Blondie: Blondie 1976
"Harry is the possessor of a bombshell zombie's voice that can sound dreamily seductive and woodenly Mansonite within the same song" - Rolling Stone
An odd but strangely attractive little album, this, from a band who nobody quite knew what they were, at the time. They weren’t punk, they weren’t rock. They had a few 50s-early 60s style rock n roll stylings. They weren’t “new wave” yet, because it hadn’t been conceived of, similarly “power pop”.
Maybe that was why, initially, this album slipped under the radar, only selling retrospectively once they became famous. Indeed, I only bought it in 1978, after first buying the album's follow-up, Plastic Letters. It has a beguiling appeal, however, and is worth the occasional listen. It helped to set trends, although is never really acknowledged in those terms, probably because it was initially somewhat overlooked, being initially released on Private Stock Records, but I bet most people bought it when it was re-released on the Chrysalis label. That certainly applied to me.
Dominated by keyboard player Jimmy Destri’s fairground sound Farfisa organ and drummer Clem Burke, funnily enough, blonde bombshell vocalist Debbie Harry was not the most notable thing about the band’s sound. What was clear was that, embryonically, they had something - both music and an image. Harry, for sure, had a sort of Lower East Side tough girl with a romantic side image and a 60s girl group sensibility. It was built on the traditions of The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las - ostensibly hard housing project girls but with a sweet, loving vulnerability and a desire to find that perfect dream boy. Many punks in the New York scene at the time didn't go for this at all, preferring their female singers to be like Patti Smith, full of confrontational street grubbiness as if they have just spent the night in a seedy squat with God knows who. Debbie cooly overrode all that, she was better than that, wasn't she? A track like the swooning sixties girl-group pop of In The Flesh was anathema to many punks. For me, I always found it quite deliciously sexy. Debbie was making it quite clear what her intentions were - she wanted her boy - and in the flesh too. As a late teenage boy at the time, I loved hearing her sing this sort of thing. So - girls did get as hot for it as we did. It was an expression of female lust that those sixties girl groups would never have dreamt of and is a beautifully sensual little song.
Another little-mentioned but impressive song is Look Good In Blue, with its intoxicating organ sounds and seductive melody, not forgetting the saucily intentional double entendre of "I could give you some head...and shoulders to lie on...". Naughty Debbie. Listening to this and A Shark In Jets Clothing again after a while has been most enjoyable, they are both surprisingly good tracks. I love the latter's slightly Parisian feel.
Anyway, back to the rest of the album - the lively Kung Fu Girls is probably the album’s punkiest number, Man Overboard, with its vaguely white reggae feel and Rifle Range are very much what would come to be known as "new wave", while the quirky and decidedly oddball Attack Of The Giant Ants showed the band’s liking for 50s horror “B” movies, but, unfortunately, little else. Not the best track they ever did, was it? It does feature some killer drums from Clem Burke, though.
Incidentally, the sound quality and production on this album is much better than on the follow-up album. On this track it is particularly good. There is some really good stuff on here, but, to be honest, it is all over before it has started. Not much for your money, but that was the way it was then, thirty minutes was the norm, and had been for years. I still enjoy it, however, on its occasional re-appearances on my sound system.
Back in 1976 upon release fans of supposedly "real" New York punks like Richard Hell and The Ramones despised Blondie and everything this album was all about, which was somewhat unfair and a shame. Never mind, give it eighteen months and new wave would be here and they would briefly rule the world. In many ways, this was an album ahead of its time, quite ground-breaking in its little-noticed way. Nothing much else sounded like this in 1976, you have to say.
The bonus tracks included the expanded release of the album are the dreamy, fifties/early sixties girl group pop-influenced Out In The Streets; the vituperative The Thin Line with its echoes of Rip Her To Shreds but this time with Debbie's contempt aimed at a man and Platinum Blonde with its piano-driven bar-room rock'n'roll feel. As the original album was so short, it really could have accommodated these three with ease.
