'Maybe I'm Lost'/ 'I Can See Clearly': Deborah Harry Goes Solo

These two seemingly contradictory song titles reflect the ups and downs of Deborah Harry's solo musical efforts. Following the demise of Blondie and a few years out of the limelight, Deborah Harry launched a solo career, which at least partially represented her attempt to escape from the character she created--so much like David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust problem, except that Bowie, like Madonna, was able to discard the character and continually reinvent himself. Try as she might, however, she never achieved the notice and success as when she was the lead singer of Blondie and the same is true of the other band members. This relative lack of success is by no means Harry's fault. Rather, it reflects the attitudes of the male-dominated record industry which collectively believed that there was little, if any, room for more than one female artist at a time, which reflected a sexist attitude. Talk about a glass ceiling! Pat Benetar is hot so there is not any room for another female artist like Harry, the reasoning seemed to be. Then, of course, Madonna, who essentially appropriated Harry's act and took it to dizzyingly new heights, overshadowed Harry--made even more apparent since both Madonna and Harry were on the same record label (Sire/Warner), which slighted Harry attention-wise due to the focus on promoting Madonna. And, speaking of promotion, a painful lesson of Harry's was that an artist needs to be constantly in the limelight and to be promoted and promoting herself. Harry's hiatus (largely due to her helping Chris Stein in his long recovery from a rare disease), while saying a lot about her strength of character and personal loyalty, hurt her career. It's hard to come back "cold" into the music industry. Another factor in explaining Harry's solo career is that, first and foremost, she wanted to be an artist above all and to maintain her artistic control and integrity. She did not have that burning desire to be a star as Madonna did. The bottom line is that with Blondie, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. This is not uncommon. Other great bands like the Rolling Stones (and, perhaps to a lesser extent, The Beatles) have released comparatively mediocre solo material that just can't compete with the spectacular sounds they create together. This observation was true of Blondie originally, during its hiatus period, and now during its reunion....

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