Provides an excellent in-depth overview of Blondie–both
past and present--and is the original unedited version of the article published
in Mojo magazine, February 1999--Ed.
Blondie, The Roundhouse, London, March 5, 1978
Credit: The Concert Photo Co.
She was the Marilyn Monroe of pop, her band a dysfunctional family of occulists, egomaniacs and '60s obsessives. They wanted no more than to cock a snook at New York's art-rock clique; they found themselves conquering the world. And now Blondie are doing it all over again--for fun....
I'm bumping down Seventh Avenue, staring through the taxi
windows in wonder at a ginormous Levi's ad in the garment district. It
consists simply of a vast image of the Sex Pistols, with a slogan running
vertically alongside it which reads, 'Our models can beat up their models.'
Nearly a quarter-century after the halcyon days of CBGBs, this slick slice
of corporate co-opting might well provide a fitting millennial epitaph
for punk rock.
Later,
in the cavernous Space photo studio down in Chelsea, Debbie Harry and Chris
Stein and I all agree that it's, huh, mighty ironic. We've certainly
come a long way from the days when the entertainment industry wouldn't
touch the Pistols (or Blondie) with Brobdingnagian bargepoles....