#gary valentine

[forever-blondie]

Blondie photographed by Suzan Carson, 1977

[unioncityblues]

Blondie performing live at CBGB in New York City, New York. 1976.

Photographed by Roberta Bayley.

[retropopcult]

Blondie, 1979

[kieselguhrkid]

Cooper Hoffman as Gary Valentine | LICORICE PIZZA (2021)

[ubiq80]

Blondie

[soupy-sez]

Blondie, 1977

[pazzesco]

🎙️ Debbie Harry 🎶

NME - New Music Express

Martyn Goddard - Debbie Harry (Blondie) on Roof of The Record Plant studio with Nikon Camera - 1978

Martyn Goddard - Debbie Harry/Blondie - 'Parallel Lines' and 'Picture This' Cover Photoshoot - 1978

Adrian Boot - Debbie Harry at The Roundhouse, London Contact Sheet - 1978

Chalkie Davies - Debbie Harry In An Easy Chair - 1976

"Debbie's very first visit to London…The middle shot really captures her beauty. Put together they portray a bit of humour too. My photographs of Debbie appeared in the NME quite small, but within a very short period of time she was the world's music cover girl." - Chalkie Davies

Blondie: A promotional poster for the 'Blondie' album/single, 1977

Blondie were initially signed to a small independent record label Private Stock Records, who believed it best to market the band by using this type of image of Debbie Harry.

The band, who were unhappy with their promotion, bought back their contract with Private Stock and signed with Chrysalis in 1977. The British press for example were initially unsure if Blondie was a band or solo artist.

Blondie in 1977 (l–r): Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri

Blondie: A Chrysalis Promo Poster For The 12in Single, Sunday Girl/Sunday Girl (French Version)/I Know But I Don't Know - 1979

Chalkie Davies - Debbie Harry, Black Stockings - 1977

"…Debbie Harry virtually defines the word photogenic and I knew that no matter how little experience I had in the studio we would produce great photos together. As a person who is very easy to photograph the session lasted only about fifteen minutes, wearing a Rudolph Valentino T-Shirt and a short denim skirt Debbie sat on the stool and we went thru a variety of poses. Once we did the photo seen here we knew we had what we wanted…and this photo appeared on the cover of the NME the following week." - Chalkie Davies

A Mick Rock - photograph of Debbie Harry - Color cibachrome print, titled "Blue Debbie Harry"

by Andy Warhol

[sugar-coated-saphic]

for those of you who like licorice pizza, please check out my latest amv :) as for those who don't, please stay away. not in the mood for discourse

[sinceileftyoublog]

Blondie Box Set Review: Against The Odds: 1974-1982

(UMe/Numero Group)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

At one point on Against The Odds: 1974-1982, the new Blondie compilation endorsed by the band itself, New York’s coolest cover a song by an L.A. band considered, in some circles, extremely uncool. It’s funny to hear the janky piano line from The Doors’ “Moonlight Drive” coming from a band containing the likes of Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, and Clem Burke, but considering the ramshackle nature of much of the new box set, it’s more fitting than you might initially think. (Okay, minus lacking Jim Morrison levels of pomposity.) Apart from remasters of Blondie’s first six studio albums, Against The Odds contains 52 session outtakes, demos, and B-sides, the majority of which were previously unreleased, and they show Blondie’s wide array of influences and their journey as a band. The set is essential listening for not just those unfamiliar with Blondie, but those who are familiar and have made their minds up based solely on the hits.

Against The Odds lays itself bare from the get-go. That is, if most box sets end with the greenest of demos catered to completist collectors after presenting the goodies, Against The Odds presents the projects in progress first, as is, necessary to understanding Blondie. It begins with a song that’s not even Blondie’s, a cover of the Shangri-Las’ “Out In The Streets” not released until 1994 on The Platinum Collection, with tremolo guitars from Stein, wiry bass from then-member Gary Valentine, and punky drum fills from Burke. "Out In The Streets” sets the stage for a bevy of shambling songs inspired by girl groups, doo wop, and surf rock, 50′s and 60′s music that on paper is the farthest cry from the sleek, synth-heavy new wave band that fills oldies radio stations today. Limber percussion drives “X-Offender” and “In The Sun”--Harry even shouts, “Surf’s up!” at the beginning of the latter--while handclaps and warbling keyboards buoy the swaying “Little Girl Lies” and “In The Flesh”. Richard Gottehrer, who spent the 60′s co-writing hits like The Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back”, produced Blondie’s 1976 self-titled debut and acted as a link between the eras of music, perhaps disparate in instrumentation but connected in lovelorn melancholy.

