Today is the day that one of the most important people in the entire world was born... no I'm not talking about me - I mean Debbie Harry! Let's watch Backfired together and celebrate:
so I totally meant to do Bubbatunesday yesterday and got completely swamped at work. I know I should not be working so hard when it's my birthday month, but damn those bastages in the work world.
Anyhoos, though I didn't get to talk about all the new exciting Bubbatunes I have whipped up - I do have exciting and stimulating news... somewhere out there my gal Debbie Harry is still cooking up gems and this wonderful little blogger just posted a new (as far as I can tell) Debbie gem so head on over and hear "Fit Right In"
bub100 – Deborah Harry – Debracentryk November 27, 2007
Deborah + Century + Eccentric = Debracentryk
That’s right we’ve come to our 100th Bubbatunes compilation CD and what a journey it’s been, which is why we are going back to the beginning for inspiration. Way back in 1999 when I did the first Bubbatune with artwork and all the little jubilant casings we looked to my idol of idols Deborah Harry for the inspiration and launched out – Debravacious: The Singles as bub #1 so it’s only fitting we take Deborah and give her the prize of being our 100th CD so I present Debracentryk; a collection that goes fittingly well with her singles collection as this time around we are checking out her album cuts.
Similar to the Stevie Nicks collection Mindscape and Cyndi Lauper’s Cynsational, our newest collection is meant as a companion piece to Debbie’s greatest ‘hits’ collections, none of which are better than our bub 1 by the way.
With the release of her fifth solo album Necessary Evil just a few months ago I thought it was high time we took a look at Debbie and all she has to offer when working without the boys of Blondie (well except for Chris who appears on all of her albums).
Beginning in 1981 when Debbie and Chris hooked up with Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Debbie was off on her own when she was on her own. When the album that resulted Koo Koo came out in the summer of 1981 no one seemed quite prepared for what they had on their hands. The cover was a HR Giger art piece with Debbie’s face firmly entrenched with needles representing the elements, I’m sure Chrysalis Records who had opted to use the tag line “Get Debbie Harry alone…” was dumbfounded to find out Debbie would be on the cover scantily clad and cooing. Just one look at the cover and you knew you were headed into a different world than Blondie – for Debbie, if anything has always had her hand in the imprints of different styles be it art, fashion or music.
When Koo Koo emerged I have to admit I was one who didn’t know what to make of it. I was a huge Blondie fan and this whole new look didn’t make much sense to me as a little kid but the singles “Backfired” and “The Jam Was Moving” were fun enough for me to get through it. More recently, Koo Koo with its Chic R&B vibe and Debbie and Chris’ eternally strange look at things has become my favorite of the Debbie solo albums. Sure, it only took about 25 years but hey, she was way ahead of her time.
From Koo Koo, we get our opening cut – the micro beating “Military Rap” with Debbie’s fast rap-like delivery. The song is a complete riot though also quite sarcastic and seething when thinking that it could be used as a war protest song even today. The ultimate lines, “Go now pray later/ it’s a lay away plan/ free vacation in Iran/ stop and see the Middle East/ miles and miles of lovely beach/ get that Coppertone tan/ on radioactive sand…” It’s excellent.
For our adventure into Debbie solo land we ended up with at least four songs from each of her solo works so Koo Koo delivers three more little ditties – super funk fun is found in the cop on a trail new wave “Under Arrest” complete with some cool male back ups, “Jump Jump” opens up the solo album with a ride through more funk and R&B from the production of Chic, but the writing credits are give to Debbie and Chris so you know it’s some strange place you’re headed to. For years I’ve tried to figure out what exactly the song is about but I’ve decided to just give it up and funk to it – besides any song with a grown man giving a dog bark is okay by me.
A lot of her fans absolutely love “Chrome” which is probably one of the strangest songs on Koo Koo if for only the insane lyrics and the strange thundering island drum beats at the end but it is really good and not so ‘experimental’ that it doesn’t work.
Like I said, Koo Koo has really grown on me and it was hard to decide what tracks to put on as “Surrender”, “Now I Know You Know” and “Oasis” all have great things going for them. One of my all time favorite Debbie songs “Inner City Spillover” was almost chosen but it’s on the bubbatunes Deborah Harry rare collection Debralicious in a different (though very close) form so I thought I’d be more original.
