Alright, Sunday night is come and gone.
I sit here typing this with a long weekend's worth of errands behind me and very little unwinding to my credit. Frankly, I could use a good drink. Instead of that, though, I had a lot of good food, including the cook-out I mentioned in yesterday's post. I also finished off my peanut butter pretzels this morning, as I was walking out the door. But enough about me! Do you guys remember Blondie?
Blondie, you guys!
I totally stumbled upon this amazing group back when I was a freshman in high school, a year which I will not cite for reasons of vanity. Somehow I discovered them while in a cultural vacuum - what use could my brain have for a New Wave/Punk band from the late 1970s while I was living in rural Middle West, circa 199x? Rather, to my brain's credit, what use couldn't I have for them? Like any teenager who listened to Blondie, I was required to be smitten by Debbie Harry. But what really hooked me, beyond her beguiling and dangerous beauty, was the amazing songs. In particular, the album Parallel Lines still sounds fantastic today.
Released in late 1978, the album was the biggest breakthrough for the band in their entire collected careers. Some of the band's biggest and most iconic hits came from this phenomenal, influential album. I had heard a couple songs before, really only picking up on the novelty hit 'Rapture' via VH1's Pop-Up Video, but that wasn't even from this album. What really hooked me on Blondie and this album was the ...ugh... disco single 'Heart of Glass'. I know that gets a fair bit of eye rolling and cultural poo-pooing, but I really dig that song. It's a four-on-the-floor, pumping single, one that feels more New Wave than disco. But you know what? I don't really care about the dreaded D-word. A good song's a good song. It's a lilting, alluring track that is catchy and hooky all the way through.
Other tracks are just as good, like the urgent, edgy 'Hangin On The Telephone'. I love the squealing, descending guitar lick the verses revolve around. The churning and fuzzy guitars that propel 'One Way or Another' are just as infectious. I feel like so many people today dismiss Blondie as an old pop band while they clearly were a driving, vital New Wave group that danced along the punk edge. They were fantastically vibrant and influential - countless groups have played with the format they forged. I won't name check bands that have aped their style or form, but we all know more than a handful of huge acts that could use a little asterix besides their name.
Additionally, I feel like of all people, hipsters should be head-over-heels for this group. Doesn't the sound of the guitars and drums, the fashionable yet bizarre style of the group, the hot-as-hell lead singer, all seem to fit right into the hipster verve? But alas, mass appeal and familiarity are the antithesis of the hipster, so they remain free for all to love. Oh, well. Such is life. I'll have to continue living knowing that millions of people still love Blondie.
