HALL OF FAME FOCUS: BLONDIE (cont.)
There is a decidedly raw, imperfect quality on Blondie's first two albums. Was this deliberate?
Stein: No. In those early days, we just went in and played to the best of our abilities and then did overdubs, and that was it. When we met [producer] Mike Chapman, it was a whole different reality. He was a perfectionist. Today, "Heart of Glass" could be done digitally in five to 10 hours. Then, it took us about a week to do it manually. It's crazy how we did it. It was endless repetition until Mike was satisfied. This drove me crazy initially, but then I realized the value of it.
Harry: Well, that's when things start to sound unique. Being recognizable and having a sound is not easy to do. Today, it's more difficult because so much has gone before.
Many of Blondie's songs have not only stood the test of time but in fact have increased in popularity. What do you attribute this to?
Stein: When I listened to the Beatles as a fan, I was aware of this universality in the music?that it was crossing all these lines. I knew that part of the music's appeal was the fact that it was all over the place. That was something I took with me when we made music. And then [producer] Mike Chapman added a lot.
Burke: The songs. The image of Blondie is irrelevant. Sure, it's what got us in the door, but we wouldn't be around today if that's all there was.
Harry: I don't know if we were ever terrifically talented or technical musicians. We're better musicians today than we were then. But we always paid attention to songwriting.
In recent years, Blondie's music has been licensed for third-party usage. How do you feel about such branding opportunities?
Harry: We don't really have any control [over] the early Blondie material. That's all licensed through Chrysalis Music. Most of the time they don't even ask us. We definitely make money from it. I can't really complain about that. It's not as if we were licensing it ourselves, though.
We do, however, hold the licensing ourselves for our last two [studio] albums. So, that will be a different world for us if anybody gets interested in that stuff.
Burke: We were very influenced by Andy Warhol and his whole shtick was art and commerce. He wanted his art to be in the public. The starving artist was not part of his profile. If you can do it on your own terms, there is no harm done. I'm not sure there's any music that is so sacred that it shouldn't be used in a commercial.
Stein: We get a lot of e-mails from teenagers, which means people are discovering our music for the first time. But we don't have any say over these opportunities. I'm f***ing broke. You know, the general misconception is that we made a lot of money. So, [money] is a motivating factor [for licensing the music].
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