It should also be noted that prior to working on Koo Koo the boys of Chic had just done Diana Ross’ smash Diana album which contained “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out” and there’s a lot of those funk elements on the Koo Koo tracks, but it’s funny that Diana remixed her album because she thought the Chic boys drowned her vocals out and on the songs from Koo Koo I’ve always felt that Debbie’s vocals were so right up front she was practically in the room…. Strange isn’t it…
After Koo Koo, Debs went back to Blondie for one ill reviewed album and sort of retired for awhile when Chris got sick around 1983. She did however come out of hiding a couple times; first in late 1983 with the “Rush Rush” single from Scarface and then again in 1985 with the Jellybean Benitez produced “Feel The Spin” from the Krush Groove soundtrack.
Then came a major overhaul – in late 1986 Debbie was back with a solo album, an Andy Warhol painted canvas behind her, punked out hair and new dance vibe beats for a new generation. Rockbird was just what I needed in 1986 and I always thought it was a great album; it’s a tad kooky and a tad eccentric but ummm so is Debbie.
Rockbird came out with only 9 songs on the album, three of which were singles (and are on Debravacious) and 2 I’m not particularly fond of (“Beyond The Limit”, “You Got Me In Trouble”) and four more that were perfect fits for Debracentryk.
The keyboards and sax that drive “I Want You” were the perfect way to open up her 1986 ‘comeback’. The song is hilarious and strange, fast, furious and over the top. It’s exactly what I love to hear over and over again. I can’t tell you how often me and my pal Melsie played the song – I believe we even made a pseudo video when her parents got the first video camera I had ever seen.
“Buckle Up” is similar to “I Want You” with its jive talking pumped up melodies. It’s always been a crime to me that it wasn’t considered by the powers to be as the anthem for buckling up for safety when they launched a major campaign that year. How do I know it was a major campaign you ask.. well because I saw Regina (“Baby Love” – remember??) doing a ‘Buckle Up’ song on TV for the Safety Commission right around the time I was listening to Debbie’s song…. What a rip.
Anyway, Debbie’s “Buckle Up” isn’t really about driving a car anyway though I do believe it uses metaphors of such to get some other point across. Again, I think Deb is just too much for the mere mortal to understand. Perhaps someday she’ll write liner notes and tell us all what she was really thinking when she wrote some of these songs. All I know is the song is fun and great to sing along with.
The title track from the album is another fast jaunt through Debbie’s fun little mind trap but this time it’s all done for pure fun (I think) and the fact that she can write a song with so many references about zoos and birds and rocking out is testament to the genius she is. “some said the jaybird to the cockatoo/ want a commitment from inside the zoo/ say hey birdbrain why be sly/ tell me how a rockbird can learn to fly…” See, isn’t it fun?
The last selection from Rockbird is a little more conventional – the pop/rock hybrid set to the sweet coos of our girl “Secret Life” – “listen while I tell you of a secret life/ lives entwined like vines/ man and wife…” It’s a great little pop song.
Anyone who has followed Debbie was right there when she unleashed what is often quoted as her fan’s favorite solo work Def, Dumb & Blonde. Changing her moniker from Debbie to Deborah Harry made it a tad noticeable that she was changing direction. Where her first two albums were a little on the dare I say eccentric side, this was a full on courtship of all styles she loved and she gave her all.
When Def Dumb & Blonde was released in its incarnations – vinyl, cassette and CD – you got the luxury of added songs. The original vinyl has 11 songs and from that set I put on my ultimate favorite from the album – her rocking Ian Astbury of the Cult sing along “Lovelight.” The lyrics are phenomenal, the mix is incredible and the vocals are great.
Also included from the original 11 is the subtle and beautiful “Calmarie” – a song I figured absolutely had to be on a Debbie album track compilation.
Def Dumb & Blonde – the cassette added two more tracks, both of which were too good to pass up for our compilation – “Bike Boy” a rocking frolic through love of leather and “Comic Books” are both Debbie (or Deborah) at some of her rock sided best.
With the compact disc version came even two more songs, the tropical fest “I’ll Never Fall In Love” (not included) and the ultimate in punkiness for the solo girl, “Forced To Live” – one of my all time favs.
