Blondie |
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Fri. March 03.2006 10:43 AM EST |
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Blondie's Perfect RecordFrom "Rip Her to Shreds" to "Call Me," Debbie and the guys helped create the punk-pop template. by C. Bottomley |
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It would have been so easy for Blondie to be a triumph of style over substance. While Debbie Harry had the looks and sass of a cover girl, her four male bandmates were mere accessories to the singer's lipstick-punk prowess--just check out the cover
Get more Blondie on thier artist page "Rip Her to Shreds" "Wouldn't you like to rip her to shreds?" ran the tagline over Debbie Harry's pout in 1976 ads for this single. It was hard to jibe the sexism with Harry's delivery, suffused with all the attitude that an ex-Playboy bunny could muster. "Denis" Connoisseurs of pop positioning, Blondie appropriated a Randy & the Rainbows obscurity from 1963 and put it under glass. Everything is placed in quotation marks, including doobie-dos and sudden shifts into French. "Hanging on the Telephone" The sticky-fingered group lifted this song from onetime support act The Nerves, but this time they dove headlong into the song, piling the guitars on as Harry shouts indignantly down the receiver at her aloof beau. "Sunday Girl" It's dress-up time again on this Parallel Lines single, which celebrates girl groups like The Ronettes while the flighty heroine recalls swinging '60s Euro sirens such as Julie Christie and Catherine Deneuve. "Heart of Glass" After a career of digging through record crates, it was time to hit the club--and what could be more punk than going disco? Harry's androgynous falsetto helped shoot the Studio 54 anthem to No. 1 in the U.S. "Atomic" A galloping disco rhythm meets a twanging guitar straight out of a Clint Eastwood Western, but the weirdness is tempered by a passionate Harry vocal that hits crescendo after crescendo. "Dreaming" A Sunday girl allows herself a moment in love, recalling '60s teenage symphonies like "Leader of the Pack," while rhyming "restaurant" and "debutante" like a thrift-store Dorothy Parker. "Rapture" Despite international success, the band kept their ears to the New York pavement. Just as hip-hop was about to break, they paid homage to Fab 5 Freddy and Grandmaster Flash in the first U.S. No. 1 to feature a rap. "Call Me" Harry's mannequin persona made her the perfect vocal foil for Richard Gere's empty stud in American Gigolo. The adrenalin comes from Giorgio Moroder's uber-disco machines. "Maria" Blondie played at being their old selves in this 1998 comeback single, all tricked out for a night at CBGB and as triumphantly plastic as a pair of bondage pants. |
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