Customer Reviews

Blondie: Unseen 1976-1980

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Roberta Bayley's images of Blondie rank up with the best. Her pictures from the "Heart of Glass" video shoot are certainly some of the most iconic shots of Debbie ever taken. The band gave Roberta carte blanche to shoot both onstage & behind the scenes, and that she did from 1976 to 1979. Lucky for us, since these were the band's most interesting years as a cohesive, artistic unit, and also when Debbie was at her most stunning-looking. Much is revealed about the relationships at work within the band during their meteoric rise to the top. The pictures tell most of the story; but Roberta's brief-but-insightful text guides the reader artfully to their own conclusions by describing the time & place without over-interpretting it for us. The earliest shots show a gaggle of punky twenty-something kids with a gawky and girlish frontwoman, still in her thrift-shop threads and suspended in a state of seemingly perpetual adolescence. In a three-year span, we see the band get slicker and Debbie more mature in her visual presentation, but it all seems to get less and less fun for our heroes as they go along. Thankfully, Roberta knows when to leave a party--her chronicle ends in 1980 when the band was at its commercial (if not artistic) peak--so we get to vicariously experience Blondie's thrilling ascent to fame without having to witness their sad demise. A must for every fan.

ATTENTION...all you Debbie/Blondie fans out there. This is one book not to miss. A must have. I own countless books on Debbie & Blondie, and this is by far the best book where photographs of Debbie and the band are concerned. Beautiful black & white and color photos abound. The shots taken for the Parallel Lines album are unbelievable. What a gorgeous woman! Talent,style,beauty...Debbie in her prime had it all. There's a great full page photo of Debbie & the band taken on a street corner in N.Y.C. in B&W that just has that great New York City summertime Rock & Roll feel to it. Again this book is loaded with great photos at different shows, on the road, backstage, etc...And the price of the book is a BARGAIN! I can't believe this book was'nt double the price.

This book has beautiful, rare photographs of Deborah Harry and Blondie not found in any other published Deborah Harry or Blondie book. The text is in French. But the official Blondie website provided English translations on request.