Quite a few years (in recording terms) passed before that day in 1993 when I walked into the music store and found out our girl had another solo album – I wasn’t using the internet way back then. Debravation came out of nowhere as far as I was concerned and I have to tell you I was very excited when I stumbled upon it.
From her fourth solo album I went all over the map in sounds – the R&B guitar sounds of “Stability” with its awesome lyrics, “Must I take pills for stability (yes you must!)”, the ravey short laced “Lip Service” with its ode to Edgar Allen Poe right in the middle of a pop song (genius!), and two of my favorites – the upbeat and completely nurturing “Keep On Going” – “when you are down/keep on going/ determination will change your life/ don’t look around/ no/ keep on going/ if you believe that you’ve had enough/ then you must keep on going/ don’t ever give up…” It’s so simple yet so inspiring.
The final song from Debravation is the intensely super cool, overlooked, should have been a hit single “Communion.” Taking religious ceremony and turning it on its backside, Deborah coos and croons through her dance/rock infection – “I’ve touched some objects of faith/ more precious than pieces of eight…” “had my own revelations/ ideas about fate/ but for communion let’s go to my place…” The first time I heard that I just about died. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard and that’s before we even get to the bridge or chorus – “so as the body/ so as the blood/ sacred as the soul is to love/ don’t be mistaken if you don’t understand/ divinely simple/ part of the plan…” and then the kick of all kicks – “Take! Eat! This is my body/ I give it to you/ Take! Drink! This is my blood/ do it in remembrance of me/ so you don’t forget me…”
“Communion” is most definitely one of the best songs she ever wrote or recorded and like I said, it should’ve been a single and it should’ve been huge! The album version actually runs a tad long at about 7 minutes but I somehow found a great 7” remix that is shorter yet still doesn’t lose any of its punch.
It took over fifteen years for Deborah to re-emerge as a solo artist but it wasn’t like she was gone from us, as Blondie had re-formed, made two albums and toured endlessly. Plus the woman is in every other independent movie ever made so we did get our fix of the gal, but when she’s put to her own notches to work on a solo music project, you really have to pay attention… and I did.
Necessary Evil came out in October steam headed by the brilliant catchy “Two Times Blue” and though it was released as a limited single I still feel it’s really an album track, plus it came out way after our Debbie singles collection so I had to include on Debracentryk.
Also from the new album come three more gems of out and out Debbie-ness, now working with the duo of Super Buddha on almost every song. The super cool duet with Miss Guy “Charm Alarm” has some of the best imagery of cool New Yorkers hanging and sassing - “I’m drinking my drink of glamour and damage/ seduction and piss elegance…” I love it! Performance wise the duo sound like a sequel to Debbie and Iggy’s “Well Did Ya Evah!” – yeah it’s that cool. Our girl tones it down a bit on the beautiful ballad “If I Had You” which is the Leivas’ favorite song on the album and just too great of a performance to pass on.
But she goes full on crazy in “You’re Too Hot” which only has the lines – “Don’t touch me! You’re too hot!” repeated over and over while the music continues to get more intense. The song is actually a prequel to “Dirty & Deep” which follows it on Necessary Evil but it’s so eccentric and fun it totally works all on his own – oh and a lot of fans claim it to be their favorite on the new album.
So you see for those who don’t know, they would think Debbie was just a member of Blondie (some would claim she is the only member and is really named Blondie) but I have set out to do our girl a little justice and show her extremely cool solo side in all its glory – on those hidden gems found inside the sleeves of five super cool solo releases. And a final PS - if you are in the LA area Debs is coming to our world for two shows and I will be at her performance on the 6th so see you there!
Deborah Harry – Debracentryk (bub100) Track List: 01. Military Rap 02. Lovelight 03. Keep On Going 04. I Want You 05. Two Times Blue 06. Jump Jump 07. Stability 08. Under Arrest 09. Secret Life 10. Lip Service 11. Charm Alarm 12. Comic Books 13. Buckle Up 14. If I Had You 15. Bike Boy 16. Communion (7” Edit) 17. Chrome 18. Rockbird 19. Forced To Live 20. You’re Too Hot 21. Calmarie
and we're back for more glorious 80s fun with numbers 25-21 of our countdown of the top 100 singles of the 1980s!
