“Brings back good memories”: Debbie Harry’s favourite songs from the 1960s
Alongside eminent groups Talking Heads and Television, Blondie joined the punk wave with an artsy nuance in the late 1970s. No sooner had they joined the gritty movement did they devise novel sonic approaches in the so-called new wave. With the striking beauty Debbie Harry front and centre alongside Chris Stein’s guitar virtuosity and Clem Burke’s deft beat-keeping, Blondie 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.
As stated in the enlightening radio interview, Harry used to hang out with Ramones, Talking Heads, David Bowie and Iggy Pop and was even painted by Andy Warhol as one of his pop cultural muses. “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.”
Though she idolised Monroe in her youth and had a quiet fascination for classical music, Harry also found so much beauty in the dust and grime on Eastern city streets. As she grew up in the 1960s, no band quite encapsulated the harsh realities of urban America, as did Lou Reed and his seminal band, The Velvet Underground.
Speaking to Young, Harry pulled out The Velvet Underground’s second album, 1968’s White Light/White Heat, to play the avant-garde album’s title track and lead single. “We’re gonna hear ‘White Light/White Heat’ by Lou Reed, and it’s The Velvet Underground,” she beamed with excitement about hearing the song and describing how much it means to her.
Before the song aired, Harry discussed the songwriter’s genius and remembered one of her first live music experiences. “I love Lou Reed and love The Velvet Underground,” she said. “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 to convey the rushing sensation experienced when one takes an intravenous hit of methamphetamine through intense, thrashing guitar rhythms and Reed’s lyrics. The musical intensity in the track was cleverly composed by Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, who laid a heavily distorted bassline over the single propulsive chord.
Elsewhere, Harry revealed her love for Nina Simone as an innovative musician and an icon for both women’s and civil rights in 20th-century America. Picking out Simone’s classic protest anthem, ‘Strange Fruit’ as an all-time favourite, Harry said, “I’ve chosen Nina Simone doing ‘Strange Fruit’. She came through the ’60s and lived through the ’50s and all that. So, she was a woman who really knew about that, and musically, why I chose it was because I really love her left hand and the way she plays.”
Although Harry can usually be found centre stage with just a microphone in her hand, she has a basic grasp of several instruments and enjoys composing music to accompany her lyrics. Getting lyrical concepts and instrumentals to work well on their own is one thing, but getting them to resonate with one another is a whole new level of difficulty. “I’ve always felt that the way she plays the piano and the way she sings, they’re really – I don’t wanna use the word, but I have to – integrated,” Harry concluded, eulogising Simone’s talent.
In her introduction to the song, Harry referred to Simone’s experience of racism during the 1950s and ’60s as a Black woman. ‘Strange Fruit’ was written by Abel Meeropol and first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The poignant lyrics protest the lynching of Black Americans, artistically comparing the victims to fruit hanging from trees. Simone’s version is particularly moving.
