 1 song of 1980 ("Call Me"), this seemed like a no-brainer ... until the European producer left to focus on muse Donna Summer's latest. (Translation: He couldn't stand the band's incessant drama so bolted.)

The best part is that if the box set ends up on streaming platforms, I won't have to do anything besides pay $9.99/month for YouTube Music. And if it doesn't, my AZ childhood best friend and I have entered into a pact where we'll split the cost and I'll rip the three discs and then mail them to him, because I have no room in my life for CDs and he's still a huge collector -- so against the odds we both come away satisfied. 

Sexy Septuagenarian Alert!

 

Love these photos by Chris Stein, above, and Miss Guy, affectionately paired together as:

 Debbie Harry in the '70s ...

and

Debbie Harry in her 70s! 

My longtime friend Scooter LaForge writes:

Collaboration is key! Photo by @missguynyc distressing by #debbieharry @blondieofficial and painting and silkscreen by yours truly. This vulture T-shirt is it re-creation of the legendary garment @christein gave to Debbie back in the day. Debbie asked me to re-create this T-shirt a few years back for Blondie’s No Principals tour. And yes, this picture is very current and no filters, Debbie looks like that in real life. #icon #queenofpunk

Song of the Day: 'The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game' by Blondie

It's mind-boggling to me that "The Hunter" -- the first Blondie album I waited for -- came out 40 years ago this week. (Of course I'm old, but I'm not that old!) Seems like yesterday that I was calling Wherehouse Records at Fiesta Mall every day in May to ask if they "had the new Blondie yet?" and ditching class to walk up there (in 100 degree heat) to buy it when they finally did. I'm only aware of this anniversary because Ultimate Classic Rock wrote an autopsy on the first incarnation of the band's last album, which you can read HERE. I'm not sure how old the writer Dave Swanson is, but he pretty much got everything wrong. Yes, Blondie was coming off three No. 1 hits in a row, but the album hardly bombed because they were "overexposed" at the time. The aforementioned hits were all from records that came out in 1980, so by the time the explosion of MTV happened in the summer of 1982, Blondie had quietly become yesterday's news. (Ironic, of course, given that they were video pioneers in the late 1970s.) But if the writer was off base, guitarist Chris Stein was borderline delusional, having been quoted as saying: "I think 'The Hunter' is our best record to date. ... I know we've got some real hit records on this record."

That singer Debbie Harry had a major flop solo album in 1981 didn't exactly help matters, the way Stevie Nicks's "Bella Donna" did for Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage." And although I'm not sure there was an obvious better choice, "Island of Lost Souls" -- a poor man's "The Tide Is High" with an incredibly awkward video -- definitely sealed the album's fate. ("Island of Lost Souls" whimpered its way to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- on good will, I'm assuming, as I never heard it on the radio once -- and remains Blondie's last U.S. Top 40 single to date.) 

"War Child" is the album's best song, but probably wouldn't have fared any better. And "Dragonfly" was its most clever, although I'm not sure a radio edit would have been possible. (It uses all six minutes to build to its chilling crescendo.) Perhaps if the Bond people had used "For Your Eyes Only," Top 40 and adult rock stations might have taken the bait, although I doubt it, despite its being a fine theme song. Unfortunately for diehard fans, "The Hunter" still remains shoulders above anything the reformed Blondie has put out over the past 25 years or so. (Occasional songs have been better, but none of the albums compare at all.) Listening to it again all these years later, I must say with the exception of the aforementioned single (which is cute enough, especially in retrospect) and "Little Caesar," every song holds up rather nicely. (The lyrics to "The Beast" sound like they were written 40 years ahead of their time.) Interestingly, the sort-of title track is the one that's grown on me the most. What seemed like a misstep to me in 1982 now sounds like a well-played cool-blonde twist on Motown, which speaks to the band's legendary genre-busting instincts. (Incidentally, Smokey Robinson was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame just five years after "The Hunter" was released.)  

Noise11 also marked the occasion, noting that the last time songs from "The Hunter" were played live were as such: 

"Orchard Club" (2019) 

"War Child" (2014) 

"Island of Lost Souls" (1998) 

"Danceway" (1982) 

"Little Caesar" (1982)

This, of course, means that "For Your Eyes Only," "(Can I) Find the Right Words (to Say)", "The Beast," "Dragonfly" "English Boys" (another masterpiece) and "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" have never been performed by Blondie live, even on the band's Tracks Across America tour, with opener Duran Duran in 1982. 

