Current (Actually Recurring) Musical Obsession

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been on a major Blondie kick lately, obsessively listening to all of the band's albums in order over the past few days. Perhaps the best summary of the band's career is the 1979 concert at Glasgow's Apollo Theatre:





This concert represents the band at the height of its power, the band's third studio album, Parallel Lines, was a hit, with the disco-inflected Heart of Glass being a major international smash. This particular concert also features some lovely pop songs from the band's fourth studio album, 1979's Eat to the Beat. I think that Debbie Harry's voice sounds particularly clear and transcendent for this performance.

In contrast, a Beat Club performance by the band just a year earlier shows a much more idiosyncratic band... still very much rooted in the "alternative" music scene, with salaciously tongue-in-cheek material as X Offender (my favorite Blondie song) and Look Good in Blue still making the playlist cut:





What a difference a year and a couple of million sales make! While I absolutely love the pure-pop perfection of the band's later material, I can't help but sigh sadly when I think that the band that played that transcendent set in Glasgow in 1979 wouldn't be singing a gleefully demented song about giant ants from space.