Until the mid-70s, the only kind of bluejeans anyone really wore were Levis, Lee or Wrangler. Then came designer jeans like Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt.
To take on the big three jeans companies, these upscale upstarts needed cutting-edge celebrities to flog their togs: Calvin Klein famously used Brooke Shields and Natasha Kinski in his memorable advertising campaigns. Gloria Vanderbilt’s teen line, “GV Jr.” by Murjani had style icon Debbie Harry of Blondie as the spokes-model.
In the first one, you can see Lounge Lizard John Lurie on sax. Eagle-eyed No Wave trainspotters will also notice Mudd Club co-founder Anya Phillips and James Chance if they watch this over and over again…
After the jump, another Gloria Vanderbilt jeans commercial with Debbie Harry…
Highlights of Debbie Harry hosting a certain late Saturday night show from 1981. The clip includes what is now believed to be the first appearance of a rap act on national US TV - the Funky Four Plus One More.
The Videodrome Discothèque is pleased to present these excerpts from the rarely seen 10th episode of the ill-fated 6th season of a certain rather popular late-night weekend entertainment program.
Fronting a marvelous one-off band, Ms. Harry offers up fabulous versions of both “Love T.K.O” (made famous by Teddy Pendergrass) AND Devo’s “Come Back, Jonee”. Chris Stein plays on both, with Clem Burke joining in for “Come Back, Jonee”.
Also included: a sketch featuring Debbie & Joe Piscopo, as well as the performance of Debbie’s special guests, The Funky Four + 1 More.
While musician and rock archivist Jim Laspesa is putting together his own website, which will feature music and pop culture related clips from the past 30+ years, he’s been uploading a few gems to Youtube. Here’s a little something that is new to the Interweb: a 1980 appearance by Debbie Harry on ABC’s Sunday morning children’s show Kids Are People Too. Sassy.
The always beautiful Debbie Harry talks fashion, clothes and style, before modeling a selection of Stephen Sprouse’s designs, in this interview from 1979.
Interviewer: Did you grow up around fashion?
Debbie Harry : No, not really. I grew up in New Jersey.
Nice homage to iconic female rockers with these cool skateboard decks, “Girls Girls Girls” from Girl’s 2010 Summer collection. Sadly, it appears they are no longer available on Girl’s website, but with a lil’ investigating, you’ll be able to find them. Ebay, perhaps?
If you’re a hardcore Debbie Harry fan, you probably already knew about this claim made back in 1989. It’s news to me, tho…
From The Sun:
The singer, 65, said she accepted a lift in the early ‘70s from the maniac - who bludgeoned, strangled and raped 30 women.
But Debbie sensed something was wrong when she saw the car had no door handles on the inside.
She said: “The hairs on the back of my neck just stood up.
“I pulled the door handle from the outside. He tried to stop me by spinning the car, but it helped me fling myself out. Afterwards I saw him on the news. Ted Bundy.
How can it be that we haven’t yet covered Blondie on this blog? What a tragic oversight! One that I must redress immediately…
I absolutely loved Blondie when I was a kid, after discovering them on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert when I would have been about ten. I recall being transfixed by how beautiful Debbie Harry was and thinking how cool she dressed. I had never seen a girl who looked like this before… and I was quite impressed. Debbie Harry made a strong impression on my young mind that a keen and idiosyncratic fashion sense most probably signaled a female creature of high intelligence (nearly, but not always, true). I was a fan from that moment on, believe me when I tell you…
The first Blondie song I heard on that day was In The Sun. I danced and pogoed around my grandparent’s living room in my socks, sliding on the floor as I did so. Watch the clip below. It was an exhilarating thing to see something like this back then. I was a kid very attuned to rock music—the way most ten-year-olds today are into SpongeBob SquarePants—and Blondie was a real sit up and pay attention change of pace from Foghat, Uriah Heap and REO Speedwagon, the groups normally seen on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
Completely aside from the insanely sassy gorgeousness of Debbie Harry, Blondie really stood apart musically from everything else that was going on at the time. Their songs were catchy, upbeat and fun. Despite their CBGBs pedigree, they really were never punks. There was a knowing calculation behind their persona, a campy, cabaret vision of ‘60s girl groups and Farfisa-infused garage pop.
For my money, the greatest artistic statement made by the band is 1980’s Autoamerican, an album reviewed poorly when it came out and that has never really been properly re-evaluated by either critics or audiences.
Autoamerican has aged very, very well. It doesn’t sound like anything else other than Blondie and so is a bit timeless in that sense. The opening track, Europa, a brooding modernist instrumental that dissolves into a spoken word rant from Harry extolling the virtues of cars. It’s an amazing song and a cool way to open the collection. The album contains both The Tide is High (originally a late ‘60s rocksteady hit in Jamaica for the Paragons and U-Roy—I bow to their genetic coolness for knowing about this song then) and Rapture, the song that, more than any other piece of music introduced the world to the concept of what rap music was. It’s a masterpiece of pop. I listened to it three times today—quite loud—and the skill, charm and verbal dexterity with which Debbie Harry casually rattles off her dada-hipster rhymes still astonishes 30 years later. It’s got a groove as funky as one written by James Brown, Prince or George Clinton, a feat almost no other white group can lay claim to.
My favorite moment on Autoamerican is T-Birds, a soaring piece of road music featuring angelic backing vocals courtesy of Flo and Eddie. If you’ve never heard Autoamerican before—and you call yourself a music fan—get your hands on it and give it a chance. Truly Autoamerican is one of the great lost albums of the New Wave era.
Bonus clip: Blondie do a cover of Goldfinger on German television’s Musikladen show: in 1977:
Just in time for the upcoming Runaways biopic—directed by Floria Sigismondi and starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning—the Mattel toy company is unveiling its “Ladies of the ‘80s” collection’s Joan Jett Barbie. The collection also features Debbie Harry and Cyndi Lauper dolls, available in December.
Although I wholeheartedly approve of this, the first thing that came to mind was: What, no Annie Lennox or Siouxsie Sioux dolls? No Pat Benatar? No Lydia Lunch? Give ‘em time; the nostalgia machine will eventually crank ‘em all out.
(Note: There is also a Barbra Streisand Pink Label Barbie, but it’s ‘60s Barbara, not “Yentl”-era Babs.)
Below, Joan Jett and the Runaways perform Cherry Bomb in Tokyo in 1977:
, an album reviewed poorly when it came out and that has never really been properly re-evaluated by either critics or audiences. 