Writes Debbie Harry, quoted in “In her memoir, Debbie Harry gives an unvarnished look at her life in the punk scene” by Sibbie O’Sullivan (WaPo).
Also:
She also loved drag’s performative qualities, especially its attention to fashion and gesture, two practices Harry perfected while shaping her own image. Drag queens saw Harry’s display of femininity as drag, “a woman playing a man’s idea of a woman.” Harry’s words are more revealing: “I’m not blind and I’m not stupid: I take advantage of my looks and I use them.”The idea of a woman in drag as a woman is useful, but you see that the book reviewer is not getting that idea from Harry’s memoir. Harry seems to want to critique the man’s idea of a woman: She got herself up like that but then she resisted — she kicked his ass. Maybe some drag queens are on the side of women, helping fight male domination, but the book reviewer doesn’t even notice the issue, let alone give any depth.
And let me just say that I’m amused by Harry’s offhanded reference to her own great beauty: “I’m not blind.”
५५ टिप्पण्या:
Harry was one of my first rock crushes. She was a hot Pat Benetar. Although at the time I was one of those people who thought her name was "Blondie" - like Cher.
I remember debating with the other guys if she was good looking at all. I thought she had punk rock beauty, not beauty beauty. Like a punk 9 but an LA 5 or something...
Her singing though, I thought she was it. That mix of angelic highs and gear grinding rattles. Smith and Hynde and Nicks could never do that.
I don't see the drag queen look from the early Blondie videos. I see it in Dolly Parton, bigly. In general, her hit music has that 80's schlocky sound. I do like Rapture.
Harry describes a life formed by the desire that, one way or another, she’d leave suburbia and become a performer
I see what you tried to do there...
@richlb Nothing more annoying than these bands that name themselves as if the band is a single person and give their fans the low-level superiority of being so in the know that they can correct casual observers who focus on the conspicuous frontperson and think that’s the individual’s name. The same thing was true in the 1970s about Alice Cooper, but in the end, the one guy became Alice Cooper, I presume because the correction was more annoying than the error.
Our Beloved Professor Althouse said... And let me just say that I’m amused by Harry’s offhanded reference to her own great beauty: “I’m not blind.”
Makes you wonder if Debbie would have ever said anything as idiotic as:
'I'm not wearing miniskirts to turn on the boys; i'm wearing them because they make me look cool'
She also loved drag’s performative qualities, especially its attention to fashion and gesture, two practices Harry perfected while shaping her own image.
Definition of performative
: being or relating to an expression that serves to effect a transaction or that constitutes the performance of the specified act by virtue of its utterance a performative verb such as promise
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/performative
John Henry
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The call them truisms for a reason.
I liked her sound before I saw her. Her looks to me are more rodeo clown, than classic good looks. Although without her custom she has above average attractiveness. Sex sells, yet another truism
Successful bands frequently are a single person driving the artistic intention. Rembrandt didn't actually do all the painting either, but he is credited with the result.
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
Nothing more annoying than these bands that name themselves as if the band is a single person
Like Bob Dylan?
Seriously, was Debbie Harry a band or a singer with accompanists?
If one went to see the Beatles, one went to see the combined foursome.
If one went to see Debbie Harry, or Chuck Berry or scads of other artists, one went to see the singer. The backing band, unless it really sucked, didn't matter.
Or The Miami Sound Machine. Which became Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and then became Gloria Estefan. She was who folks came to see. Not the band.
Quite proper to talk about Debbie Harry alone with no reference to any backing musicians.
John Henry
Record executives never had to ask, "By the way, which one is Blondie."
She was definitely the best looking singer of her era or most other eras for that matter. As an actress, she never achieved fame commensurate with her looks. She was offered the role in the Blade Runner, but her record company made her turn it down. That could have been her signature role. There's no movie role that leaps out when you think of her.....I like The Rapture. So technically there's one rap song that I've heard and liked.....Here's the excerpt that was cited in the NY Post: She gave David Bowie and Iggy Pop her last bit of heroin. To thank her for the gift, Bowie took out his penis and allowed her to gaze upon it.....People in the entertainment and music industries lead different lives than the rest of us.
Nobody buys the idea of a woman in drag playing a woman.
Women have "looks." Changeable "looks."
"The idea of a woman in drag as a woman is..." Victor Victoria.
I actually have some songs by those two:
Blondie - [Unknown] Dreaming
Blondie - [Unknown] Hanging On The Telephone
Blondie - [Unknown] Heart Of Glass
Blondie - [Live] My Obsession
Patti Smith - [Unknown] Hey Joe
Patti Smith - [Live] Who Do You Love
Patti Smith - [Covers] Gimme Shelter - 1
Patti Smith - [Covers] Gimme Shelter - 2
Speaking of misspelling one's own name, there's also a "Patty Smyth" singer/songwriter.
