Against the Odds: Blondie on the State of Blondie in 2022
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The post Against the Odds: Blondie on the State of Blondie in 2022 appeared first on Consequence.
Blondie were long overdue for a career retrospective. Save for their hiatus between 1982 and 1997, the New York City new wave pioneers have put out a consistent — and consistently successful — discography, so much so that even the band even struggles to define itself.
“I think there’s been a lot of confusion about the band over the years,” longtime drummer Clem Burke tells Consequence over Zoom. “Is Blondie Debbie Harry? Is Blondie a disco band? Is Blondie a punk band? We came out of the streets of New York, and went from that to Andy Warhol throwing us a party at Studio 54.”
Burke isn’t namedropping the storied nightclub to brag — though there are many valid reasons for Blondie to brag. Over 40 years after their breakthrough single “Heart of Glass” skyrocketed them to stardom, Burke still reminisces on the band’s success with an air of gracious disbelief. That’s part of how he came up with the name for Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982, the band’s first-ever box set, which is out Friday, August 26th. “It was against the odds that something like a box set would ever exist for Blondie,” he adds.
Comprised of 124 tracks total — 36 of them previously unreleased — Against the Odds compiles remastered versions of Blondie’s first six albums Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat, Autoamerican, and The Hunter, as well as their first studio session, alternate versions, outtakes, and demos. Perhaps most impressively, though, is the box set’s track-by-track commentary by all seven of the original band members.
Against the Odds arrives at a pivotal time for Blondie, too. They’ve just begun a handful of tour dates, and there’s also brand new music coming down the pipeline: “We’re not only looking back, but we’re looking forward at the same time,” Burke says. “It’s a good time for the band right now.”
Check out the Q&A with Burke about the box set, his relationship to his band’s old music, and the State of Blondie in 2022 below.
How was the idea proposed to put all these old recordings out along with reissues of the albums?
Our management realized that something like an archival box set didn’t exist for us. [Founding Blondie guitarist] Chris Stein is a bit of a hoarder, so I had the idea that he definitely would have a lot of stuff that we could go through.
It took a while to get everybody on board, because we included all seven original Blondie members — seven being my high school friend, Gary Valentine, who played [bass] on the first album. Then the other members agreed to be interviewed, and agreed to participate in contributing whatever they had archival-wise. It was due to come out around Christmas 2019 or early 2020. And then, because of what happened in the world, it was put on hold. That’s when I came up with Against the Odds for the title, which took on a few different meanings. It was against the odds that it would ever be released. Then, we lent that title to the tour as well, so it’s all kind of coalesced into where we are now.
Debbie doesn’t really like looking back [at older music], so this gave us the opportunity to go a little deeper for songs to play on this tour, kind of based on the archive box coming out simultaneously. It wasn’t supposed to be that way originally, but it all came together at the same time. In the interim, we also recorded a new album.
I was actually going to ask about the title — since I’m younger, Blondie hits have kind of always been in my musical consciousness, so it’s funny to hear you refer to this as being something that was so unexpected for you.
I don’t think anyone could’ve had the foresight to predict the legacy of the band, and that we’d kind of continue to kind of be a part of pop culture. Also, we all kind of kept the same haircuts, and we were all a bit fashion forward at the time. Not that we necessarily look like Harry Styles or anything, but when we look back at the old pictures, it looks kind of contemporary to us.
When you revisit the old recordings, especially from your more underground days, what kind of feelings do they conjure for you?
I think for most people, their favorite songs have to do with a memory, and for us, it’s kind of a souvenir of a time and place. The song “Out In the Streets,” which was a cover of The Shangri-Las — that was also one of the main influences of early Blondie. We all had in common that love of the girl group sound. When I hear something like “Out In the Streets,” it reminds me of really meeting Debbie for the first time and us being able to commiserate on our love of a band. Chris had the recordings that we did in Queens in early ’75, and it reminds me of being in that little basement.
Then, as we move on to different songs, something like an outtake from Autoamerican — that was actually the only album we recorded outside of New York City. We did it in Hollywood, where we were able to utilize different session musicians. So you think about being in the studio and the camaraderie in the band. Our producer, Mike Chapman, was always making jokes, and he would make up these stupid lyrics to the songs. I think some of that would have been good to put on the final record, but we didn’t. On the demos, he’s shouting a couple of things where people think it’s maybe a member of the band, but it’s actually the producer Mike.
These demos span a long time, discography-wise. There’s some from around the time of your self-titled, and then some from even after Parallel Lines. What do you feel like the series of demos says about the story of Blondie, especially as you were coming up?
I think it gives the people who are interested insight into the creative process. I think the real super fans of the band will find the whole package very interesting. It also shows the evolution and our attempts of doing things that maybe we didn’t have the full resources to do at the time. When we were trying to do stuff on the first album that maybe we didn’t execute fully, that maybe later on, we became more musically adept, this gives an overview of that. It traces the progression of the music, for sure, which is the legacy of the band.
How do you feel like your relationship to your old music has changed over time?
When we began, we were influenced by a lot of artists from the ’50s and ’60s. Like The Beatles — you never knew what to expect from the next Beatles album when we were kids. And also David Bowie — how he moved on from being kind of a folk singer into his Ziggy Stardust persona, and then into the Philly soul, Young Americans era.
The box set shows how we expanded the sounds. We spent some time at Abbey Road remastering them to our liking, because the record company had attempted to remaster them early on without our participation. We paid a little bit more attention this time, because we knew the box was really going to stand on its own. It’s something from the band itself. So we wanted to make sure everything sounded good to us before it was going to be released.
It seems like the band had a lot of input on this project. That feels really special.
That’s the only reason we did it. Because we had control over it.
Of Blondie’s first six albums, do you have a favorite?
I think there’s a lot of interesting music on Autoamerican. At the time, it was an experimental album, a little off-the-wall. So that’s my favorite album now. Back then, it was probably Eat to the Beat, which is our most rock ‘n’ roll album. After the success of Parallel Lines, when we went back into the studio for Eat to the Beat, you get something like “Dreaming” — which kind of sounds like a first run-through, because the drums are a bit all over the place. I think we were all a bit more secure in our place at that time, so that used to be my favorite — people used to mention that Joey Ramone’s favorite song was “Dreaming.” But in retrospect, I really like the atmosphere of Autoamerican.
What’s been the most rewarding aspect of putting all your early work together in a box set?
We’re satisfied with showing the innovation of the band, I think. There was backlash against “Heart of Glass” at the time because it wasn’t a punk song, but the fact is that disco music and the underground dance scene in New York was probably more subversive than what was going on at CBGB. The innovation as the band progressed really shows itself in the context of the archival box.
It shows the roots of the band. But I also think if we had only focused on nostalgia, and not about new music, it would be kind of very bittersweet for the box to be released right now. But because we’re looking back at the same time that we’re also on tour right now and making new music, it works on a lot of different levels for us.
Ed. note: Catch Blondie on tour; tickets are available via Ticketmaster.
Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982 Artwork:
Against the Odds: Blondie on the State of Blondie in 2022
Abby Jones
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