“Pretty raucous”: Clem Burke and a love for the most rock and roll album Blondie ever made
Blondie were never apologetic for anything that they did. On every one of their records, they aimed to destroy the status quo of what was expected out of a rock band, and despite coming from the same punk rock stomping grounds as Ramones, they were more than happy to make something that could piss someone off. Although Clem Burke stood as one of the greatest engines at the back of the stage whenever they performed, he had far more outlets for his music than being strictly rock and roll.
After all, the New York scene was always about creating art out of everything they could. Lou Reed had taught everyone about the meaning of the spaces in between the notes, and when working on some of their greatest albums like Parallel Lines, Burke understood when something needed to be stripped back and when things could get a bit more manic in the mix.
Then again, there were only a few times when he seemed to take inspiration strictly from rock and roll. There was a certain shuffling feeling to a tune like ‘Call Me’, and when listening to what he could do on tracks like ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, there was a certain nervy energy that came across that had a lot more to do with the early days of punk than the glory years of rock and roll.
But since when was punk not about rock and roll? The whole point of the genre was to bring rock back down to its roots, but Blondie had to have a few more albums under their belt before they made their rock and roll opus. There were bound to be a few more hits in between, like ‘Heart of Glass’, but the minute that work began on Eat to the Beat, the sessions became a lot more gruelling than before.
Since this was coming right after their breakout pop album, producer Mike Chapman wanted to remind everyone that the band was far from the mainstream act, everyone thought they were. ‘Dreaming’ had the same single power as ‘One Way or Another’, but considering how much freewheeling energy they put into tracks like the title song and ‘Accidents Never Happen’, you’d never doubt for a second that this was the same band that turned CBGBs inside out in the mid-1970s.
Looking back, Burke even acknowledged that the album was as close to rock and roll as they would ever get, saying, “Eat To The Beat is our most rock album, a rock and roll album, I would say, something like the song ‘Eat To The Beat’, with the harmonica and pretty raucous. ‘Accidents Never Happen’, then there’s ‘Union City Blue’. There’s big drums. It was recorded at The Power Station. Yeah, it’s our most rock and roll album. But then you have something like ‘Atomic’ on there, which carries on the tradition of ‘Heart Of Glass’ in a way.”
And even if it wasn’t as hook-laden as Parallel Lines, Burke’s drums had never sounded better on any of their records. He had been fairly tight on the previous album, but this is where he gets the chance to show off more of his chops, going less for the same thunderous crack of John Bonham and leaning into the smack-in-the-mouth feeling that you would get out of some of the early Ramones records, only this time with the relentless groove of a disco beat added in for good measure.
So, while Eat to the Beat might not have the same kind of track record as their breakout album, it makes up for that with the sense of urgency. Debby Harry was always going to sound cooler than anyone within her general vicinity, but with Burke’s drums behind her on this record, it was like listening to her front a supercharged version of The Stooges in some spots.
