Debbie Harry

Love her. She seems like a super cool woman.

That said, there's like three Blondie songs I actually love. I never thought they were that great.

Hi R2. It's R1. I beat you.

R3, what do you think of her solo work?

Call Me is a masterpiece made fine tuned by Giorgio Moroder.

This is a perfect compilation.

She is ATOMIC!!!

Overrated songstress, underrated actress.

The cool aunt you always wanted.

Didnt she think she was the child that marilyn monroe gave up for adoption?

She also thinks I tried to kidnap her.

Def, Dumb & Blonde is the most solid of her solo albums.

Bone structure from the Gods when it comes to her.

I highly respect how she took care of her long term gentleman friend from Blondie after they broke up. He had some rare disease and is alright now I think. That's a true hallmark of character.

"Overrated songstress, underrated actress."

I bet she's agree. I'm not sure if SHE's overrated, as much as Blondie generally - though she's obviously the face of the band. Like I said earlier, there's a few Blondie songs I really like, but overall I think they're a tinge overrated - musically. But I get the feeling that a lot of the writers and commentators who have iconized them realize they weren't musical stalwarts. Thus their high cultural "rating" really isn't based mainly on the music. It's the the combination of their origin, their connection to the downtown club and art scene, the 70s/80s NYC cool factor, the fashion, the fact that they had a hot, cool chick as a front woman, but one that was down to earth and relatable. And she's only confirmed that over the years - that she's a cool person, down to earth, not obsessed with herself, can take it all in stride.

I've said many times on DL that Madonna could have been a great elder statesman - one who everyone would enjoy - if she didn't press so much and just could learn to not take herself or everything surrounding her that seriously. In other words, act like Debbie Harry as she got older and further away from her peak.

I thought it was strange how she seemed to come out as bisexual and then she walked it back a few years later.

[Quote] Like I said earlier, there's a few Blondie songs I really like

Fascinating. Tell us a third time.

R15, there's a few Blondie songs that I really like.

I like her to bits. She was a Playboy Bunny, no kidding, and then was the sexy front of a band that ironically made light of her good looks. I love her alto voice, her sexy manner, the fact that she stayed with her partner, whatshisface, the bi guy who died of AIDS, I love her acting career, and her saucy lyrics. She's cool as heaven above, and I want every good thing for her..

That broad is going places!

I love Debbie I can’t say enough about Blondie; the records through 1982 are all great. I do have a soft spot for Koo Koo, the first Debbie solo album produced by Chic. I think she worked best in Blondie but that album is a very odd mix of funk and Harry/Stein lyricism. Love the Giger artwork too.

Chris Stein did not die of AIDS. He made a good judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Didn't her drug problems complicate her career in the '80s?

She walks like she don't care, walking on imported air

She was Miss Soft Crab of 1945, and that title WASN’T handed to her on a silver platter! She had to WORK for it!!

She seems like the coolest person you'd ever meet.

Overrated. I don't get all the gay love for her. Wot the fock?

She was gorgeous in her day, very beautiful. And a punk rocker. Very unusual combination. I liked a few of Blondie's songs but wasn't a real fan. She apparently was devoted to her lover Chris Stein. She stuck by him while he was suffering from a serious illness, which he eventually recovered from. I guess she had punk rock taste in men; Chris Stein was very ugly. I think at some point both of them were junkies. A very punk rock couple.

There's an urban legend about Deborah Harry and...Ted Bundy! She claimed to have been almost abducted by him. She claimed she was trying to get a cab on the lower East side of the Village in the early seventies when a guy in a "little white car" offered her a ride. She got in a the car and realized that there was "no door handle, no window crank, no nothing. The inside of the car was totally stripped out." She claimed she escaped by reaching her "arm out through the little crack (the car windows were closed except for about an inch and a half at the top) and stretched down and opened the car from the outside." She said later "It was right after his execution that I read about him. I hadn’t thought about that incident in years. The whole description of how he operated and what he looked like and the kind of car he drove and the time frame he was doing that in that area of the country fit exactly. I said, ‘My God, it was him.'” Exciting, creepy story, right? But it was all bullshit. Snopes easily debunked Harry's tale:

So here we come to the first problem with Harry’s tale: the chronology just doesn’t work. Ted Bundy is not known to have been in New York City in the early 1970s (or at any other time in his life), nor to have begun abducting and killing women prior to early 1974 (and then only in the Washington-Oregon and Utah-Colorado-Idaho areas until after he escaped from a Colorado jail at the end of 1977 and fled to Florida, where he attacked and killed more women before his re-arrest in February 1978).

Given that Harry maintains her encounter with the mystery man who offered her a ride took place in the “lower east side of the Village” in the “early ’70s” when she “wasn’t even in a band,” that incident must have occurred prior to the end of 1973, as Harry was definitely in a band (the Stillettos) by then. But there’s no evidence that Ted Bundy was either in New York or attempting to abduct women at that time.

The other problem with Harry’s account is that Bundy was never known to have driven or used a “totally stripped out” MurderMobile of the type she described, one devoid even of door handles and window cranks. During his Seattle and Salt Lake City murder sprees, he drove a normal-appearing vehicle, a light brown Volkswagen Beetle. The only modification he made to this car was to occasionally remove the passenger seat and place it across the back seat in order to facilitate the carrying of “cargo.”

