Blondie - Parallel Lines
Writer: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 23.09.1978
In the very year that "Ramones" began the musical race of their lives, another punk rock band took shape in the same city, New York. It was originally called "Angel and the Snake". Then, one day, while singer Debbie Harry was driving, a truck driver shouted "Hey, Blondie!" at her because of her hair. Some would call it sexist. The band took the name "Blondie", a name that said plenty about the woman at its center.
Debbie was born Angela Trimble on July 1, 1945, in Miami, Florida. She was born to a young mother and placed for adoption at three months old. Catherine and Richard Harry of New Jersey adopted her and renamed her Deborah Ann.
Debbie grew up in an ordinary family, but she craved excitement and could not settle for an ordinary life. As she later explained, her parents lived the peaceful, happy life that suited them, while she wanted to experience as much as she could and step outside her comfort zone.
After studying art at a college in New Jersey, she moved to New York and moved between jobs as a waitress, secretary, go-go dancer and hostess at a "Playboy" club. Her musical career began with singing, acoustic guitar and tambourine in the psychedelic folk group "The Wind in the Willows".
She later sang in the all-female group "The Stilettos", which was joined by guitarist Chris Stein. He would later become Debbie Harry's partner. When the group broke up, the two decided to form a band. They initially recruited drummer Billy O'Connor, bassist Fred Smith and guitarist Ivan Kral.
But by the spring of 1975, all three had left: Smith replaced Richard Hell in "Television", while Kral joined Patti Smith's band. After further auditions, drummer Clem Burke and bassist Gary Valentine joined, followed by keyboardist Jimmy Destri toward the end of 1975.
Like "Ramones", "Blondie" became a regular presence at "Max's Kansas City" and "CBGB".
In June 1976, the band released its first single, "X Offender", on "Private Stock". Its debut album followed in December. After opening shows for David Bowie and Iggy Pop, the band moved to "Chrysalis Records". Gary Valentine decided to leave, and Frank Infante, who had previously played alongside Joey Ramone in "Sniper", replaced him on bass.
But they owed their first taste of success to luck. On the Australian television show "Countdown", "In the Flesh" was played by mistake instead of "X Offender". The unintended choice became a hit in Australia. Jimmy Destri later joked that the band still thanked host Molly Meldrum for the mistake.
The band enjoyed a successful Australian tour in late 1977. In February 1978, it released its second album, "Plastic Letters", strengthening its position as one of the hottest punk and new wave acts, especially in Europe. Yet there is no prophet in his hometown: New York, and the United States more broadly, remained a barrier for "Blondie".
At that point, the band decided to replace producer Richard Gottehrer, who had produced its first two albums. While touring the United States in support of "Plastic Letters", the members met Australian producer and songwriter Mike Chapman, who had already enjoyed success with Suzi Quatro, "The Sweet" and "Smokie".
It soon became clear that Chapman was pushing the band to sharpen both its playing and its songwriting, drawing out the strengths of each member. His demand for perfection sometimes led to heated arguments and more. At one point, frustrated bassist Nigel Harrison even threw a synthesizer at him.
The hard work paid off. On September 23, 1978, "Blondie" released its third studio album, "Parallel Lines". It marked a daring change of direction for a band known for punk rock and new wave: the music moved toward pop and disco without surrendering its punk energy, while making more room for Debbie Harry's softer vocal side.
"Blondie" stepped outside its comfort zone on "Heart of Glass". Debbie Harry and Chris Stein had first developed the song years earlier, and it passed through several arrangements before Chapman helped give it the disco beat and electronic sound that made it a hit. At a time when "Saturday Night Fever" had taken over the world, the band brought the dance floor together with its own new wave spirit.
The album's first single in the UK was "Picture This", a sharp pop song full of longing and images of photographs and memory. Its polished production gives Debbie Harry's voice room to sound intimate and tender.
On "Hanging on the Telephone", "Blondie" covered a song by the power pop band "The Nerves", written by member Jack Lee. According to Lee, the band's recording arrived at a time when he was struggling financially. Chapman suggested adding the telephone ring at the beginning, and the band turned the suspense of an unanswered call into a concentrated burst of guitars, drums and Debbie Harry's urgent voice.
With "One Way or Another", the roles reverse: Debbie Harry wrote it after an ex-partner stalked her, an experience that forced her to leave New Jersey. She turned that threatening feeling into a biting, irresistible song that became the album's final single in the United States.
"Sunday Girl", written by Chris Stein, sounds like a sweet love song, but it was also born of missing Debbie Harry's cat, "Sunday Man", who had run away. Beneath its light melody lies a small, quiet sadness.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. For "Pretty Baby", it came from the film of the same name starring a young Brooke Shields. The film tells the difficult story of a girl growing up in a brothel. The song also invites a reading about the way girls and women are reduced to objects in the eyes of others.
"Parallel Lines" gave "Blondie" the breakthrough it had been waiting for. Its songs made Debbie Harry and her bandmates international stars, but the album's power also lies in its union of punk, pop and disco: a combination that sounds utterly natural only because the band dared to make it.
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