Sunday, November 16, 2014

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.


6 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Good shows! I never saw Blondie live.
~

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Good shows! I never saw Blondie live.

Nor I. Pity, that.

Chickpea said...

I found an amazing photo of Debbie Harry, Chrissy Hynde, Viv Albertine, Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene and Pauline Black must have been late 70's. Poly Styrenes, Oh Bondage, Up Yours being one of my favourites. I'm going to sound really old now, but what the hell, they were (in my opinion) a lot more talented than the half naked, whaling, manufactured pop stars of today.

mikey said...

There's an absolutely amazing 1980 Alan Rudolph film called Roadie. It stars Meat Loaf and a TON of rock n roll legends, from Alice Cooper to Hank Williams Jr. Blondie - Debbie and the whole band - feature prominently, including at an outdoor concert.

It's funny, weird, bizarre, hilarious and weird. REALLY hard to find now, I finally found it on a torrent site and value it very much. If you can ever find it, I promise you'll love it too...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Poly has long been one of my favorites, her lyrics were so prescient!

Thanks for the recommendation, Mikey, I'm going to have to look that film up.

mikey said...

If you strike out, I'd be happy to put it up on Dropbox for you. Let me know...