As Ann Rule, author of the Ted Bundy study The Stranger Beside Me noted, young women who later (erroneously) claimed to have narrowly escaped the clutches of Ted Bundy are a not uncommon phenomenon:

Quite possibly something like Harry’s tale did happen, but it probably didn’t involve the most famous serial killer of the time.

Blondie's Debbie Harry says heroin addiction was a 'full-time occupation'

Debbie Harry has said that tracking down and scoring heroin made the addiction a 'drag' and was the reason she eventually gave up

She was and is fucking fabulous! She brought a Hollywood and visual glamour to music pre-MTV. It was like watching Marilyn Monroe fronting a pop/punk band. Love her! She’s seen and been through some shit!

I really disliked their earlier punk stuff but then they scored one of the best albums of the 70s

Chris stein had pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disorder. I also thought it was AIDS for a bit.

I’ve always loved Debbie, Parallel Lines was my first real record.

A friend who lived in NYC said she was really nasty to the (mostly) Korean grocers. I hope he was exaggerating.

I don't know about Blondie but Christ Stein was a heroin addict for years and I suspect so was Debbie because he must have started when they were together. I know this first hand and that is all I am saying. I loved her voice and style and was a real beauty for awhile. I saw a recent pic of her and she still looks good way better than that monster Madonna or Courtney Love. She gets good work done.

I loved her as a teenager. I’m 34 but I got into Blondie in high school.

But for someone who is said to have inspired Madonna, she wasn’t very consistent.

Maybe it because she was pretty old when she joined Blondie that for me it’s like the time she should have been at her peak after Blondie, she was in her 40’s.

And while I love the 80’s, her solo albums are pretty bad. I feel like you had to be there to appreciate them.

I mean I enjoy Vanity’s shitty Motown albums.

But Debbie’s albums are tough to listen to.

Debbie Harry needs to write her Memoirs, that would be an awesome read!! And I mean every detail from the era, she's a goddess of punk!!

Someone important should interview her at length, so many stories there...

[quote]He made a good judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

RuPaul's act was inspired by Debbie far more than Madonna.

Debbie Harry and Madonna have met on rare occasions, and I don't believe for a second these times were very comfortable for Debbie, as they are nothing alike. Debbie is very quiet and softly spoken, yes and she's also super gorgeous.

Always thought Debbie and Madonna lookalike.

We literally just did this...

"We literally just did this... "

We always literally just do thread topics.

And we literally always write "we literally just did this."

R41 "Literally" - good grief, grow up

🎵🎶🎸French kissing in the USA, French kissing in the USA, ayyyyy yyyyyyaayyyy...🎵🎶🥁

Written by Chuck Lorre. I always love when Debbie sings a little French.

Loved her in Wiseguy "dead dog records" arc. Did a fantastic job.

[quote]Debbie Harry needs to write her Memoirs, that would be an awesome read!

I'll think about it, R36.

I saw her at the Shinnicock Smoke shop in Southhampton late 1990s. She had to be the tiniest woman I ever saw. I dont think she was even 5'. No make up, all you saw were cheekbones

I saw her recently on Drag Race and was impressed at how sweet and kind she was to the queens when she went to talk to them backstage. She's a class act.

Years ago I was going down in an elevator in an apartment building in Chelsea. The door opened, a woman backed into the elevator, held the doors open as she finished a conversation with an elderly woman who wasn't getting on. When they were finished talking, all of ten seconds, Debbie Harry turned and apologized for delaying me. Very cool and genuine indeed.

R36 - She already did - "Face It"

As others have noted, she's a better actress than she is a singer. I loved her in "Videodrome" and the underrated/under-seen indie drama "Heavy". She does a fantastic job at playing dark, depressed characters.

Nonsense. She's very gifted as a recording artist.

She was a very good singer with her own style and also quite beautiful.

Madonna and her lookalike

Liking the songs isn't the same as being a good singer.

Why isn't she a good singer? R61

Roll me in designer sheets, I'll never get enough.

Is your daughter mulatto?

R22, am I crazy if I say both Debbie and Divine look gorgeous in that photo?

Just saw her duet with Billie Eilish at the Hollywood Bowl, they performed Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?"

Why did it take so long for Debbie Harry to become famous?

Does anyone know?

I disagree with the above posters who say they love Blondie’s hit songs but don’t like the albums. As a young gayling who grew up with this music as it was being released, I *love* the albums! Album tracks and all, songs in that order. Those first five albums are a listening ritual to me.

Modern compilations of of all the hits jumbled together sound weird to me (but I still like!)

Posh posh on those who say Debbie isn’t a talented vocalist. She’s no better or worse than any classic rock and roll pop singer. Most of all her vocals in the songs have: presence.

Camille Paglia in one of her past columns said something like: “[Debbie Harry is] an underrated vocalist. What perfect pitch, what emotional clarity.”

Saying someone is a better actor than Madonna is seriously deep shade.

Why is her solo career so underrated?

R72 typical that a pseud like Camille Paglia would use the term ‘perfect pitch’ as if it meant the ability to sing in tune. Then again, that’s what 90 % of music journalists think it means.