Blondie: Plastic Letters - 1978

 

"That was about these paranormal experiences I was having with my girlfriend at the time. We were in telepathic contact with each other when I was on tour. We would discover we’d be having the same dreams and we always seemed to know what the other was doing, which sometimes proved uncomfortable!" - Gary Valentine

In early 1978, when Blondie’s second album was released, fourteen months after their first quirky, comparatively ignored debut, they were still comparatively unknown. 

Indeed, many, including myself, bought their 1976 debut album AFTER buying Plastic Letters, now that they were familiar with the band. They had been knocking around gigging in the UK in 1977 ( I missed seeing them in November 1977 at Friars, Aylesbury due to having a heavy cold, to my eternal regret. I didn't get to see them live until 1999, unfortunately).               

However, it was the hit single Denis that earned singer Deborah Harry a legion of teenage male fans and girls who admired her chutzpah too. Blonde hairdos emerged all over the place. Regular girls found a way into punk via Blondie too, which previously had been difficult, unless they wanted to go down the Siouxsie Sioux route, which many didn’t. Here, by looking like Debbie Harry, they could get their punk kicks while not going the whole gothic hog. I remember seeing them perform Denis on Top Of The Pops. Everybody was talking about them/her the next day. That was when Blondie really arrived. February 1978. 

Punkier than the 50-60s-influenced debut, to be honest, Plastic Letters is a bit of a mish-mash of short, frenetic, organ-based guitar pop songs that often finish before they have even got going - classic examples are the otherwise impressive, urgent Fan Mail, the similarly exhilarating Contact In Red Square, the bizarrely-titled Youth Nabbed As Sniper, the intense, mysterious Bermuda Triangle Blues and the short, sharp shock of I'm On E (not written about the drug ecstasy, for it was twenty years before its 1997 heyday). Just when you are getting into these songs, they end. The sound is also quite lo-fi. Enjoyable, but nowhere near as accomplished as the songs that appeared a few months later on Parallel Lines. There again, two minute thrash punky pop songs were the order of the day, so nobody really complained at the time, thinking that indeed Blondie had their finger on the punk pulse. In many ways they had. In early 1978, this album fitted the prerequisites perfectly. 

The old “side one” contains the shorter, faster songs, while “side two” saw some longer, more introspective material. Listening to it now, I have to say, it all sounds perfect. Better than I remembered it. Kidnapper starts out sounding like Elvis and ends up just like Suzi Quatro, though. It is a slightly odd glam rock throwback that sits a bit strangely on the album. 

The two hit singles from the album are top notch, however - the delightful power pop of Denis and the more mysterious (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear (written by bassist Gary Valentine for his girlfriend (who he claimed to be in telepathic contact with) and Detroit 442 is a more complete rocky closer to the album, featuring some great drums. 

My goodness, though, all these years later and I still love Denis. The track was a cover version of a sixties doo-wop song by Randy & The Rainbows and was originally titled "Denise". Debbie decided to add a somewhat improvised verse in French, for some reason. An underrated, rarely mentioned gem is to be found in Presence’s “B” side, the drug-referencing but also tender ballad Poets Problem - proof that punky ballads could be created. 

Retrospection has slammed this album as “the difficult second album”, but at the time myself and my peers and many others loved it. We heard tracks like Fan Mail (the first on the album) and were more than satisfied. Songs like the surprisingly good and singalong I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No, the powerful "Beatles-styled lyrics meets hard rock” of No Imagination and the rousing, drum-powered Love At The Pier contain hints as to what the next few months’ songwriting would yield from the band, however. Blondie were now one step from their period of brief greatness. Like their first album, this was an underrated and subtly influential piece of work. I always quite enjoy listening to it again.

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There are some interesting extras on the latest CD/digital release - Once I Had A Love (aka The Disco Song), which is an early prototype of Heart Of Glass. It is an attractive, melodic version with acoustic guitar featured and some pleasing, understated rhythms. As someone who was never a huge fan of the original, I have to admit that I prefer this version. It would not have been the huge hit its eventual incarnation was, however. 

Cautious Lip is a menacing, Velvet Underground-influenced, brooding number with a breakneck, Patti Smith-style ending. Scenery is a poppy and appealing number with slight Talking Heads vibes that would have been a nice addition to the album, possibly in place of No Imagination or Kidnapper. 

Then there is the afore-mentioned Poets Problem which was also deserving of an album place. Finally we get a storming live version of Detroit 442, Blondie were never the best of live bands, but they nail this one.