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Debbie has only released five solo albums to date, so I'm going to try to feature them all. The next, her third, was released three years after “Rockbird”, in 1989, and is interesting because for one thing she had a hand in producing it (her first, to my knowledge, attempt at any sort of production) along with Chris Stein and Mike Chapman, producer of the Blondie albums. Also interesting because she decided to release it under her full name, so it carries the name Deborah Harry, but to us she's still Debbie.

Def dumb and blonde --- 1989 (Chrysalis)


Best known for its hit single, “I want that man”, written by the Thompson Twins, the album displays something of a shift back towards the rock Blondie were famous for and away from the lighter, pop and dance flavour of her debut, so that the three albums can be seen as a progression, almost as if Debbie were meeting her Blondie career head-on, or perhaps deciding that the experimentation she had indulged in on the previous albums had not worked, and she should return to what she knew, and was good at.

“Lovelight”, the only song written solo by Chris Stein, is a sort of new wave/pop track with interesting guitar work, while “Kiss it better”, a collaboration with the Thompsons is really more like one of their songs: weirdly, as the opener, written by only them, is more a Debbie Harry song, and yet when she adds her influence the result is less than her own signature sort of music. Lots of synthy bass and jangly guitar, very poppy. Meh. Throwaway, say I. Next up is a much harder, rockier, almost punky track, “Bike boy”, with hard, sharp guitar, pounding drums and lots of shouts of “Oi!” or something similar, which a lot of the punk tracks seemed to have. Good, solid stuff though.

This album is her longest so far, with a total of fifteen tracks, so I'm going to have to cherry-pick or just refer to some in a few words, unless I want to spend all night on this part of the review. So we'll pass over the largely forgettable “Get your way”, and concentrate on the really rather good “Maybe for sure”, which has a nice keyboard intro and then goes into a very Blondie melody, quite like “Sunday girl” in fact. Nice to hear her returning to her roots. Great song.

NOT so good to hear her going down the reggae route again! Still, “I'll never fall in love” isn't a bad song, but I could live without it. “Calmarie” is an atmospheric, almost Native American-type song, with chants and gentle percussion, with Debbie singing in another language (Italian?), with I think smatterings of English in there too. Almost Enya-like in its mood and style, it's a really nice, laid-back song that really showcases the true beauty of her voice when she takes it down a notch. “He is so” is another Blondie-like song, mid-paced and with a great melody, good hook. Really nice keys work near the end.

“Comic books” is pretty madcap, flying along at punk speed, with stabbing keyboards and churning guitars, while “Forced to live” kicks the speed up even more, so that you really get the impression you're listening to someone like maybe Siouxsie and the Banshees or Hazel O'Connor, with Debbie (sorry, Deborah!) at her loudest, grittiest, sultriest punk bitch best. After all that craziness and speed, things slow down for penultimate track “Brite side”, a nice little ballad with rather good drum programming and quite a reserved, restrained melody. Is this the same woman who just moments ago was shouting her head off?

Closer “End of the run” is also the longest track on the album, and indeed her longest to date, at just over seven minutes, and has a nice guitar intro followed by a spoken vocal which reminds me of Faith Hill's later “Beautiful” off her album “Cry”: stuff like this is hard to pull off properly --- you're essentially creating poetry to music. But it works for Debbie, and she intersperses the spoken word stuff with some lovely breathy singing, really making the song something special, and bringing a rather triumphant end to what is, so far, her best solo effort and her most complete album.

TRACKLISTING

1. I want that man
2. Lovelight
3. Kiss it better
4. Bike boy
5. Get your way
6. Maybe for sure
7. I'll never fall in love
8. Calmarie
9. Sweet and low
10. He is so
11. Bugeye
12. Comic books
13. Forced to live
14. Brite side
15. End of the run

1993 saw the release of Debbie's fourth solo album, and her second under her full name. This would also see the end of a fifteen-year association with label Chrysalis, who had released all the Blondie albums as well as all of Debbie's solo material, up to and including this one.