#25. LIAR LIAR - Debbie Harry (James Donna) Reprise single #27792 US Released: 1988 US Chart Position: #14 Modern Rock US
The music world can be a complete injustice, this excellant modern pop cover of a 1960s Castaways song should've been HUGE! Laced with modern guitar, Debbie's awesome vocal inflections, and reuiniting her with producer Mike Chapman, why this song didn't take off I'll never know! It didn't even crack the regular pop charts, yet I recall seeing the video on MTV quite a bit. Featured in the equally brilliant and overlooked film Married To The Mob, "Liar Liar" is a new wave cut up with Debbie even screaming in the middle while the synthesizer is up front and Debbie croons, "Liar Liar pants on fire/your nose is longer than a telephone wire..." "Best be leaving while I'm sad/ Been out all night I know you've been bad..." The video featured Debbie in a room full of mob bosses conducting a meeting by intimidating them with what's in her gun case. As it turns out she whips out not a shot gun but a giant sausage while the mob guys look on completely in awe and dancing around. Did I mention one of the mobsters is Grandpa Munster reprising his role from the film? What could've been.... Watch the video here!
#24. FUNKYTOWN - Lipps Inc. (Steven Greensberg) Casablanca single #2233 (US)/ #533 (UK) Chart Debut:April 16, 1980 (US)/ May 17, 1980 Chart Position:#1 US/ #2 UK
Not really disco, not really electronica, not really pop - "Funkytown" transcended most models of popular music, creating instead a hybrid of just about everything available at the time. One of the most recognizeable songs of the ages, and my own list, this song was and still remains a rather huge hit. The very best way to hear all the greatness that flows through this song is to strap on a pair of headphones and turn up the volume. You will be amazed at all the layers in the instrumentation, not to mention the great vocal performance. The album that spawned the single Mouth To Mouth, was actually released in late 1979 after the band scored a record contract with Casablanca, but the song that got them their deal fizzled on the charts so in early 1980, this song was released as the second single and took the airwaves and discos by storm. Incidentally, the town the group is so intent on getting out of is Minneapolis, and after spending a few winters there myself I can completely understand. Watch a rare video of the song here.
#23.JOHNNY ARE YOU QUEER? - Josie Cotton (Bobby & Larson Paine) Bomp single #12133 / Elektra single #42755 (re-release) Released: August 1981 Chart Position: #38 Dance Club Play US
Josie Cotton is one of the most brilliant things to ever come out of the new wave movement in the early 1980s. Just one listen to this song and everybody should be convinced that the girl had her Hammond organ on the right key for the time. Every song Josie did during the 80s should be considered new wave classics. The first time I was introduced to her debut single "Johnny Are You Queer?" was when my cousin Paula recited it to me. I thought she made the whole thing up until a few a while later when I saw one of the BEST movies of all time - Valley Girl. There on the screen in all her new wave glory was Josie performing at the prom. From that movie, the new wave sounds, and the whole Valley Girl movement I knew I had to move to LA - it took a few years and a few musical landscape changes but I finally made it here. "Johnny Are You Queer?" itself was I'm sure quite controversial at the time of its release and its probably no coincidence that the place it got the most play was at the dance clubs. Originally a song the Go Gos did live, Josie got the writers to produce the track for her and what was originally an angry punkish number about a woman whose boyfriend liked the boys better than her, turned into a poppy punchy little new wave number. And luckily for all of us we can all enjoy this song and all of Josie's music which finally got a CD release when the double album of Convertible Music/From The Hip was released by Collectibles Records. If you can find it, you buy it - it'll be one of the smartest purchases you've ever made. Josie also gives a great account of the song on her My Space page. I couldn't find any performance clips but here you can enjoy the song set to a number of still pix of Johnny Knoxville - if you're into that kind of thing.
#22. JESSIE'S GIRL - Rick Springfield(Rick Springfield) RCA Records #12201 (US)/ #76 (UK) Chart Debut: May 9, 1981 US Chart Position: #1 US
Well here he is, my very first celebrity crush. How I loved Rick and his wife beater, his smashing the mirror when he can't get the girl since she belongs to his friend Jessie. This was what the rock of 1980s was all about, melodic layers with lyrics about unrequited love where even the hot guy didn't get the girl. I have a friend who would to this day gladly step in for Jessie's girl if she didn't want Rick, and who could blame her? To this day, just hearing that opening guitar riff makes me long for the days of early MTV and the hot boys of 80s rock. Watch the hottie in action here!
