Blondie’s self-titled debut album, released in December 1976. But I wouldn’t catch up to this album until June 1980.
The idea behind the Rich’s House of Vinyl website is to highlight a different album from my record collection every day. Ideally these albums are chosen by my Mystical Dice of Random Musical Destiny, but sometimes those plans need to be altered.
Take today, for example. Early this morning, the dice decreed that I should listen to, and write about, Beach Boys Party!, the casual Beach Boys album that spawned the hit single “Barbara Ann.” Unfortunately, sad news changed the trajectory of my musical day.
Clem Burke, drummer and founding member of Blondie, died over the weekend. Burke was one of my favorite drummers, and I was fortunate to seem him perform with two of my favorite bands: Blondie, of course, but I also saw him play with Eurythmics during their Revenge tour.
Today’s Album of the Day, Blondie’s self-titled debut, was released in 1976, though I didn’t catch up with it until 1980. Blondie and Plastic Letters had each gotten some attention, but it was their third album, Parallel Lines, that broke the band wide open and introduced me and millions of others to them.
In June of 1980, my friend Bob gave me the debut album for my birthday and, as I recently noted in an essay on the I Have That on Vinyl website, we spent the rest of the day listening to album repeatedly and laughing uproariously at many of the absurdist lyrics.
From this first Blondie album on, it was clear that Clem Burke was a drumming force to be reckoned with. He was the only member of Blondie, aside from Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, to have played on every Blondie album.
From the first track, “X Offender” it is obvious that Burke was going to be an integral part of the Blondie unit. I do not have the technical language to describe Burke’s drumming style, but he played with tons of style, and he was a powerful player, but also not ostentatious about it. You can listen to Blondie songs without focusing in on the drums, but when you do, Clem Burke is often going to blow you away with what he is doing.
Blondie is a great record, and one of the most fun records I’ve ever heard (and not all great records are fun. Not sure if all fun records are great). But don’t take it from me. As Ronnie Toast notes in the brief note on the back of the Blondie cover:
“’Blondie’ hates fun but they have so much of it that they decided it’s time to unload the real meaning of fun on this LP.”
Tune in tomorrow for some more fun (fun, fun) with tomorrow’s aforementioned Album of the Day,Beach Boys’ Party!