Debravation --- 1993 (Chrysalis)


It starts off badly, I have to say, with the europop dance number “I can see clearly”, which to my mind throws her firmly back to the days of “Koo koo” and the over-involvement of the boys from Chic, though they haven't been in her music at all since. Nevertheless, there's an uncomfortable sense of deja vu here, and it's not helped by the second track, another ill-advised attempt at a rap, which once again scores high in the embarrassment factor. In fairness, the rap in “Stability” is only peripheral, but the rest of the song is pretty sub-Madonna pap. Not in love with this.

Luckily, things take a turn for the better then with “Strike me pink”, a Kim Wilde-like ballad with soft percussion and nice piano and keyboards, and a nice little soulful sax break. Keyboard-heavy beyond a doubt, Debbie employs the talents of no less than thirteen keyboard players --- not including Guy Pratt, who plays keys as well as guitar , as opposed to eight guitarists. So the album has a very sort of europop feel to it, yet not as dancy or disco as “Koo koo”, with some nice melodies and some very good ideas.

“Rain” is not bad, if a little limited, although it gives Debbie a chance to clean out her pipes, and has a nice guitar solo in it. “Communion” is nice, mid-paced bopper with a nice line in piano and some very good backing vocals, with it has to be said some extremely dodgy lyrics:- ”Take, eat, this is my body/I give it to you/ Take, drink, this is my blood/ Do it in remembrance of me/ So you won't forget me.” I'm sure the religious right would have had a field day with THAT one! Not a bad song though.

“Mood ring” has a very oriental feel, with some seriously funky bass and some really nice keys, a nice ballad, the first time she's had two on the same album. Again some really nice saxophone adds to the atmosphere of this song, then we're into “Keep on going”, which rather surprisingly maintains the low-key, laid-back and relaxed tone of the previous track. “Dancing down the moon” rocks things back up again, and for a while now fears that Debbie was going to return to the dance-oriented “Koo koo” have evaporated, as the album has improved, really in leaps and bounds, as it's gone on.

“Standing in my way” has a very Pretenders vibe to it, more fast rockin', with more than a nod back to the Blondie era, quite “One way or another”, in fact. Some great keyboards redolent of Dire Straits circa “Walk of life”. “The fugitive” is down and dirty soul, but the weirdest contribution has to be that of cyberpunk author William Gibson, who wrote the lyric for closer “Dog star girl”, and perhaps in deference to the great man the melody is quite industrial/electronic and futuristic sounding.

Mention should be made of the appearance of REM on the track “My last date with you”, which appeared only on the US version of the CD as an additional track, but as it's not on my copy I can't review it. However, Micheal Stipe and the boys are pretty heavyweight guests to have on your album.

I still at this point prefer “Def dumb and blonde”, but this is a worthy successor, and shows Debbie developing both as a musician and as a songwriter.

TRACKLISTING

1. I can see clearly
2. Stability
3. Strike me pink
4. Rain
5. Communion
6. Lip service
7. Mood ring
8. Keep on going
9. Dancing down the moon
10. Standing in my way
11. The fugitive
12. Dog Star girl

Although Debbie also worked with other artistes down the years, including Talking Heads, Giorgio Moroder and Fall Out Boy, and indeed joined and then fronted the Jazz Passengers in the mid 1990s, as I mentioned it is purely her solo work we are concerned with here. So as with Phil Lynott we didn't go into his association with the Three Musketeers or any other projects he was involved in, so too here we will leave such collaborations and contributions, including her many film soundtracks, to others.

Nonetheless, it does go part of the way to explaining why Debbie's next, and so far most recent, solo album did not emerge until fourteen years later. It's the longest of her albums by far, with a total of seventeen tracks, and her first not to be on the Chrysalis label.

Necessary evil --- 2007 (Eleven Seven)


Quite a polished feel from the off, with nice production on a smooth mid-paced opener with nice bass and good keyboards, understated guitar and indeed rather restrained vocals from Debbie on “Two times blue”, which was in fact the first single to be released from the album. Very catchy, stays with you long after it's ended. Good start indeed. “School for scandal” continues her return to the rock songs that characterised her last two albums, with a good mix of guitars and keys and some solid drumming, then we're into the first ballad, “If I had you”, which to me has a very REM flavour, a kind of waltzy rhythm, possibly picked up after her association with them on her previous album. There's also a little Bryan Adams in there too, maybe also a nod to Coldplay.

