Debbie Harry

Rush, Rush
$0.99
Such a rad song, loved it so much playing GTA. Now it just reminds me of stealing cars and endless rampages in that game. In fact, I'm going to go play right now.

Def, Dumb & Blonde
$15.98
This is an excellent CD for fans and collectors who love Blondie you'll need to buy this too,the songs sound great.

Rockbird
$34.05
It's probably identity crisis enough that people who never learned that Blondie was a group think Deborah Harry IS "Blondie." But to add to the confusion, why is she sometimes billed as "Debbie" and sometimes "Deborah"? Obviously, it's not quite the same deal as with former ("WAAAAY former") teen queen Debbie Gibson who wanted to be Deborah when she grew up. Debbie Harry was already a mature(?) 30ish when she hit the big time, and she was still "Debbie" then. So she obviously didn't care about the "grown up image" thing back then.

Maybe it has something to do with numerology.

(Psychic reader and advisor to Deb: "Deb-BOR-ahh, my dear, ve musst call you "Debbie" for zis record. Ozzervise it vill not zell menny copies.")

Well, if that's the case, the psychic got it wrong with this one, cuz it didn't sell that much, despite having one heckuva sexy cover, to say nothing of a real internationa AND near-US hit single (c'est a dire the no-longer-shocking-by-the-mid-80s "French Kissin'"). I never understand these things. Was Debbie already considered a bit passe in the "Age of Madonna"? Was she too associated with the group to have her solo efforts taken seriously? I dunno, but it's a darn shame that more people don't know this record. It's good, and it shows the Debster at her absolute vocal best.

You know when ROLLING STONE did their "100 Best Singers of the Rock Era" (HAH!) a few months back, Deborama did NOT make the list. That's not too surprising, I guess--among the nabobs of rockcrit establishment, she's considered more of an "icon" than a singer. But of course, her voice was JUS right for Blondie--and in a somewhat different way, it's just right for this solo effort as well. But what's really cool is that, if you take a peek at some of the artist ballots that RS included on their website, you'll find, that among her peers, the Debmeister is indeed respected as a vocalist. I really can't remember who it was exactly among her fellow artists who cast their votes for the Divine Miss H, but she got the votes of a few discerning peers.

See Debbie had the smarts to appropriate the best vocal moves of 60's girl groups (the bratty brashness AND a ethereal sweetness rendered ironic by streetsmart, decidely non-otherworldy lyrics) and slip them in an ironic post-modern setting. If she and the boys hadn't done it, someone else would have in the late 70s--but this much I can tell you: it would not have been Pat Benatar!

I mean, can you imagine "French Kissin'" (uh, the chanson, I mean) as performed by "Miss Five-Octaves-And-I'm-Gonna-Give-You-All-Of-'Em-Full-Throttle". Oubliez-ca, as they say in French. You needed a strong dose of heavy irony to get through the era, and that same ironic stance plays well even to this day.

As for the tunes on this record, you could be forgiven for taking a while to get into them. On first hearing, a lot of them sound like well-produced fluff. Give yourself time though, the smart phrasing and (mostly smart) lyrics start to shine around the 2nd or 3rd time through. She's got this thing down. This blondie didn't actually NEED a group, although when they were happening, they brought their own special something to the table. But with the Debinator it always had to be a cool dish. And this CD is among her coolest.

Koo Koo/Def, Dumb & Blonde
$16.49
Okay, since I'm a Blondie/Debbie fan since 1978, I'll throw my hat into this...

For anyone wondering, BUY THIS COLLECTION IF YOU WANT A BRAND NEW REMASTERED VERSION OF DEBBIE'S 1ST SOLO ALBUM. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE OTHERS HERE ON AMAZON...TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE. SO HAPPY WE HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE! ALSO, IF YOU HAVE A COPY OF DEF, DUMB, AND BLONDE, BUY THIS ONE ANYWAY, SINCE IT'S THE TRUE REMASTER AND NOT JUST A REISSUE FROM 1989, LIKE THE ONE WOUNDED BIRD RECS. RELEASED 4 YEARS AGO. THE DIFFERENCE IN SOUND IS VERY OBVIOUS.

