This part of the website contains some of the most-cited magazine and newspaper articles about Deborah and Blondie, as well as press releases and packages. The articles scanned and typed out here are for informational purposes. This site mainly focuses on interviews and literal quotes by Debbie herself.
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image (left) by Joe Gaffney
PRESS | nypost.com (August 29, 2010)
MY NEW YORK: BLONDIEOne way or another, new wave icon Blondie has retained their punk aesthetic since banding together 35 years ago. Founders (and former lovers) Deborah Harry, 65, and Chris Stein, 60, bemoan the demise of grass-roots stomping grounds such as CBGB and Mother. “The whole nature of culture in New York has really taken a nose dive, basically,” says Harry, a longtime Chelsea resident. “It’s much harder for musicians and artists to do what they do without really having to scuffle.” Blondie, meanwhile, continues to do what it does. The group, which also includes drummer Clem Burke, plays at the Nokia Theatre on Tuesday night and plans to release an album of new material, “Panic of Girls,” later this year. This is their New York.
1. Hudson River piers, West Street at 23rd Street
Harry: “I liked the area when I first moved there with Chris in the late ‘80s. It was very quiet, relatively speaking. There were some real colorful people walking around on 10th and 11th avenues. We really liked going down to the piers — there was a great sort of crumbling-edges-of-New-York feeling to it. It wasn’t a popular area. No restaurants; there wasn’t even a laundromat when I first lived there. Sort of remote, you know? It was delightful, in a way.”
2. 266 Bowery, between Prince and Houston streets
Stein: “We lived there for three years [in the 1970s].”
Harry: “We always thought it was haunted.”
Stein: “It definitely had polter-geists. There would be knocking on the walls, things falling down that weren’t related to any activity. It’s subtle stuff, but all the standard poltergeist nonsense went on there.”3. Fifth Avenue at 17th Street
Stein: “For the second album cover [1977’s “Plastic Letters,” above, which was shot on the street], we got a police car that was not a real police car — the police department had a small version of one that they would use for photo and film shoots. There was a sign in the background that said ‘Plastic Letters’ — that’s where the album title came from.”
4. Max’s Kansas City, formerly at 213 Park Ave. South, near Union Square
Stein: “Debbie used to work there. Max’s was on Union Square right across from the first and second Andy Warhol Factory. Now it’s — what is it, a grocery store or deli? — which is kind of sad.”
Harry: “The original Max’s, way back before the 1970s version, was fascinating because [owner Mickey Ruskin] would exchange paintings for credit. He would give artists dinners — their food and their drink — for a piece of art. He started this whole artists’ collective atmosphere, and a lot of musicians and filmmakers and everything would go there. It really was a great, great hangout for downtown artists.”
Stein: “Kind of like something you’d think of being in Paris in the ’50s or ’40s, you know?”5. Lower East Side, near First Street and First Avenue
Stein: “I think I moved there in 1970. The having-to-watch-your-back aspect has sort of vanished at this point. I don’t know if that’s a good thing — it made for a certain heightened sensibility and awareness. The building I was in was all European families and they just thought I was completely weird. Right down the block — I could almost see it out of my back window — was the first men’s bathhouse.”
6. CBGB & OMFUG, formerly at 315 Bowery, near Bleecker Street
Harry: “We appreciated that it was a real cultural institution as well as a business. I don’t think [founder] Hilly [Kristal] ever got super-rich. He really liked having bands and musicians, and was available for that kind of thing. A lot of club owners now just really can’t be bothered to create that kind of an atmosphere.”
7. Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., between Seventh and Eighth avenues
Stein: “We have a lot of associations with Studio 54. Andy Warhol threw a big party for Debbie there when she was on the cover of Interview. But I wasn’t there a lot — maybe 10 times.”
Harry: “It really was a fun place where you would always see somebody that you knew. I remember talking to different people, like Truman Capote and Diane von Furstenberg. [Owners Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell] knew how to make it into a place where everybody wanted to go. It’s not like they had the money and opened a club and then somebody else ran it. Like any successful club or restaurant, it’s because the owners are present, interested, and know how to make it happen. They really have their finger on the pulse of New York.”8. Mother, formerly at 432 W. 14th St., near Washington Street
Stein: “We were there a lot. We have a new song about the club called ‘Mother in the Night.’ ”
Harry: “I love dressing up, and they would have a specific theme each week. Everybody would put on something that went with the evening. So it was always fun to participate and be a part of the, I don’t know, topography [laughs].”
Stein: “It was kind of the end of an era, too. When it closed, within a year or two, all the transition that’s gone down in New York to where it is now was happening.”by Eric Hegedus