Blondie @40, The 92Y at 140

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are laid back.  The founding members of Blondie took the stage at the 92 St Y last night, talking, not performing, but letting us in on what's gone on in the past 40 years.  Yes, the band started 40 years ago which is really hard to believe. 

Early photo of Blondie taken by Chris Stein

Here's what I took away from their chat:

Debbie said she knew at 5 years old that she was going to do things her way. 

The band had success in Europe first. Debbie attributes that to two things:  Their record label was based there so they knew how to work the market and the Europeans have always been open to pop music. 

Their early style came from raiding thrift stores.  At the time, the cheapest clothes were the 60's discards.  It's hard to say that she created a look because her style was so eclectic.  No matter what she wore, whether it was a garbage bag or a boy scout uniform, she always looked amazing.  I remember seeing the band at My Father's Place, Halloween 1978 and was astounded by how cool Debbie was and thinking there is no way I could pull off what she does. 

Andy Warhol used  Big Shot Polaroid Cameras to shoot photos.  The band would pick them up while on the road the bring them back to him.  The cover of their latest album features Andy Warhol's portrait of Debbie.  Chris pointed out the irony of Andy using cheap equipment and selling the art for millions of dollars.

September will see the release of Chris Stein's book of photos and anecdotes, Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk.  We saw a few of the photos last night.  There was a wonderful shot of Clem and Debbie on 14th St.  As Christ pointed out an onlooker looked like Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club. 

They always wanted to be successful and therefore were prepared for their rise to rock star-ness. 

Clem Burke (the original and still drummer) is immersed in music.  He has no alternative reality.  He knows everything about every band.  Blondie played Hammersmith Odeon at the time Keith Moon died.  As a tribute, Clem threw his snare drum into the audience that night.  Clem was upset that one of their road crew retrieved the drum. 

Debbie thinks of herself as a feminist. 

The band has a new album, Blondie 4(0) Forever -Ghosts of a Download/Deluxe Redux:Greatest Hits.  They rerecorded their hits, which is part l of the package.  They don't own the original masters, so I'm sure licensing them would have been a nightmare.  Part ll is new material including Sugar on the Side which the band performed on GMA. 

Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling Stone writer) dropped the ball as the interviewer.  Was he so enamored by Debbie and Chris that he couldn't keep track of the conversation?  He asked questions that had already been answered and poised many questions that only required a yes or no.  He would have failed interview class.  Debbie has never been gregarious in interviews, so DeCurtis' questions did not solicit an elaborate answer from her.   The audience questions made for a more captivating evening.  As I left the theater I thought if only Lenny Kaye sat between these two immensely talented people....  I'll have to wait for the duo to hit the Howard Stern Show.  I can hope. 

The Genius of Jac Holzman

The best part of Jac Holzman’s job was working with the artists. He loved pairing a musician with the right producer. He said last night at the 92Y’s celebration of 60 years of Elektra Records (Jac founded the label) that finding that perfect collaboration was probably the most challenging part of his job.  He told the crowd that he wanted the label to make enough money so that he could continue to put out the music that needed to be heard.

Lenny Kaye was superb in his conversation with Jac. They have a history.  Among other things, Lenny assembled the Nuggets compilations, which were a packaging of the best songs from the albums Elektra released. 1948 was a pivotal year for both Jac and music.  The 33 1/3 album was now available and this changed the music business, much like digital files have today.  The early 50’s saw the rise of independent record labels.  Lenny and Jac both commented on how similar that era is to today.  Jac’s first release was a John Gruen record with soprano Georgiana Bannister, from there it became the premier label for folk music.  Lenny pointed out that just about every important folk singer was on the label.  Jac commented that he missed one:  Bob Dylan.   Jac still seems to be beating himself up for missing the Dylan train.  At the time Dylan was playing Greenwich Village, Jac felt that New York City was being plucked from all angles, so he took a year and moved to LA to check out the scene there.  He didn’t find the music he was looking for and by the time he returned to New York, Dylan was signed to Columbia Records. 

When John Sebastian (before The Lovin’ Spoonful, he played on a lot of Elektra’s recordings) mentioned to Jac in the early 60’s that they were running out of folk songs to record, the light bulb went off and Jac realized he had to sign folk singers who were recording their own compositions.  Till that point, a folk song in the strict sense of the word, was a tune that was handed down from a generation that lived it.  Now with recorded music, the dynamics changed.  Songs were there to be heard as they were originally written and sung. They no longer had to be handed down to be reinterpreted.  Tom Rush, Phil Ochs and Tim Buckley were the new folk paradigm.  Judy Collins recorded Leonard Cohen songs. Folk music had changed. 

Jac wanted to sign a rock band. He went back to LA and as he told it, he went through the local papers and circled the names of any artists he had never heard of and decided to go see them live.  Love caught his eye.   “What a great name for a band” he told the audience.  Love’s leader Arthur Lee was wearing prismatic glasses, doing a rock version of My Little Red Book.  Jac was sold after seeing them at Bido Lido's in Hollywood.  Arthur wanted $5000 in cash to sign.  The deal was done.  Love was never a huge hit despite being an amazing rock band.  Jac thinks part of it might be that it was a racially mixed band, which meant nothing to him growing up in the melting pot of New York City.  Arthur was instrumental in Elektra’s biggest success. 

At the urging of Arthur, Jac came early to a Love show to see the opening act, The Doors.  Jac didn’t really get them the first time he saw them, but Arthur’s passion for the band led him to see them a few more times and when he heard them perform Alabama Song, he got what they were doing.  Unbeknownst to Jac, the band had just been dropped from Columbia Records the week before and were leery of record companies.  The band was a fan of the world music albums Jac was releasing on his sister label Nonesuch Records.  They liked that Love was on Elektra.  Jac was very close to signing them when he decided to get into their heads and think as musicians.  What would they want?  He decided it was a full on commitment to release three albums no matter what the situation.  This hadn’t been done before and it worked.  Jac thought like an artist.  He let the artist be him/herself. He was very hands on in the studio, with the artwork and with the marketing, but at the core, he let the musicians make their own music.  

The next step in Jac’s work with The Doors was to pair them with the reluctant Paul Rothchild to produce the record. Jac thought he would be perfect even though Paul did not.  He was someone who was as smart as the band and it probably didn’t hurt his standing with them that he had been arrested for  marijuana possession.  The Doors had never been into a recording studio before making the landmark Doors record in 1967.  As Jac explained it, it took them about two hours to get it and feel comfortable.   They recorded at Sunset Sound where Jim Morrison was enamored by using the same mic that Frank Sinatra used. He was a big fan.

Towards the end of the program two Elektra artists, Jackson Browne and Natalie Merchant took the stage and talked about their experiences with Elektra and then performed.  Jackson started off with My Opening Farewell.  Nathalie sang a song of Jackson’s These Days that she recorded for an Elektra 40^th Anniversary record.  Browne accompanied her on guitar.  Her voice is nothing short of a force of nature.  She exudes feeling and it seems effortless.  She’s a natural talent.  One that I’m sure Jac would have signed if he hadn’t left the company years before. 

Jac is truly a music man. He said numerous times how lucky he is to do what he does. His true passion came through when he talked about why he signed an artist. If the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when listening to her/him, the artist was worthy of a record.  He said that there had to be joy in wanting to work with these artists.  Maybe that is really his genius, letting us all in on his joy.