You could call it the curse of Blondie. Debbie Harry prefers “double- edged sword.”
For the iconic front woman of the equally iconic band, more than three decades of being in the spotlight has been bittersweet.
“You are really proud of your success, you are proud of the things you’ve written and done, yet it sort of haunts you in a way,” says the grand dame of ’70s New Wave glitterati.
Success rarely gets much bigger than Blondie’s 1978 opus Parallel Lines, a rock milestone that not only spawned hits such as Heart Of Glass and One Way Or Another but also helped make New York’s underground DIY sounds a household phenomenon. “It really changed what was being played on radio in the (United) States and opened up a whole new era of more modern music,” Harry says.
Blondie is currently on a North American tour to mark the 30th anniversary of Parallel Lines. An expanded anniversary edition of the album, featuring four bonus tracks and a DVD, is due June 24.
Harry admits that keeping the hits relevant and evolving is a major focus of the band, which now includes only two other original members, guitarist Chris Stein and drummer Clem Burke.
“The trick is to not just stand there like a robot, the trick is to make it come alive for the audience and the band,” she says.
