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Background: Who doesn’t love Blondie? I had an all-too-brief chat with Debbie Harry for a concert preview when the reunited group was touring through Cleveland. Twenty-five years later, she’s still out playing with the group and serving as a fashion icon and all-purpose inspiration for new generations. The ripples are too numerous to count, but Amyl and the Sniffers’ Amy Taylor seems to running hard and fast with the torch these days, in her own inimitable fashion.

Blondie: Permanent Waves

By Robert Cherry

From Blondie’s inception in 1974 to its break-up in 1983, singer Debbie Harry was seemingly everywhere at the right time. Partying with punk rock’s pioneers. Touring with David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Jamming with the Muppets. Posing for Andy Warhol. Acting in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Collaborating with artist and Alien designer H.R. Giger.

It makes one wonder what the platinum bombshell, now 58, hasn’t accomplished in her multi-platinum-selling career.

“I haven’t gone to Mars,” she says with a laugh. “But I don’t think I ever will.”

She has, however, made a successful comeback with Blondie. In 1999, she reunited with the group’s core members—guitarist Chris Stein, drummer Clem Burke and keyboardist Jimmy Destri—for a well-received album and tour.

Now they’re back again with The Curse Of Blondie, an update of the band’s pop-hybrid sound that influenced countless acts, including Madonna, Garbage, No Doubt and Peaches.

On “Background Melody,” a neo-dub track that recalls Blondie’s 1980 hit “The Tide Is High,” Harry puts the group’s legacy and longevity in perspective. “Baby,” she sings in that still girlish voice, “when they made you I was the background melody.”

“People come up to me and say they conceived their child while they were listening to Blondie,” she explains, calling from a tour stop in Portland. “Or kids come up to me and say their mother played a lot of Blondie while they were in the womb.”

That’s one way to ensure there’s a new audience awaiting your return. Blondie still serves up the hits at its shows–“Dreaming,” “Rapture,” “Call Me,” to name a few—but Harry isn’t one to dwell on past glories. Unlike countless revival acts, the bands insists on touring behind new material.

“I don’t really like nostalgia all that much,” she says. “We’re not interested in being an oldies band. I love my life and appreciate the wonderful experiences and opportunities I’ve had. And I regret some of the things I’ve done. But I’m really interested in moving on. Being creative is very important to me.”

As for the band’s alleged curse, one that has ranged from haunted loft spaces to bad management deals to rare diseases, Blondie may have finally altered its luck.

“It’s been a standing joke for years,” she says. “Every time something weird would happen we would say, ‘It’s the curse of Blondie.’ A lot of people take it seriously, but it’s silly. It’s a Vincent Price horror-movie type title. I think it’s lucky.

“We’re really in good shape these days. Everyone’s interested in what we’re doing and it’s nice having some attention and recognition. And also getting paid.”

©2002 Robert Cherry, all rights reserved