Just reminding myself that Blondie were really quite a good band back in 1978. This is live, raw, and fantastic. Also worth reflecting that Debbie Harry is already 33 here. Most new bands seem to have an average age of around 17.
And from about a year later, Picture This (live from Glasgow, I think). The song contains one of the great lines of the modern rock lyric:
"I will give you my finest hour,
the one I spend watching you shower."
4 comments:
Blondie is the only band I have ever seen live. I went to see them a few years ago in Glasgow and it was an awful experience. The support band were dire but I was willing to endure that to get to see Debbie Harry and I'd love to say it was worth it but there was some twat next to me – a man of about forty – who insisted on bouncing around like a thirteen-year-old as soon as they started playing landing on my feet more than once and there was simply nowhere to escape to – we were backed into a corner. On top of this the good-natured crowd insisted on singing along to every song practically drowning out the band. I waited to hear Maria – which ranks up there as one of my favourite pop songs of all time – and then we left probably mid-set.
I wrote a poem about Debbie Harry many years ago, I think I called her "a walking wet dream" and I pretty much stand by that opinion to this day.
If you ever get to see a wee film called Elegy by the way watch out for her. We saw her name in the credits as the film ended and had to go back to find her.
Rob, have you ever heard the stuff she did with the Jazz Passengers in the mid-nineties? There's a very cool record called "Individually Twisted" that features her and a guest appearance from Elvis Costello. She and EC are also on an excellent CD by Jazz Passengers leader Roy Nathanson called "Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grill."
Bad luck with that gig, Jim!
Andrew, I actually saw Debbie Harry and the Jazz Passengers live in a small side-tent at a rock festival in the 1990s. They were excellent and Debbie Harry's vocals were as good as they've ever been. I've seen more recent live videos of her on YouTube, but her voice is much weaker now, although she's 64 - so that's understandable.
I saw her with the JPs in Basel in 1997 or so. Really first rate! The two Blondie tunes were brilliantly arranged as jazz, and the standards she sang were fabulous (especially "If I Were a Bell").
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