History: Blondie’s Debbie Harry Makes Shocking Admission in 1977
PHOTO: Debbie Harry by Chris Stein
In the summer of 1977, I ventured into Manhattan to meet and interview the lead singer of Blondie for the now-defunct Photoplay movie magazine, which was experimenting at the time by first covering rock’n’roll. Debbie Harry, born Angela Trimble in 1945 Miami, was adopted as an infant and raised in Hawthorne before moving to Middletown Township. The 78-year old used to be a dancer, a model and a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Club in Great Gorge, Vernon Township. When she let me in to her disheveled apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, she apologized for the mess and told me she was nursing her sick boyfriend, guitarist Chris Stein, who I could hear moaning in another room. We sat on her bed. I was 26. She was 32. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on and had a tough time remaining professional. Thanks to my mom—who used to cut out every single one of my interviews to fill dozens of scrapbooks—I found this story that originally was on newsstands nationwide in the October 1977 issue. My editor at the time told me in no uncertain terms to “keep it sexy” and “write for people who never heard of Blondie.”
Success didn’t come overnight to Deborah Harry, lead singer with the popular rock group, Blondie. In fact, as a newcomer, she didn’t have any idea how to go about getting the career she yearned for, whether it was music, modeling or filming TV commercials. “I found myself constantly having to go to bed with photographers,” she says frankly, “even though I was repulsed by most of them. It was like, if you wanted to get free portfolio work done and make sure that you got copies of the pictures they took, you would eventually wind up on their couch. That was par for the course for me.
“What I’ve learned through my experiences is that the best way of getting photographs or working in the arts is to make friends with people. It’s good to have friends in certain circles so you can get turned on to other people who are in a position to help. But back then, I just wasn’t hip to that. I was literally banging on doors of people who I didn’t know.”
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“If you’re going to play, save your bucks. Get a job with good tips. If you’re in a band, the only way to make it is to be extremely persevering and patient. Work with a lot of different people. Respect their contribution to your effort. Have a strong goal in mind and stay at it, day after day after day. Either that or find a sugar daddy.”
The first time Debbie Harry ever opened her mouth to sing in public was in a church choir. “For some reason,” she remembers, “I never got into it at school. I had a boyfriend in the sixth grade, though, who had an older sister. She was the one who turned me on to rock’n’roll. After Harry graduated high school, she began joining local rock bands. She found college discomforting. All she could think about was music. So she joined a Baroque folk-rock group, Wind In The Willows, then she joined a punk band, The Stilettos, and finally formed Blondie. “Music has always been my driving ambition,” she says, “even at times when I wasn’t involved in it at all. I’ve tried lots of things—career jobs, flash jobs. I’ve been into everything.
“Flash jobs are jobs that have a glamourous front,” she explains, “but they’re really hard work. Being a Playboy Bunny seems glamorous but it’s extremely hard work and those girls really earn their money. As for the “Marilyn Monroe of Punk Rock” title that numerous journalists bestowed upon her? She smiles, looks down and admits to “being shocked when I first saw it. I mean, it’s flattering. I wish I could live up to that name and that image.”
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PHOTO: Debbie Harry Today, Still beautiful at 78
Musically, Blondie marries an early-‘60s girl-group sensibility with today’s brash New York City punk aesthetic as if The Shangri-Las had a baby with The Ramones. “I think Blondie has helped bring back some life to rock’n’roll,” she says proudly. “Rock, as it’s played on the radio now, is really what you call middle-of-the-road easy-listening stuff. It’s not saying anything to anybody sexually, politically or socially. It’s all a big pile of nothing. The beat’s there, sure, but the musicians are like nameless faceless puppets to a producer’s vision. It’s all about the producer nowadays.
“We want to bring it back to the musicians,” she forcefully says. “We’re trying to say stuff relevant to our lives. Our intention is to take that tough-girl approach and combine it with good solid rock music. I’m really amazed that there aren’t many girls doing rock. I get so flipped out whenever I meet anybody. It’s difficult for a girl to get it together. I know, from my own experience, when I was kicking around with nothing to do, I was sorta brought down by the fact that my musical career was so stifled, so I started to play bass. But when I would jam, I was laughed at. There was a condescension then, but a lot of guys have gotten over that lately.”
We talk about The Runaways, Suzi Quatro, Fanny, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and, over in Jersey, The Bonnie Parker Band. when Debbie gives out some advice. “If you’re going to play, save your bucks. Get a job with good tips. If you’re in a band, the only way to make it is to be extremely persevering and patient. Work with a lot of different people. Respect their contribution to your effort. Have a strong goal in mind and stay at it, day after day after day. Either that or find a sugar daddy.”