Something I have wondered for some time now. Does Debra Harry look high in this Blondie video?
I have nothing against limited drug use. I have never tried drugs myself. But to each his own I suppose.
Her movements just seem unnatural. Although I guess it could just be her overall mannerisms.
What do the rest of you think? And BTW, she is in Studio 54, which was notorious for its drug use. So it’s not as far-fetched as you may think.
:):)
She’s trying to be uber-cool, so her movements are kind of stylized, just like the rest of the band. She doesn’t look high to me.
Next you’ll be trying to convince us that she had sexual relations out of wedlock, and engaged in rock and/or roll.
She doesn’t look high to me. I’ve been around a bunch of drunk people, not as many but some stoned on other things. Some folks can wear a high or drunk better than others. I’m willing to believe she probably imbibed. The line of work she was in and the times suggest she did.
But what do I know?
A guess is all I got.
I mean, I can’t say she wasn’t, but if the way she’s performing in that video is an indication of such, she was probably stoned in every video and recorded live performance I’m aware of - the awkward dancing and facial movements are pretty consistent. Seems to be her brand.
(Nitpick…her name is spelt Deborah, and she usually goes by Debbie.)
I don’t know if she was specifically high while making that video. But Harry has been open about her past history of drug addiction.
She’s given interviews in which she said that she was a drug addict and did a lot of cocaine and heroine back then. It was the 80s, everyone was coked out of their mind all the time.
She’s always had a heavy-lidded minimalist personality. Still does, I think. Some people are just permanently mellow.
yeah, I guessed before clicking which one it was and it was pretty much her “thing”, effortless cool even when a little awkward and weird.
I confess a bias of course. “Paralell Lines” was the first album I ever bought and she was was first star crush, not a bad place to start I don’t think.
Well, let’s see. 1978. Studio 54. Debby Harry. Yes, she’s high in that video.
My favorite part of the video is at the 2:53 mark. If you have the captioning on, it changes “once I had love and it was a gas/soon turned out, had a heart of glass” to “once I had love and it was a gas/soon turned out to be a pain in the ass.”
Doesn’t detract from the meaning of the song even an iota.
I do think she looks a little stumbly/uncoordinated. No telling what the drug is, but it seems to be a bit sedating/relaxing. Quaaludes?
Deborah, or Debbie.
ETA: sorry, ninjad
I don’t know, but thank you for brightening my Saturday morning.
Yeah, given my memories of the punk and new wave scene at the time and her own descriptions of her behavior I’d be astonished if she wasn’t high shooting that video.
She does sing the “ass” line as well as the “glass” line in the song, certainly on the album and that indeed is what she sings in the video as some amateur lip-reading will show you.
Isn’t that the line? Maybe it was censored on AM radio or something, but that’s the way I recall it.
I saw Blondie live around 1980 and she was just as wooden as in her videos. She had the stage presence of a guitar stand. Still, it was pretty good. Maybe it was drugs or maybe shyness, but Debbie Harry is not the crowd-pleasing, put on a show type.
Agreed. I used to own some compilation of music videos and performances of hers and she looks/acts like that in all of them.
The song originally started with just “pain in the ass” in all places. They didn’t like using it so often so they replaced all but one. And that 3-letter word irked some folk. So it got bleeped or whatever at times.
The liner notes for The Platinum Collection (which had contributions from different members) said that the band was touring Australia and when they got back to NYC they heard it on the cab radio. They didn’t know it had been released as a single, let alone was doing well on radio. Plus the single version was tweaked from the version they had produced in the studio to make it even more disco-y.
The big censorship tale was the studio insisting that Sex Offender be renamed. Hence X Offender.
I think she looks more bored than high. A lot of singers hate lip-synching for videos. Notice how the bass player just strums on a random electrical cord at one point.
Whether she used any substances to alleviate the boredom, I don’t know.