Note: Debbie did do “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game” on her 1989 solo tour. My friend Greg and I were at After the Goldrush in Tempe when she inexplicably opened with it, leaving the crowd underwhelmed at best! 

Song of the Day: 'The Sidewalks of New York' by Debbie Harry

Because I didn't watch "The Deuce" -- on top of being generally oblivious to many contemporary things -- I'm just now learning about the version Debbie Harry and others from Blondie did of vaudeville actor and singer Charles B. Lawlor's and lyricist James Blake's famed "Sidewalks of New York." Many have covered it, including Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Mel Tormé and the Grateful Dead. (In 2011, Richard Barone of the Bongos released an updated version referencing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.) But something about hearing the queen of downtown put her mark on it feels especially right. See if you agree. 

Song of the Day: 'Platinum Blonde' by Blondie

Although I first heard this song over 40 years ago when my brother Bill brought home a 7-inch EP featuring rare Blondie demos in college -- "Out in the Streets," "Puerto Rico" and "The Thin Line" were also on it -- I don't know if I knew that "Platinum Blonde" was the first song Debbie Harry ever wrote until I read about it this new article. The track never made it past demo form. But it's cute and especially fun to listen to all these years later set to rare footage from the '70s, which you can view below:

Song of the Day: 'Denis' (rehearsal) by Blondie

Thanks to the World Wide Web, nary a day goes by that I don't come across a photo, video or factoid about my favorite band, and yesterday was no exception. Admittedly, I probably should have already seen this adorable clip of Blondie rehearsing "Denis" at CBGG's for a concert in 1977 -- it was included on a bonus DVD of Blondie's 2014 (double) album. But my patience for their later material doesn't match my enduring love for the past catalog, so forgive me for discovering it.  

P.S. But seriously, why did "Ghosts of Download" have SIXTEEN tracks?????

Song of the Day: 'Yuletide Throwdown' by Blondie and Fab Five Freddy

 

Maybe not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but fun to hear the Christmas spin Blondie and Fab Five Freddy put on "Rapture" the year after the iconic single was released. (NME notes that the festive track was only available on a special flexi-disc that was given away by the U.K. music magazine Flexipop in 1981, but it was recently rediscovered by Blondie when they raided their personal archives for a new box set set for release in August 2022.) 

In a statement about the rare song, Harry said: 

“It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!! Some of my best times have been making music with Chris Stein and Freddy B.”

Freddy added of ‘Yuletide Throwdown’: 

“In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris and Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip hop culture seriously and were like mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I’m happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then.”

Enjoy!

Blondiemania!

Last week everyone was buzzing about the postcard John Lennon sent to Ringo Star about Blondie's "Heart of Glass." Read HERE.

And now I see a reference to a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which Sean Lennon said: 

"My father had an old Wurlitzer in the game room of our house on Long Island. It was filled with 45s, mostly Elvis and The Everly Brothers. The one modern song I remember him listening to was 'The Tide Is High' by Blondie, which he played constantly. When I hear that song, I see my father, unshaven, his hair pulled back into a ponytail, dancing to and fro in a worn-out pair of denim shorts, with me at his feet, trying my best to coordinate tiny limbs."

Who knew the late Beatle was such a Blondie queen? :-)

Enraptured

 

I've seen Blondie's iconic "Rapture" video a million times. So what a treat -- and a complete and total surprise -- to come across this photo on Twitter that I have never seen before, with the following text:

Debbie Harry talks with director Keith MacMillan while artist Jean-Michel Basquiat listens in before filming the "Rapture" music video in the East Village, Manhattan, 1980.

There's something about a photograph that no other medium can capture. 

As noted on Wikipedia, the video for "Rapture" made its U.S. television debut on "Solid Gold" on Jan. 31, 1981 -- pre-MTV, which didn't debut till the following summer -- and not only became the first rap video ever broadcast on the Music Television network, but was part of its first 90-video rotation.

Set in Manhattan's East Village, the "Man from Mars" or "voodoo god" (dancer William Barnes in the white suit and top hat) is the introductory and central figure. Barnes also choreographed the piece. Much of the video is a one-take scene of Debbie dancing down the street, passing by graffiti artists, Uncle Sam, an American Indian, a child ballet dancer and a goat. 

Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired when Grandmaster Flash did not show for the shoot. The U.K. 7" version of the song is used in the video and while the single was a hit around the world, it only hit the top of the charts in the band's homeland. 

In livelier times: William Burroughs, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Debbie Harry

Michael Sullivan, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry and Fab 5 Freddy

 (Photo by Lynn Goldsmith on the set of "Rapture" video)