Three solid songs. Not bad. Can she maintain this quality throughout? Let's see. Well, “Deep end” is sort of new wave for the twenty-first century, with low growling guitar and heavy bass, slow measured percussion and Debbie doing her best Blondie, while “Love with a vengeance” comes across very Queen-like, with its busy bass and handclap beats, and then we're into the title track, a raw, edgy, sharp tune with very punk overtones and Jam-like guitar. “Charm redux” is the first ever instrumental on a Debbie Harry album, very electronica with the title chanted behind the music, a short little track at just over a minute, then “You're too hot” is another rocker with a deceptive opening, and “Dirty and deep” is just that, very Janet Jackson with its programmed keyboards and low vocal, and its harkback to previous track with the refrain ”Don't touch me/ You're too hot!”

Another ballad follows, nice little acoustic guitar on “What is love” and “Whiteout” is a pretty screaming rocker, with “Needless to say” then taking the tempo right down for the third ballad on what is really turning out to be a pretty flawless album, and pushing “Def dumb and blonde” for the place of best DH solo album. It's interesting that this time around she has decided to collaborate on, or write herself, most of the tracks without the input of Chris Stein, who is only involved in two, near the end. Most of the songs, in fact, are written by the triumvirate of herself and producers Barb Morrison and Charles Nieland, and the songwriting team seems to have struck gold.

“Heat of the moment” has an almost voodoo/jungle vibe, mostly driven on percussion, with just the one lyric --- yeah, you guessed it! It's a short song, and gives way to “Charm alarm”, on which the trio pull in an extra helper for songwriting duties, one Guy Morrow, and it's a sort of funk/dance fusion which unaccountably reminds me of Matt Johnson's The The...! Chris Stein then comes into the picture, as mentioned, writing both the next song and the one after it. “Jen jen” is almost New Order in its guitar and drum machine opening, with an African chant of some sort forming the lyric, and some pretty cool guitar work --- very different indeed. As a matter of fact, I don't even hear Debbie singing on this...

Not so great is “Naked eye”, his other contribution, possibly the weakest track on the album, a little confused I feel, then the closer, “Paradise” is, I believe, one of the songs recorded by the Jazz Passengers. It's a nice smooth ballad, with not at all surprisingly some smooth and sweet sax to take the song to its conclusion, a good way to close what has turned out to be a really good album overall.

TRACKLISTING

1. Two times blue
2. School for scandal
3. If I had you
4. Deep end
5. Love with a vengeance
6. Necessary evil
7. Charm redux
8. You're too hot
9. Dirty and deep
10. What is love
11. Whiteout
12. Needless to say
13. Heat of the moment
14. Charm alarm
15. Jen jen
16. Naked eye
17. Paradise

So, what are we, in the final analysis, to make of the solo career of Debbie Harry? Well, like our first star to feature in this section, Phil Lynott --- and unlike our second, Ric Ocasek --- it seems clear she is unafraid to try new things, branch out and extend her reach beyond the type of music she usually plays in Blondie. Her embracing of dance, techno, funk, reggae and other styles, as well as some of the lyrical themes visited over her five solo albums demonstrate an artist who is prepared to take chances, experiment and is not all that pushed about commercial success, as she waited almost as long as some people's music career lasts between her fourth and fifth album, so she's not about to rush any product out to placate record labels.

“Necessary evil” was four years ago now. By Debbie's standards, that's a short hiatus, but it will be interesting to see if, and when, she heads into the studio again. One thing is for certain: whenever she does, and whatever comes out of those sessions, it won't be predictable.

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Bit of soul funk from the worm-master today, this is Sister Sledge with one of their huge hits, “We are family”.

