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Blondie by Blondie (Private Stock/ 1977)
My parents followed my infatuation with Debbie Harry (see Parallel Lines) with a keen interest and possibly even a degree of relief. After all, I had just turned fourteen and it was the first time I'd demonstrated any discernible interest in the opposite sex. However, nervous glances were exchanged when they read the track listing of this debut album from Blondie, which was printed as part of a promotional spread on the back cover of the 'Hanging on the Telephone' single. Song titles such as 'X Offender', 'In the Flesh' and 'Rip Her to Shreds' were noted and commented upon. However, they really needn't have worried as I was in my mid-thirties by the time I picked up my copy of the album. And whilst acknowledging that the aforementioned X Offender was originally entitled 'Sex Offender', the fact is that in this age of ho' denigrating, gun-glorifyin' gangsta rap, it would be laughable to even suggest that this record might even have merited a 'Parental Advisory' sticker had they been around at the time. For in spite of 'Rip Her to Shreds' being one of the most outrageously bitchy songs ever recorded, the knockabout lyrical violence of other songs such as 'A Shark in Jets Clothing' and in particular, 'Kung Fu Girls', is more Charlies Angels than Boys N the Hood, or to quote the words of Debbie Harry, 'prime time television on record'.
In fact, with a conscious nod to the classic girls-groups of the early-Sixties, this is an album which at times comes across like a punky and more worldly-wise Crystals or The Shirelles exacting their revenge by kicking some serious male butt after having been let down by their feckless beaus once too often: a characteristic which may be attributable to the fact that Debbie was a relatively mature (for an up and coming pop star) 31 years of age when this album was recorded.
Significantly, on EMI's recent Best of Blondie double album, only 'Rip Her to Shreds' and the 'X Offender' were included from this particular set. And while it's perhaps true that with the possible exception of those two tracks, Blondie's debut doesn't include anything which quite matches up to some of the band's more classic recordings such as 'Atomic', 'Union City Blue' or 'Heart of Glass', it is nevertheless a fantastically breezy and confident-sounding album which belies the fact that the band had only been together for nine months before going into the studio to record it. Steeped in classic pop cultural influences, its a record bursting with catchy hooks and the kind of musical ideas which were to come to fuller fruition later in the Blondie's career.
Sales wise, the record didn't do much upon release — certainly not in the States — but I can only imagine what a breath of breath of fresh air it must have been for those looking for something a little more fun and irreverent than the prevailing FM rock of the day. And to my ears — though a little naive in an endearing kind of way — it still sounds finger-clickin' good today.