When Debbie Harry and H.R. Giger combined for their most expressive work
Of all the poster-image icons of the 20th Century, perhaps few are as recognisable as Blondie’s Debbie Harry. Harry quickly became a punk icon in the New York new wave scene of the 1970s; her bleach-blonde hair and exuberant sense of fashion set her apart from her contemporaries, and even Andy Warhol got in on the act, taking several now-classic photographs of the legendary singer.
Blondie enjoyed tremendous success in the charts, which was unusual at the time for an outfit from a predominantly punk background. When they decided to go on hiatus in 1981, Harry embarked on a detour into the world of acting, culminating in her finest acting performance in David Cronenberg’s 1983 film Videodrome.
During this time, Harry also began her solo career. She released her first full-length solo effort in July 1981. KooKoo was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic and marked Harry’s first foray into the music industry without the rest of Blondie. Interestingly, just as she would work with David Cronenberg in 1983, Harry would also collaborate with another artist with his own ties to the world of horror.
The Swiss artist H.R. Giger, who had worked in the design department for Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien was chosen to work on the promotional material for Harry’s debut solo record, including the covert art and the music videos for the album tracks, ‘Backfired’ and ‘Now I Know You Know’.
Harry and her partner/bandmate, Chris Stein, had met Giger in 1980 at a show in New York of his paintings. Giger noted the meeting and once said: “There I was introduced to a very beautiful woman, Debbie Harry, the singer of the group Blondie, and her boyfriend, Chris Stein. They were apparently excited about my work and asked me whether I would be prepared to design the cover of the new Debbie Harry album.”
However, Giger was a fan of jazz rather than pop music, so he didn’t know much about Blondie, Harry, or their sonic output. As such, perhaps it was a strange and conflicting choice to select Giger for the promotional material design. Yet, the outcome was absolutely glorious; the cover art sees Harry’s face pierced by several spikes whilst retaining her striking beauty. Undoubtedly, the 1981 image would go on to play its hand in influencing Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, its race of antagonistic Cenobites, and particularly their leader, Pinhead.
Yet if the album art was one thing, then the music videos were when Giger and Harry went full-blown expressive. Harry’s trademark blonde hair is turned black, denoting the dark aesthetic turn of their concept, and she is dressed in a half-human, half-machine bodysuit. Harry’s once sunshine-esque look is far gone, replaced by a genuinely gothic, almost horrifying aesthetic.
However, one perturbing question remains: why? The music itself is a far cry from the visual design choices of Giger, which will have ultimately been given the nod by Harry and her team. The pop-led sound of KooKoo is in startling contrast to its cover art and singles’ music videos. Perhaps Harry and her team wanted to cash in on the popularity of Giger following the success of Alien. However, the resulting juxtaposition is one of the most confusing collaborations in popular music.
