Blondie´s Hits - Blondie > Reviews > Dark roots

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	The face, the cheekbones, the choons
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

"Here she comes now - ah, you know her, would you look at that hair, yeah, you know her, check out those shoes, she looks like she stepped out of the middle of somebody's blues, she looks like the Sunday comics, she thinks she's Brenda Star, her nose job is real atomic, all she needs is an old knife scar, she's so dull (come on) rip her to shreds..." (Rip Her To Shreds)

Now you're talking pop pickers, the biz, the real stuff, the essence of pop and every young boy's original wet dream ... it's Debbie Harry and Blondie and can you ever hope to get anything finer, "Well, did you evah!"

It was sad and very, very empty to see the Blonde One and her 'boys' reappear not so long ago with that hollow revival number which stormed to the very top of the charts, daubing her wrinkles so depressingly all over the TV screen, oh how we wept, because somehow, the 30 year old Debs was just the epitome of lustful daydreams and that's exactly how we wanted her to stay, frozen forever, like Olivia Newton John in spray on leather in 1978, the answer to a virgin's prayers. Well forget the bad times, and check out the good times, come on, it's a celebration!

Punk was all about rebellion and the orthodox and the ugly, yet somehow the ex Bunny Girl emerged as the antithesis of all that, pioneering the power pop phenomenon, unbelievably hip at a time when they should have been mere pop froth, reviled and spat on - but they never were, for a while they were both incredibly cool and amazingly popular, a real life miracle whom we loved in a very unnatural way.

Blondie grew out of an occasional, jokey New York group called the Stilettoes. Variously described by Debbie as 'tacky'. 'gaudy' and 'general chaos', the band generally included three girl singers, and therefore naturally tended towards early Sixties pop material sung by girl groups such as the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes and the Supremes. In the serious, slightly stodgy music biz of the early 1970's, this was considered a highly unusual basis from which to work.

Debbie had been in other bands before but the Stilettoes was the first one which also featured her boyfriend, guitarist and songwriter Chris Stein, who was committed to making this into something more than just a hobby, and the band eventually transmuted into Blondie in 1974, including future Television bass player Fred Smith.

Like many of the hip new things Stateside, they were quickly adopted by the fans of British New Wave in the mid-70's as being slightly more intelligent than the standard punk warriors, with their glam rock imagery and overtones and the first album Blondie in 1976 won them instant popularity, with its jokey, cartoony tales of pop power including 'X Offender', 'A Shark In Jet's Clothing', 'Kung Fu Girls' and 'The Attack of the Giant Ants'.

The band went on to have some remarkably successful smash hit albums, like Plastic Letters and Parallel Lines, but in reality it's the greatest hits environment which is their true home, because the instantly catchy three minute hook of gorgeous pop is where they always excelled.

Think of their wonderfully addictive pop masterpieces for a minute - Heart of Glass, Call Me, Sunday Girl, Denis, Rapture, Presence Dear, The Tide Is High, Hanging On The Telephone, Picture This, Dreaming, Union City Blues, Atomic - this is pop Nirvana, to be taken in huge, dripping dollops of hedonistic self indulgence - think of those cheekbones, that ass, those eyes - heaven in an hour glass figure and 180 seconds of solid, sensual glory - you can't get any better than this ... NOW CAN YOU?

The very wonderful thing, however, was despite all that surface froth and beauty, there always seemed to be a deeper, darker side to Blondie, perhaps it was just their quasi-hipness which fooled the punters, but they certainly had something and we wanted it BIG TIME.

Drummer Clem Burke may have looked like a Thunderbirds puppet, with his pudding bowl haircut, buttoned up jacket and naff drum twirls and that bass and Nigel Harrison's bubbly perm may have been totally uncool, but who gives a flying one, because they made some of the most incredible pop anthems of all time.

Check out any greatest hits collection you care to name - wet your pants to the majesty...