#21.XANADU - Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra (Jeff Lynne) MCA Records single #41285 (US) / Jet #185 (UK) Chart Debut: August 30, 1980 (US)/ June 21, 1980 (UK) Chart Position: #8 US / #1 UK
I've established repeatedly my love for the Livvie and you just had to realize I wasn't about ignore the Xanadu soundtrack in my list. But even I was surprised at how much I really do enjoy this song. From what I've read and heard many people found the film Xanadu to be lacking something - perhaps a storyline, I'm not quite sure. But to me the film was a staple of my early childhood television viewing. We had Cinemax when I was little and I swear the only three movies they played were 9 To 5, Coal Miner's Daughter and Xanadu. Everytime I turned around there it was. But I'm not in any way complaining because I loved it. In fact, I recently went to a special 25th anniversary screening and saw it on the big screen, which in itself was something to sing about. The whole movie is basically a way to mesh old and new musical trends together in a brilliant 1980 way. This song is provided by the two bands who provide most of the work on the soundtrack, Electric Light Orchestra and our Olivia. It's the big moment at the end of the movie and it's the best song on the entire soundtrack. If only the single had the roller skating kids stomping and the chants, "Xanadu" this song would probably be in the top 10. Incidentally, I am going to argue that Madonna is a fan of Xanadu as in her new video for "Sorry" she is rollerskating in a giant circle with a group of Xanadu throw outs. If it isn't a homage to Xanadu then I'm just plain crazy... please don't respond to that... See some hot Xanadu action here!
so now we are on the edge of entering the top 20 - things can only get stranger from here on out for all those big hits of the 80s are probably unlikely to show up on a list created by me, so you will all be on the verge of neon paranoia as we enter the top 20 singles of the 1980s!
and we continue on as we hit numbers 75-71 in the TOP 100 SINGLES OF THE 1980s!
75. PEEK-A-BOO – Siouxsie & The Banshees (Steven Bailey/Peter Clarke/Susan Dallion) Geffen single #27760 (US)/ Wonderland single #SHE14 (UK) Chart Debut: July 30, 1988 Chart Position: #53 US / #16 UK
My pal Brian will be quite pleased to see his Siouxsie on my list, as he feels about her the same way I feel for my Debbie. But it’s not only taking Brian’s thoughts into consideration for my list, it’s actually the fact that Siouxsie Sioux did a bang up job on this little number. I have to admit being the little ray of blonde Wisconsin sunshine that I am, I pretty much dismissed or completely missed a lot of the goth movement in the early 80s – as you can see I was spending way too much time listening to Cyndi Lauper and Juice Newton. But that doesn’t mean some of that black charm didn’t work its way into my system. As it turns out, Siouxsie was kind of on her way out of her blackness when “Peek-A-Boo” premiered; I mean her next album would have a PINK (gasp!) cover… but nonetheless, this is the song that captured me. The intro with its sharpening synth like knives slicing through the stereo, Siouxsie's high control over vocals, the eminent pumping accordion sound – it’s sheer brilliance! And despite her losing some of her earlier gothness, she still held tight onto the peepshow creepshow she was trying to create. Watch the video.
74.RAPTURE - Blondie (Debbie Harry/Chris Stein) Chrysalis Single #2485 Chart Debut: February 14, 1981 (US)/ January 24, 1981 (UK) Chart Position: #1 US / #5 UK
“Rapture” was the second single released from Blondie’s 1980 album Autoamerican, so by the time it was a single, I was more than familiar with the tune having listened to the album repeatedly for months. What can be said about this classic track that hasn’t been said a million times – it was the first mainstream rap song, it was the first rap song to ever hit #1 on the charts, it took Debbie five minutes in a corner of the studio to write the rap, it was the second #1 single from Blondie’s fifth album – an album that record executives insisted had no singles on it, Fab 5 Freddy is a real person and everybody is indeed fly. The only real trivia in the song is the number of variations released; in the US they ripped the song right off the album in all its 6 minute 33 second glory, in the video, the song is cut down with the middle instrumentation gone, in the UK they got a shorter version without the cool guitar ending or the middle music but with the extra sung verse of “Man to man/body muscular….” I’m not sure which version I like the best, but I do know I spent countless hours entertaining the folks with my take on that little skip dance the “Man from Mars” does in the video. Watch the video.