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And the second selection the worm would like to point you to today is a great hit from ex-Eagle, Glenn Frey, which indeed featured in the TV series “Miami Vice”: it's “Smuggler's blues”.

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A band I'm struggling to like, but slowly getting to grips with, album by album, track by track, is Spock's Beard. I should like them. All the elements are there: prog rock, great lyrics, and of course the Star Trek connection. But somehow it's become hard work, though I think I'm finally beginning to warm to them.

And so they feature in our “More than words” section. Prog rock bands of course often write very deep and meaningful lyrics about diverse and often weird subjects, but I feel this deserves inclusion because it is about something at once normal and mundane, and also totally surreal. It's in fact the opening movement, if you will, to a suite which goes under the banner heading of “A flash before my eyes”, and it concerns the last moments before death, as the subject of the song sees a truck come screaming towards him at an intersection and knows he is about to die. The song traces his life in that “flashing before your eyes” phenomenon that's supposed to occur just before you die.




The ballet of the impact --- A flash before my eyes, part 1 (Spock's Beard) from “Octane”, 2005.
Music and Lyrics by Dave Meros and John Boegehold

The song is itself split into three parts; the first, I guess the overture, is called “Prelude to the past”. It's followed by “The ultimate quiet”, a slower, more moody and atmospheric instrumental, until “A blizzard of my memories” kicks in the lyric as the guy realises he's about to die. But it's not just that, oh no.

There are unspoken but written narrative passages that accompany each section of the suite, and in order for the song to be properly appreciated, it's necessary to reproduce them below, along with, and before, the lyric, as it is more the former than the latter that tell the real story, and make this song such a triumph, and so different to many other prog compositions.

The juxtapositioning of the ordinary, everyday things like the coffee cup on the seat, Jagger singing and the fact that one of the thoughts in the guy's head is that he has just paid off this car, with the wholly supernatural, like angels dancing down from Heaven, and his sudden fear that Heaven may not exist after all, that all that may await him after this life could be darkness, really makes the song.The whole of “A flash before my eyes” takes up more than half the album, over thirty-one minutes of the overall fifty-five.

So this is the song itself with the narrative underneath, and then the lyric.


9:27 a.m., today...

Suddenly, I'm aware of everything that surrounds me. About fifteen feet to my right, there's an old man picking out roses at a flower cart. He's leaning on a carved wooden cane, but barely maintaining his balance as a flurry of pigeons rises from the sidewalk around him. A few steps away on the corner, there's a little blonde girl with a pink plastic purse, holding her mother's hand as they wait to cross the street. I see all of this through the delicate, miniature rainbow made by the sun reflecting off the coffee spray from my "world's greatest dad" cup, which a moment ago was balanced on the passenger seat.

The intersection of West Lexington and Grant Avenue has become the cosmic nexus of all I am, ever was and will be. As profound as all of that seems, some small part of my brain is distracted by the irony of Mick Jagger singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want", coming from the radio of the speeding truck that has just begun ripping through my newly-paid-off, freshly washed Honda Accord.

So, is this it? Is this where an army of angels appears in blinding white light to sing me to my eternal rest? Is this where I sink forever into that darkest bog of dreamless sleep? I never really bought either poetic scenario, but it looks like I may finally get the answers to all of those herb-fueled philosophical questions that sprung up from endless, all-night discussions in college. Of course, this is a lot sooner than I ever imagined having to confront the ultimate reality.

There is one thing I know for sure. If I ever wake up, this is going to hurt like hell...

”The windshield explodes/ Like a bomb packed with diamonds.
There's a deafening silence; /Time flows to a crawl.
As the ballet of the impact/ Spreads out across the blacktop,
Angels dancing like raindrops /In the air as they fall.
So this is how it goes.
So this is how it ends.
A flatbed runs a red light:
No time to comprehend,
As a blizzard of my memories
Lights up like fireflies
In the sliver of an instant
In a flash before my eyes...

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Random Track of the Day
Monday, October 24 2011
A new week, another Monday, time for some ELO. Taken from one of their earlier, and less successful albums, this is a song which nevertheless provided them an early almost-top ten hit, and began what would become something of a theme in ELO songs, of the western/cowboy lyric.