Alice Cooper
I saw them when they were the Spiders [From Mars?] during my only visit to a "teen club".
By the way, which one's Pink?
Nothing more annoying than these bands that name themselves as if the band is a single person and give their fans the low-level superiority of being so in the know that they can correct casual observers who focus on the conspicuous frontperson and think that’s the individual’s name.
Pretentious rock fans can be annoying, especially if they think that they possess some esoteric knowledge that others don't have. Don't see that with Blondie, Alice Cooper or Meat Loaf. Even a causal observer knew that those were made up names for the profiled singer. No special inside info there. However, only a real fan would know they meaning behind Pink Floyd or Leonard Skynyrd.
She’s not stupid, either. That’s rhhardin level conciseness on the topic of female pulchritude and it’s market utility.
Victor Victoria was a woman in drag as a man playing a woman.
Boys chasing girls chasing boys. She must have had a bad experience. It happens. There is a progressive risk with social liberalization, and the obligatory generational rebels with a cause.
Saw Blondie last year with Deap Valley and Garbage. Besides being blown away bu how good she still looks and sings, it was heartwarming listening to both opening acts talk about how friendly she was, sharing her dressing room with them, doing all their makeup for them personally, etc. She is a good person, hasn’t let a life of fame jade her.
Pink Floyd or Leonard Skynyrd
And Jethro Tull.
I saw Blondie play at the Palms in Las Vegas last August. Three original members: Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke, the drummer. The band was filled out by three generic hard-rock guys.
Clem Burke was really, really good. The rest, weren't. Beside the fact that Deb is 74 years old, she has no vocal range anymore. She sang all the hits, or at least gave it her best shot. I ended up liking her performance, based mainly on her enthusiasm. I thought Chris Stein might keel over at any moment. He had a dedicated chair that he never left, except for one song that featured him. He didn't play the guitar as much as tweedle with it. Unhealthily skinny. I assumed he had Parkinson's, but I could be wrong.
Blondie was followed by Elvis Costello and the Imposters, who were very good.
"However, only a real fan would know they meaning behind Pink Floyd or Leonard Skynyrd."
That's Lynyrd Skynyrd, (named after their hated high school coach Leonard Skinner).
I was never a fan of the band, though they had a few good songs. However, I grew up in Jacksonville and was in high school when they were playing around town as a local band. I remember seeing signs in the school halls for them playing at dances at my high school, (which I never attended). When I saw an ad in a music magazine for their upcoming first album, a couple of months after I graduated high school, I told a friend, "With that name, they'll never go anywhere." Little did I know. (The only time I ever saw them was opening for The Who in Atlanta in November 1973.)
I think it might be more accurate if Harry had characterized herself as both submissively feminine and kick-ass. For submissive, try: "Need to feel/Some hardened steel/Deliver the big money deal" or "If it's all right with you/I could give you some head . . . ." or "Roll me in designer sheets/I'll never get enough." For kick-ass, listen to the music. Some reviewer wrote that the greatness of "Satisfaction" is that the music delivers what the lyric denies, while the vocal straddles the divide, and Blondie achieved that level of greatness on occasion.
I’m not blind and I’m not stupid: I take advantage of my looks and I use them.
I think she's talking about seeing the effect her looks have on other people, particularly in a harshly competitive business environment, not simply how much she admires her own beauty.
This kinda sounds like she was the punk version of Dolly Parton; not ashamed about being a woman, not ashamed to play a traditionally-woman role in a relationship and to want traditionally-woman things the way women traditionally want them, but also not afraid to ask for those things--and to give the boot to men who don't/won't/can't provide them.
Like, "I love the idea of supporting you, but I won't support you the way the land supports a tree; I'll support you the way the ocean supports a boat."
The band as a single person? Country is overwhelmingly named for the lead singer/writer/artist. Jazz? Soul? RAP?
Not being musical, maybe there are definitions of the different stylings that allow a Rapper to front that genre, but not a rock artist.
Ask the President. He has a good grasp of branding and marketing. That's the debate, right?
I'm not sure if many entertainer or sports memoirs are worth reading. Very few even seem to be able to explain what they do very well.
I loved it when Beavis and Butthead thought Courtney Love's name was Hole.
They couldn't quite figure out Sade, except they knew she sucked.
She was not really attractive, but men have zero standards when we are fantasizing from a distance. Her persona was attractive in a double faceted way men are fond of. We like to imagine an aggressive female who has no reservations that we will nonetheless conquer. It implies easy access while letting you avoid any guilt; she wanted me; I just gave her what she wanted.
I don't the idea of drag as good fashion. It always seems like terrible over-the-top fashion.
