Debbie Harry picks her favourite song by The Velvet Underground
First emerging as the strikingly beautiful frontwoman of Blondie in the mid-1970s, Debbie Harry and her bandmates followed an early passion for punk into a more stable career as a pop act of New York’s burgeoning new wave scene. The band’s bold rock sound, defined by Chris Stein’s guitar prowess and Clem Burke’s deft beat-keeping, struck a chord in 1978 with the release of Parallel Lines, their third studio album, which included essential hits like ‘Heart of Glass’, ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ and ‘Sunday Girl’.
Thanks to her unique stage presence and platinum blonde hair, Harry became a true rock icon of the 20th century. “As a child, she used to dream that her mother was Marilyn Monroe and once said her early goals were to be noticed and to be famous. Well, she did that,” Kirsty Young said, introducing the Blondie star during her 2011 appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.
“She used to hang out with the Ramones, Talking Heads, David Bowie and Iggy Pop; she was painted by Andy Warhol and feted the world over,” she added. “It’s quite an odd thing,” Young said, sitting before one of her musical heroes. “I probably wasted a good ten years wanting to be Debbie Harry.”
During her interview, Harry played some of her favourite songs, old and new. She reached back to the 1960s to play Nina Simone’s ‘Strange Fruit’, remained up to date with Calvin Harris’ ‘Merrymaking at My Place’ and went classical with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor.
Among her selections, the Blondie singer also showed love for her fellow New Yorkers, The Velvet Underground. Pickling out ‘White Light/White Heat’ from the 1968 album of the same name, Harry said, “We’re gonna hear ‘White Light/White Heat’ by Lou Reed, and I believe it’s The Velvet Underground.”
“Why have you chosen this one?” Kirsty Young probed.
“I don’t know. I love Lou Reed and love The Velvet Underground,” she asserted. “I think it was one of the first bands that I saw in New York. I was completely flabbergasted and knocked out by it. And actually, Nico was singing with them that night and Andy Warhol had designed the stage set and the colours, and I think he was responsible for the lights too. It was just an incredible show and just brings back good memories.”
The Velvet Underground classic is said to be an update on ‘Heroin’, a track from their debut album of the previous year. ‘White Light/White Heat’ attempted, through intense rhythm and Reed’s lyrics, to convey the rushing sensation experienced when one takes an intravenous hit of methamphetamine. The musical intensity in the track was cleverly composed by John Cale, who lay a heavily distorted bassline over a single chord.
“The lyrics aren’t negative,” Reed once told Mojo. “‘White Light/White Heat’ – it has to do with methamphetamine. ‘Sister Ray is all about that. But they are telling you stories – and feelings. They are not stupid. And the rhythm is interesting. But you’d think that. I studied long enough.”
In another interview conducted by KVAN in 1969, Reed suggested that the song was also a reference to Eastern and occult metaphysical concepts he had been studying at the time. “I’ve been involved and interested in what they call “white light” for a long time … that’s a way of giving off white light,” he said.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Reed also referenced a book called A Treatise on White Magic by Alice Bailey, which teaches the reader how to “call down a stream of pure White Light”.
Listen to The Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat’ below.
