NFL
By: Greg Rector
Much like I wrote about seeing Queen and the amazing power that Freddie Mercury had over an audience so has the lead singer of the band Blondie from here on out in this article my focus will be on Deborah Harry who is still performing as the frontwoman for Blondie for her 50th year and on July 1st of this year Debbie Harry turns 79 years old.
Today people freak out over the latest person on Instagram or other social media platforms with their latest photographs. The most photographed lady in rock and roll history is easily Deborah Harry. Deborah Harry above was photographed on her 75th birthday. I still see Deborah Harry wearing that iconic grey dress in the video for ‘Heart of Glass” from 1979. You better believe I was one of the millions of Deborah Harry fans after the release of “Parallel Lines” when you learned of the life of Deborah Harry though you respect the lady who so incorrectly has been called “Blondie” by so many people for the last 50 years. Like Marilyn Monroe her bleached blond hair look has inspired so many other ladies.
Deborah Harry was born in Florida as Annie Trimble and was adopted and moved to Hawthorn New Jersey where she was raised by the Harry family. She did find out her birth mother was a concert pianist so maybe that’s the first element in her story of becoming the leading lady in New York’s burgeoning underground music scene of course the whole story of CGBG’s rise to being the home of The Ramones and Talking Heads along with of course the most successful pop music act known as “Blondie”
Deborah Harry
I always prefer calling her Deborah over Debbie though she uses both names to become the best frontwoman in rock and roll history. Deborah Harry graduated from Centenary College in 1965 just a few months after I came to this earth at the end of 1964. What amazed me the most about Deborah Harry was her beauty despite the fact she was well into her 30s by the time the world learned about her. When I was a teenage boy and saw Deborah Harry there was no way she was 33 or 34 years old and had survived being raped at knifepoint, nor did I know anything else about her having worked for the BBC offices in New York or her time spent working at the Playboy Club.
When you listen to the music of Blondie over the years and realize how great of a songwriter Deborah Harry is just listen to the lyrics of “One Way Or Another” which was based on the reason she left New Jersey in 1973.
“I was stalked by a nut job so it came out of a not-so-friendly personal event. But I tried to inject a little bit of levity into it to make it more lighthearted. I think in a way that’s a normal kind of survival mechanism. You know, just shake it off, say one way or another, and get on with your life. Everyone can relate to that and I think that’s the beauty of it.”
The band’s name “BLONDIE” came from catcalls from New York City men and the way they would call out to Deborah Harry received after she bleached her hair blonde.
Even those years she spent looking after her boyfriend Chris Stein (Blondie guitarist) when he was suffering through a disease called pemphigus vulgaris which affected his autoimmune system and was not well known at all at the time it happened in 1982 which caused the first breakup of Blondie.
Even during that time, Deborah Harry was still performing in movies on the stage and still singing. She has starred in over 30 films and television series.
What amazed me with Deborah Harry though had to be when the band “Blondie” reformed and came back with a hit single “Maria” in 1999. While she didn’t write the song it was written by “Blondie” keyboardist Jimmy Vestri that song and her amazing voice carried Blondie into a new generation of fans.
For me though it brought back memories of being raised as a Roman Catholic as it did for Vestri. It was also so powerful to me because the year 1999 was the year I left the United States Marine Corps after learning my wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
These lyrics mean something to me, especially as a lapsed Catholic.
Smooth as silk, cool as air
Ooh it makes you wanna cry
And your heart beats like a subway train
Ooh it makes you wanna die
You wanna make her all your own
Go insane and out of your mind
Regina, Ave Maria
A million and one candle lights
And don’t you wanna take her home?
In my best friend and the boy next door
Fool for love and full of fire
She’s oceans runnin’ down the drain
Blue as ice and desire
And don’t you wanna take her home?
Go insane and out of your mind
Regina, Ave Maria
A million and one candle lights
And don’t you wanna take her home?
You wanna take her everywhere
Ooh, it makes you wanna cry
Walkin’ on imported air
Ooh, it makes you wanna die
Go insane and out of your mind
Regina, Ave Maria
A million and one candle lights
Go insane and out of your mind
Regina, Ave Maria
A million and one candle lights