73.SOLITAIRE – Laura Branigan (Martine Clemenceau/Diane Warren) Atlantic single #89868 Chart Debut: March 2, 1983 US Chart Position: #7 US
“Solitaire” is probably a bit of a surprise to see on my chart and so high on the chart, but as I went through my long list of 80s singles, Laura kept popping up. To me she is sadly overlooked in the pantheon of female rockers in the 80s. For some reason when one thinks of Laura Branigan and you get past the immediate “Gloria” theme, you seem to think of ballads. But as it was, Laura didn’t really do too many ballads, though her version of “The Power Of Love” which came out years before Celine’s screech fest is far superior – most of Laura’s songs were rock based pop like “Self Control” and the aforementioned “Gloria.” “Solitaire” follows that formula with its wispy intro and reverse lyrics finding Laura turning the cards on her absent boyfriend – “where were you when I played solitaire?” and without a doubt Laura had one of the most powerful voices in pop music – all one has to do is turn on our #73 song to bear testament to her pipes. Watch the video here.
72.BORDERLINE - Madonna (Madonna/Reggie Lucas) Sire single #29354 (US)/ WEA single #9260 (UK) Chart Debut: February 15, 1984 (US)/ June 2, 1984 (UK) Chart Position: #10 US / #56 UK
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Miss Ciccone for as long as she’s been able to vogue, but nothing conjures up images of being a teenager than her early music, and nothing is as thrilling of all her incarnations than the early years when she burst onto the scene with messed up hair, day glo clothes and more jewelry than a street pimp. After bopping and singing along to hits “Holiday” and “Lucky Star,” – it was her third big single from her debut album “Borderline” and her neon green skirt in the video that made me love her – at least until “La Isla Bonita” came around. Relive the video and the power of neon green.
71.FRENCH KISSIN’ – Debbie Harry (Chuck Lorre) Geffen single #28546 (US)/ Chrysalis single #3066 (UK) Chart Debut: November 15, 1986 Chart Position: #57 US / #8 UK
The first of a few Debbie Harry solo singles you’ll find on our list – I can’t even describe the excitement I had when this single came out in 1986. Aside from a one off cut on the Krush Groove soundtrack in 1985 (“Feel The Spin”), Debbie hadn’t been seen or heard from in a few years, having almost disappeared after Blondie’s fizzle of a break up in 1982. In fact, it seemed Debbie had passed the blonde torch onto Madonna. But suddenly out of nowhere Debbie had a new album, a new single and a new punky hair spray induced hairdo; and she was suddenly everywhere.
It seemed Geffen Records and Debbie herself were bound and determined to let the world know the original blonde was back and ready to tackle the charts. A cleverly subdued punchy groove emphasized the first single from her comeback album Rockbird. Tongue firmly in cheek (??) French Kissin’ was sweeping the nations, somewhat controversial (“lips are in motion/ocean to ocean”), somewhat dance pop; it was a perfect lead off and come back. In the UK where it was redubbed “French Kissin’ In The USA” the song hit number 8. Here, the song didn’t fare as well but anyone with even a dabbling in music had to know Debbie Harry was back. Watch the video.
just like lips are in motion, we will continue in motion tomorrow as we take a look at numbers 70-66!
Location: West Hollywood, California, United States
SHORT VERSION: Bradley Jacobson is a singer/songwriter, sometime actor, sometime writer, audio engineer and producer, and all around happy dude. He was the singer/songwriter of the electronic trashy punky pop band Swivek, but is now a "solo" artist releasing music under his own name.
#25. LIAR LIAR - Debbie Harry
#24. FUNKYTOWN - Lipps Inc.
#23. JOHNNY ARE YOU QUEER? - Josie Cotton
#21. XANADU - Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra
75. PEEK-A-BOO – Siouxsie & The Banshees
74.RAPTURE - Blondie
73.SOLITAIRE – Laura Branigan
72.BORDERLINE - Madonna
