“I’m really able to tell a story and make emotion come to life.”
– Debbie Harry
Before punk and new wave erupted in New York City in the late ’70s, female pop singers were like carefully crafted charms dangled from a bracelet; they were chanteuses whose sexuality was packaged as the ultimate pop commodity. When the tokenism of ’60s rock finally gave way to the rebel yell of late ’70s and early ’80s punk, female singers pushed a brazen, me-first attitude and redefined tough-girl with a heart of gold, or in Debbie Harry’s case, the romantic she is, a heart of glass. And though some said she was too beautiful for punk, Debbie Harry was more than just somebodys darling.
Harry remembers always wanting to write music. “I got so much out of listening to other people’s music,” she says, “that the idea of making my own was just irresistible.” After high school in the early ’60s she landed in New York City and worked odd jobs as a secretary and even a Playboy Bunny before settling into her role as singer for the band The Wind in the Willows, a folk rock ensemble very true to the era. But it wasn’t until she abandoned folk for an edgier collaboration with guitarist and lover Chris Stein that Harry came into her own and began perfecting the Blondie persona we know today – and have been captivated by for years. It’s is a complicated and unaffected beauty, what she once described as “that age-old tantalizing persona of innocence and sexuality.”
With the pieces in place, it didn’t take long for Blondie to make a name for itself. New wave by genre, punk rock in attitude, the band quickly became associated with the burgeoning CBGBs scene. Blondie had this ultra-cool, somewhat nonchalant blue-collar decadence about it that made the band irresistible. New York knew it and it wasn’t long before the rest of the world caught on. After the release of Blondie’s debut Parallel Lines in 1976 and its hit single “Heart of Glass,” the band was catapulted to success and Debbie Harry’s impact was already becoming that of legend.
However influential, it is 30 years since she first stepped into the limelight with Blondie and the last thing Debbie Harry wants is to be considered a token of yesterday. While many of her punk peers have faded into obscurity or become over-glorified icons of their former selves, she continues to write music and push new ground. With the release of Necessary Evil, her sixth solo album and first in over a decade, Debbie Harry proves that she’s still got what it takes. Out now, the album is some of her more original work to date, a collection of songs that string together like snapshots from the eyes of a woman who has loved, lost, and loved again, and doesn’t regret a damn thing.
SuicideGirls caught up with her for an afternoon chat …
Read our exclusive interview with Debbie Harry on SuicideGirls.com.