Showdown --- Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) --- from "On the third day" on Jet

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Time for some more girl power! Another five tracks by ladies who have made it big in what was traditionally a male-dominated walk of life, and who have now firmly stamped their identity on the music biz, deserving to be there just as much as their male counterparts.

One of the most independent and outspoken women in rock, here's the inimitable Kate Bush, with “Running up that hill”.


An utterly amazing voice, and one my favourite female singers, it's Sam Brown, with “Stop!”


Can't keep a good woman down, Ike! This is of course Tina Turner, but let's take something less obvious than her major hits. This is from the album “Break every rule”, and in fact the closing track, “I'll be thunder”.


Good rockin' from another stalwart, Stevie Nicks, with a track from her “Bella donna” album, this is a live version of “Enchanted”.


And to end up, here's one of my all-time favourite Madonna tracks, the lovely ballad “This used to be my playground”.

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Random Track of the Day
Thursday, October 21 2011
Way back when we started this series (August, I think?), one of the first bands featured were Nightwish. Back then, there existed some uncertainty as to what album the track was from. Well here they are again, and this time there's no ambiguity.

The riddler --- Nightwish --- from "Oceanborn" on Spinefarm


Some confusion as to what label this album is on though, as three are mentioned, but as Spinefarm are the first we'll go with that. A nice boppy, rocky number from “Oceanborn”, their second album, “The riddler” gallops along at a great pace, with arpeggiated keyboards and the great Tarja at her operatic best. Strangely enough, parts of the melody remind me of Chris de Burgh's hit, “Don't pay the ferryman”... Rather like Riverside, I'm only occasionally dipping into this band's work, but each track I hear keeps me coming back for more.

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billyjerome

Uh...god damn this journal is intense. I can't even keep up!

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Sunday, November 27 2011
The blue and the grey --- Magnum --- from "Brand new morning" on SPV

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Fallen empires --- Snow Patrol --- 2011 (Fiction)


Okay. Deep breath. Let's give this one. Last. Try.
I have been singularly unimpressed by everything I've heard from Snow Patrol so far apart from the single “Chasing cars”, which I love, so where am I going wrong? Are they a band with only one good song I will ever like, and should I give up on trying to get into the rest of their music? It would be unlikely, though not impossible and certainly not unprecedented. But then I heard the lead-in single to their latest album, “Called out in the dark”, and I have to say I loved it, even before I knew it was from those boys who go patrolling at winter. So is this album going to be the one that finally shows me what a great band they are, or is “Called out” destined to join “Chasing cars” as being two of the only tracks I like from these guys? Let's find out.

Okay, so we're opening up with an Alan Parsons-ish synth intro to “I'll never let go”, starting slowly, then some nice bass and guitar coming in and the tempo is upping slightly, becoming a mid-pacer with some interesting effects, I think on guitar. Gary Lightbody is on form vocally as ever, and I do have to say from the off this sounds more commercial, more accessible than anything I've heard from them before, “Chasing cars” obviously excepted. Nice growly guitar cutting in there, from Nathan Connolly, and the keyboards very dancy from Tom Simpson, but not sounding out of place here. Good opener. Impressive, yes.

Next up is that single, and you've more than likely heard it by now. Chock full of hooks, great chorus and just a really catchy, commercial song, “Called out in the dark” is the song that preceded the album and let people know Snow Patrol were back, and it's a good choice. Great bass, warbling keyboards never drowning out Lightbody's clear voice. Restrained guitar, the song mostly carried on synth from Simpson, and very ably so. Both a dancefloor filler and a rocker, this could be a song that is all things to all men, as it were. Kind of hard not to like it, which is a difficult feat to accomplish, but seems like the boys have struck gold here.