Against The Odds’ boldest moves center around Blondie’s best-known and most beloved song. “Heart of Glass” is a masterclass of disco, the perfect mix of live drums and drum machine, funky guitars and synths, and shimmery vocals from Harry. The incomplete versions presented here are notably inferior. “The Disco Song”, whose repeated verse is, “Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass” almost seems like a joke, even with Harry’s incredible vocal control in her wailing. The band’s performance on Alan Betrock’s demo of “Once I Had A Love” is as sterile and jangly as the eventual version is smooth and sexy. Stein’s mix presented later on the album features the song’s recognizable panning percussion that worms its way into your ears from the get-go and echoing guitar plucks up and down the scale, but the isolation of those aspects knowing the final product is frustratingly toying to listen to. By the time the box set gets to the demos for eventual Parallel Lines producer Mike Chapman, the song is closer to the current version, and hearing the craft along the way only makes you appreciate anew a song you’ve heard a million times.

That those in the new wave scene of the 70′s accused Blondie of “selling out” by making a pure disco song in “Heart of Glass” is obviously utterly ridiculous to modern ears. Against The Odds shows a band that was unafraid, in the face of their peers’ purity, to incorporate elements of LGBTQ and Black music in their sound. They were known to cover “Lady Marmalade” and Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” at their shows, and “Spaghetti Song” is a propulsive, Summer-esque jam (basically “Atomic”) that graces the Eat to the Beat outtakes on here. Early on, the band burned through a funk-punk version of Ike & Tina Turner’s “Sexy Ida”. Later, they’d embrace reggae and rap, as evidenced by (an admittedly messy version of) “Die Young Stay Pretty” and their cover of The Paragons’ “The Tide Is High”, one of their biggest hits. The demo of the latter on Against The Odds is stunning, leaning heavier into reggae-inspired percussion than the eventual version and featuring lush strings from Walter Steding. 

And then there’s “Rapture”, purportedly the first number one single in the US to feature rapped vocals. Harry would be the first to tell you that said rapped vocals would have been better from the referenced Brooklyn MC Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Braithwaite) than from herself, but the song is nonetheless a high point in Blondie’s oeuvre, an inspired marriage of funk, new wave, disco, and rap. The disco version of “Rapture” included on Against The Odds sports tremendous cowbell and saxophone in the coda, while the original version “Yuletide Throwdown”, with vocals from Harry and Braithwaite added on later, eventually turns into a simmering krautrock jam with rippling synthesizers. That these two versions end so differently and both succeed speaks to the compositional and instrumental prowess of a band that only a few years prior was quite raw.

Ultimately, whether their bassy demos with Giorgio Moroder (“Live It Up”, “Angels On The Balcony”), soaring tunes for film soundtracks (“Call Me”, “Union City Blue”), or motorik home tape recordings (“War Child”, a “Ring of Fire” cover), at the center of all of Blondie’s collaborations and deep dives is a try anything spirit, a sort of punk exploration. We should be so lucky that their inquiring minds were documented. We should be even luckier they chose to reveal their work step by step.

[odk-2]

Blondie - X Offender (1976) Gary Valentine / Debbie Harry from: "X Offender" / "In the Sun" (Single) "Blondie" (LP)

Power Pop | New Wave

Tumblr (left click = play) (192kbps)

Personnel: Debbie Harry: Vocals Gary Valentine: Guitar Jimmy Destri: Farfisa Organ Chris Stein: Bass Clem Burke: Drums

Produced by Richard Gottehrer / Craig Leon

Recorded: @ Plaza Sound Studios in New York City, New York USA 1976

Single Released: on June 17, 1976

Album  Released: January, 1977

Private Stock Records

[punkquotes]

Gary: [writing to himself] For instance, assuming that there is a heaven, who would ever want to go there? Ya know? I mean think about it; it's cool, you're sitting there up on this cloud. It's nice, it's quiet. There's no teachers, there's no parents... but guess what... there's nothing to do! It's fucking boring!

[forever-blondie]

Blondie photographed by Shig Ikeda, 1976

[boomgers]

La vida no tiene un libro de jugadas que seguir… “Jugar En Casa”

Tras ser suspendido, el entrenador en jefe de los Santos de Nueva Orleans, Sean Payton, intenta reconectar con su hijo Connor, entrenando al desafortunado equipo de fútbol americano al que pertenece.

Estreno: 28 de enero de 2022 en Netflix.

La película está dirigida por Charles Kinnane y Daniel Kinnane, guionizada por Chris Titone y Keith Blum, y protagonizada por Kevin James, Tait Blum, Merek Mastrov, Christopher Farrar, Maxwell Simkins, Manny Magnus, Jacob Perez, Bryant Tardy, Liam Kyle, Gary Valentine, Jared Sandler, Lavell Crawford, Chloe Fineman, Rob Schneider, Jackie Sandler, Isaiah Mustafa, Taylor Lautner, entre otros.

Detrás De Cámaras

[atomic-chronoscaph]

New Wave Valentine’s Day Cards - Art by Matthew Lineham

[kieselguhrkid]

Licorice Pizza (2021) | dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

[pokidokieships]

Happy Valentine’s from Bubbline 💖💖