KOO KOO, from 1981, is a pretty good album. It's interesting, but a very different kind of animal from what Debbie had been giving us since 1976 w/ Chris and the boys; which is odd, considering how diverse her music w/ Blondie was. Like many others have said over the years, many of the songs sound like B-sides to A-sides: They're interesting, somewhat avant-garde, but not particularly hooky or memorable in the way that her previous output was. I'll put it this way...it's an odd follow-up to Blondie's masterpiece AUTOAMERICAN, which featured excellent forays into Art Pop, Punk/New Wave, Disco, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, Broadway show tune, and Rap. This is also a diverse album as well, going from New Wave, to Funk, to R&B/Jazz, Reggae (in The Police vein), Mid-Eastern-flavor, to Disco/Dance w/ a little Rap for good measure. It's very 1981, yet it sounds very artsy by today's standards...its style is rather timeless, like so much of Deb's music(I was alive and well in 1981, though only 7 yrs. old and this was my 1st time hearing the entire album 28 yrs. later, and it sounds contemporary and dated at the same time). As always when a leader of a group goes solo for the 1st time, the material and execution is incredibly crucial. Debbie and Chris Stein teaming up w/ Chic was not a mistake or mis-pairing; it's just that the songs aren't as important or memorable as everything that she did before or after, except most of 1986's ROCKBIRD, which, excepting a few tracks, was not a good album. There are some songs I hear on KOO KOO, and wish the production had been more textured, or more lyrics were added to the songs, or other voices, instruments, etc. Some of the songs sound unfinished or incomplete. No clear endings of thoughts or themes. The production is very minimalist on some songs, and it's jarring after coming from Mike Chapman's gorgeous, lush sound paintings. It's definitely worth buying and hearing. I also think the reception of the album was affected by the singles they released. I believe "Jump Jump" should've been the 1st single (a good intro for Deb's solo work, but not SO different from her previous stuff), then "Backfired" (Disco/Dance from Chic), then "Chrome" (beautiful vocal) for the New Wave fans, then the beautiful, Jazzy "Now I Know You Know" (one of Debbie's best vocals in her career; a great display of her range, and maybe the greatest of the highlights from the album), then "The Jam Was Moving". Blondie fans at large wouldn't have been as put off w/ these releases. The joke is, Debbie and Chris were trying to distance themselves from the pull of Blondie and the group's music, but the best songs on this album are the ones that are the most Blondie-esque. Go figure.

The opposite is true for 1989's D,D,&B: I feel that this is Debbie's best solo album, w/ NECESSARY EVIL a close second. Here, the Blondie and Deborah Harry personae are fused together. This album really feels and sounds like the 1st Blondie album after THE HUNTER. You could swear the drumming is Clem Burke. The backing voices are the rest of the boys. Since Mike Chapman produced much of the album, the Blondie style is even more apparent, though you're aware this is a Debbie album. The vocal and sonic textures are a complete opposite to the seemingly intentional hollowness of KOO KOO. Honestly, I don't make much of a distinction between the two faces of Debbie. I don't think Deborah Harry has ever held back on style or experimentation w/ Blondie, so I don't see her solo albums as being complete oppositions to the group's work. The best part of this album is that Debbie's voice is probably the strongest it's ever been. Her range is just as good at 43 as it was when she was in her 30s. Not many artists can say that. Highlights of the album are every song, for her personality as an actress of songs takes centerstage; but of greatest note are "Maybe For Sure", "Calmarie" "Get Your Way", "Sweet & Low", and "He Is So" (Debbie's voice sounds like an instrument on this one...this could easily have been on a Blondie album...classic Harry/Stein on this one). The only two drags of this collection are: No lyrics, and not all of the extra songs from D,D,&B are included, which means you need to own the Wounded Bird Records edition to hear the other songs, which are just as good as these included here.

The remastering sounds excellent.