Ann Althouse: The same thing was true in the 1970s about Alice Cooper, but in the end, the one guy became Alice Cooper, I presume because the correction was more annoying than the error.
Kind of. The band broke up, and the guy took the name and started a solo career under it.
@Althouse, waaaay before Debbie Harry there were strong female singers who kicked the asses of guys who didn’t respect them. Of course they were country artists.
In 1983, Debbie Harry made her Broadway stage debut at the Nederlander.
She was introduced to wrestling by her guitarist Chris Stein
Harry played redhead (her real color) in
Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap,
a comedy about love and wrestling, which — after three weeks of favorably-received preview shows — was later deemed a critical flop, closing after a single performance. Included Andy Kaufman.
Plants in the audience were encouraged to heckle, and iirc, at one point asks the crowd if she should kick her opponent in the balls.
And was a Playboy bunny.
uneasy the head of a 'feminist' who wears the tiara of being smokin' hot
I was never that smitten with Debbie Harry. Of the 80s bands, I found Terri Nunn of Berlin the sexiest of the new wave/pop (Blondie was not punk). Kate Bush was the sexiest of the strange performance artists.
The female leads that stood out to me at that time were: Pat Benetar, Ann & Nancy Wilson, Debbie Harry, and Patti Smith. Of all the music from that bunch I most enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, Patti Smith's offerings. As for their looks, well, Ms. Smith was at the back of the bunch - and I wouldn't describe her as dressing more masculine. Also wouldn't classify Blondie and Debbie Harry as "punk", much more of a pop band.
Like Richlb, Harry was probably my first rock music crush- I was a fan right on the release of "Heart of Glass" in 1979. I thought then and now that she was just smoking hot. Attitude had a lot to do with it since she isn't beautiful in any classic manner. To me she had a kind of Lauren Bacall kind of hotness.
Born Angela Tremble in Miami, Florida, Deborah Ann Harry was adopted at 3 months old by New Jersey gift shop owners Richard and Catherine Harry. She learned that she was adopted at age 4
I think Althouse and Debbie Harry as having a similar look--the facial structure, and the fact that they are contemporaries. Not the fashion part; I have no basis to label Althouse's style in her younger days.
RigelDog,
Harry did have some kind of crazy head of hair.
"I found Terri Nunn of Berlin the sexiest of the new wave/pop"
Yes, she was beautiful, too. From the early 80s, though, I don't think anyone was more beautiful than Annie Lennox. When I was in high school I would watch the "Love is a Stranger" over and over and over.
From that era, I’d have to go with Joan Jett, the talented Runaway.
CWJ said...
Darrell, Our comments appeared together because of moderation. I wasn't addressing you. I know the movie. I even own it. I just focused on the reality, a woman whose stage performance is as a woman, not the con.
I knew that you knew. I just thought clarification was necessary for those that didn't know. Or care. Her performance as a woman had to be a little off to protect her false male identity.
Revealed preference: I would have said that I liked Heart better than Blondie at the time. But a quick check of my phone shows Heart of Glass and Call me, and nothing from any of the other folks mentioned here.
To me, Chrissie Hynde had the best voice and a no-bullshit presence. She was the one who convinced me that "a girl" could front a rock band. Not an atypical attitude in the 70s.
Bagoh's comment about men's lack of standards when they are at a distance is inspired.
Blondie was the blonde east coast 1979 yin counterpoint to Linda Ronstadts brunette country rock 1977 yang.
Poor poor pitiful me.
Hootie and the Blow Fish. Darius Rucker is not Hootie (per DR).
Jusst saw them in Birmingham. Great evening.
"... dances at my high school, (which I never attended)." Wow, and I thought I ditched classes too often.....
Dang it Hootie and the Blowfish. One word, dummy, one word.
I liked Jethro Tull. He was great. Too bad about that pulmonary condition, poor hygiene, and bad intent with the children.
Drag Queens are taking from women the attention that women in their prime fertility years would get, and are almost always overly and inappropriately gussied up while doing so. As usurpers, they are not supporting women. Sadly, their later years are not kind to them.
Pat Benatar, then Debbie Harry, then Stevie Nicks, then Terri Nunn. Then, possibly, Joan Jeff. And honorable mention to Fiona Flanagan.
Blondie's first two albums were punk/new wave, but only "Rip her to shreds" made it on to her Greatest Hits (the one I have). Oops, also (I'm always touched by your) Presence, Dear from #2. Their hits were power pop/ new wave.
Cutest singer from that time was the lead in the (I Want Candy) group Bow Wow Wow, maybe just 15 or so at the time. They opened for the also hot Chrissie Hynde & Pretenders (before the two guys died).
Hynde and Harry were both able to sing cool lyrics.
Once I had a love, and it was gas.
Soon turned out ...
to be a pain in the ass.
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