Blondie by Lester Bangs

Requirements: .ePUB, .MOBI/.AZW reader, 857 KB

Genre: Non-Fiction > Biographies & Memoirs

Overview: 

Legendary US rock writer Lester Bangs may have written regularly for Creem and Rolling Stone but he only ever wrote one book, this biography of Blondie released in the UK by Omnibus in 1980. Lester Bangs is kind of the Norman Mailer of rock journalism, and Debbie is his Marilyn. Only instead of Debbie being his muse, she seems to have become the target for all his frustrated ambition! Confessedly jealous of Blondie's success, as Lester hung out on the periphery of the CBGS's scene and had a band of his own that went nowhere, there also seems to be a note of misogyny in his tone. Not that he's an all-out woman hater, more like he is threatened by the idea of a beautiful but unavailable woman. 

Over and over, Lester hits us over the head with the idea that the point of music is to hear passion expressed, and by his criteria, Blondie and their emotional distance operated on the opposite principle. He just can't get over Debbie's independent lyrical stance--even though it's juxtaposition to her glamorous image is the cornerstone of Blondie's appeal! Songs like "Just Go Away" really get Lester mad. He harps alot on the sexuality used in marketing Blondie, not because he is prudish but because he seems to regard it as false advertising! 

Once again, he ignores the fact that Debbie's starlet image was part of the package from Blondie's inception in 1976, and that the contrast between that image and Blondie's quickfrozen lyrics might be compelling