“The weight of love” comes in on nice low guitar (acoustic, maybe), then bass and drums cut in, but for about a minute it's Lightbody's voice that carries the song, and even when the keyboards come in they're still just a backdrop for his powerful voice, joined by backing vocalists giving the song a little of a gospel feel. Connolly comes in with his guitar a bit more forcefully, but Edge-like he's just out there on the periphery, keeping the melody but never attemping to take it over. Very well constructed song indeed. Three for three so far. The first ballad, and second single, then comes in the form of “This isn't everything you are”, with nice piano and chingling (what? It's a word I made up: perfectly cromulent down our way. Look it up...) guitars, impassioned vocal in the best style of Ricky Ross or Paul Heaton. Great powerful backing vocals again (is that a choir?), and a dramatic, soul-stirring ending. And then another ballad.

Piano again introduces “The garden rules”, with some nice acoustic guitar, a lookback to childhood lost, a real gem of a song with some nice female backing vocals. As this album was only released last week, it's hard to get concrete information on lineup and so on, so I can't tell you who the female backing singer is (but she's good!) or who the choir is, if there's a choir, but I'm beginning to believe that's the case. No bad tracks so far, and now we're into the title track. It opens with what sounds like banjo, but is probably just fast guitar, thumping drums coming in, a nice uptempo track after the last two ballads slowed everything down. Great bassline carrying the track too, and some pretty frenetic piano from Tom Simpson. The song always seems like it's about to break into a mad guitar solo, but that never happens. Powerful stuff, nevertheless.

“Berlin” is a short track, just over two minutes, and basically a march and a chant with musical backing, all sounding very happy and triumphant, sort of like one of those reprise-type songs you often get at the end of albums. The cleverly-titled “Life-ning” is a gentle guitar ballad with a very simple and honest lyric, and what sounds like violin or some kind of string section coming in and filling out the song, while “New York” is also a ballad, but on piano, with a real economy of melody, proving that you don't have to have banks of multi-tracked instruments and production to the nth degree to create a truly exceptional song, which this is. Earnest, powerful vocal is the vehicle the song travels on, accompanied by Simpson's simple piano lines. Beautifully simple, simply beautiful, a future classic. “In the end” kind of revisits “Called out in the dark”, with a similar melody and rhythm, and “Those distant bells” is an acoustic ballad, very much I feel in the mould of Suzanne Vega, with a little REM thrown in for good luck.

The longest track on the album, at just over six minutes, is “The Symphony”, a mid-paced song, but it comes across to me as the first weak track on the album, or maybe the first that doesn't have its own clear identity. That doesn't mean it's a bad track --- it's not --- but if there's a less-than-brilliant track on “Fallen empires”, for me, this is it. Possibly overlong, too, as it doesn't really seem to have the faintest idea where it's going or what it's about. Or maybe it's just me. It could end at the four minute mark, but it drags on for a further two minutes which, despite a pretty impassioned guitar solo from Connolly, seems to be superfluous.

“The president” is another piano ballad, with nice synth lines, a drawling, somewhat morose vocal a little at odds with the sudden introduction of upbeat drums in the background, though the juxtapositioning actually works quite well. The song itself would appear to refer to the late President Reagan, as Goodbody refers to seeing him ”There at Margaret's side” and the track ends with what sounds like recordings of Thatcher speaking, though very low.

The album closes with a short, ambitious instrumental which they call “Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)”, and it's interesting but kind of empty, more tacked on than anything else. Perhaps they thought closing with the previous track might have been too downbeat?

At any rate, it appears that finally, Snow Patrol have done it: they've converted me! This is one hell of an album. There are few, if any, bad tracks and so many of them are excellent that they really lift “Fallen empires” to the top of my repeat-listen list. I will have no problem playing this through again, end to end, several times. Perhaps I've just been unlucky in the music of theirs I've chosen to listen to, but this makes me want to go back and check out “Eyes open” at the very least. Perhaps there's hope for us yet.

TRACKLISTING

1. I'll never let go
2. Called out in the dark
3. The weight of love
4. This isn't everything you are
5. The garden rules
6. Fallen empires
7. Berlin
8. Life-ning
9. New York
10. In the end
11. Those distant bells
12. The Symphony
13. The President
14. Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)

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