Customer Reviews

Eat to the Beat

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard EAT TO THE BEAT on the radio twenty years ago, and that night I decided to take Blondie seriously. Of course the songs are catchy, everybody remembers "Dreaming" and "Atomic." But the singing and musicianship were utterly top notch, even in the year that gave us Joe Jackson and the Pretenders, along with Elvis' GET HAPPY!, and the production put it over the top. Every note on this album is HUGE! Who would doubt it if he were told Phil Spector had a hand in it? The songs are just as good as those on PARALLEL LINES, with a little less cuteness, and the whole set sounds much more unified without all sounding the same--sometimes dreamy, like "Shayla," sometimes driving, like "Living in the Real World," and always sounding exactly the way it should. It's great that almost all of Blondie's work is available in one set; but this is such a tight and of-a-piece set that it's a shame it's so hard to experience it in its original form. Buy it and see.

The first album I ever bought with my own money was "Eat To The Beat". I must have been 9 years old and I didn't take the record off the stereo for almost a year. "Eat To The Beat" rescued me from Casey Kasem and Rick Springfield. I didn't know that girls could get mad until I heard Deborah Harry rage away on "The Hardest Part". There's not alot of overt references to sex, like most songs back then had, so my virgin mind could grasp the stories being told, for the most part: Shayla worked in a factory and she was just a number, the hardest part had something to do with an armed guard and Ms.Harry knew someone who liked peanut butter and so did I, so she was COOL! I didn't know ANYone who knew about this album, much less had it or thought it was as great as I did, so I just assumed I was weird... Now I know I just had good taste. It's STILL a masterpiece and worth every penny!

Deborah Harry's face on the cover of this album still hypnotizes me. I can look at it forever.
After this legend band's first 3 albums, what would they come up next? They had achieved fame, Deb had become an icon, they had joined the NY avante-garde artsy crowd. The band evolved and gave us the sublime Eat to the Beat, undeniably still a Blondie album but ahead of it's time. Harry's voice becomes a miracle, but I've always felt that Clem Burke's amazing drumming drove this band and this becomes clear on the album's first
cut "Dreaming". The funk/rock sound of "The Hardest Part" was new for the band and they successfully explode from your headphones. "...Nitro and acetalyne, open la machine" - are these perfect lyrics or what? The reggae/punk sound of "Die Young, Stay Pretty" is also new, and ROCKS. Deb calls you ".. a dried-up twig in your family tree". Damn! Her voice in "Shayla" haunts you. The perfection of "Atomic" and "Union City Blue" makes these tunes eternal. "Slow Motion" is pure Blondie pop. And they perfectly describe being famous on "(I'm Not)Living in the Real World".
Eat to the Beat changed my "musical expectations" forever. Listen to it and grow.

Unfortunately, this album is often overlooked as merely filler between PARALLEL LINES and AUTOAMERICAN. This is mainly because it didn't produce any US#1 singles. But the fact of the matter is that EAT TO THE BEAT has some great late 70's pop songs - 'Atomic' (better than 'Heart of Glass'), 'The Hardest Part' (very sexy), 'Union City Blue', 'Victor' and many more. I 'borrowed' my cousin's vinyl copy about 11-12 yrs ago and am surprised I haven't worn it out yet due to how much I play it. A fantastic album that defines Blondie at their peak. BUY IT!!!

Just like my title said,hands down,the best Blondie album ever. I first heard it 20 years ago and I was hooked,if you don't have it,and you like great music,buy it NOW! You'll be glad you did.

The illluminati will tell you that Parallel Lines is the greatest Blondie album, and the charts will tell you that Autoamerican is. Eat to the Beat is supposed to be the album where Blondie got too big for its boots, but that's not the way I see it. Blondie rocks harder on this album than their earlier discs, where Debbie Harry tended to sound like a Martha Reeves wannabe. This time round it's hi-octane New York rock - drummer Clem Burke kicks the album off like a man who really should cut down on coffee with 'Dreaming', a cut which updates the Vandellas' sound to late seventies New York. The album has its fair share of classic Blondie tracks: the shadow of disco is thrown across the exquisite 'Atomic' (are they Hank Marvin's guitars we hear in the background, Mr Stein? Has someone been dusting off his Shadows' 20 golden greats collection? I think we should be told) and Union City Blue is another greatest hits staple which is characteristic of the feel of the album. There are some buried treasures here, too - in the slower tempos of 'Shayla' Debbie sings like a reconstructed country Diva, the band rocks out on 'The Hardest Part', a song which is apparently about holding up a security van, and `Die Young, Stay Pretty' is a world-weary take on the subject matter of the earlier, sublime `Picture This'. Eat to the Beat certainly isn't perfect - but neither is Rock 'n' Roll. The silly title track is the weakest link, and while 'The Victor' is a beautifully formed piece of sceaming punk rock it is, alas, totally misplaced on this album, coming as it does immediately after the pedestrian (but similarly out of place) 'Sound Asleep'. Maybe that's the point - it was a bit of pre-post modernism to buttress these to tracks together in the first place - but for my money the album could have done without either. Eat to the Beat ain't perfect - but I don't think any Blondie album is (aside from their 'Best of...', which without question is a 5 star affair). But over a whole album it's as good as they were - attitude without being amateur, sophistication without going through the motions (which they did during Autoamerican). And, in Atomic and Shayla, some classic American music.

I never forgot the time I first saw Eat To The Beat in the racks at the record shop. The album had just been released and was $5.99. When I came across the album and saw Frank Infante on the front cover, I said, "Man, that dude looks like Frankenstein." I bought it on the spot and was blown away when I played it. This album is hard to catergorize, but it is definitely Deborah Harry at her sexiest and the band at its peak. The tracks are as varied as Debbie's moods, implementing elements of reggae (Die Young Stay Pretty), girl power-pop (Slow Motion, Union City Blue), punk,(Living In the Real World, Accidents Never Happen), classic rock (The Hardest Part), and even a lullaby, which was oddly out of place here (or on any album, for that matter). At any rate, this is the best Blondie album by far. It is the only album that encapsulates the maniacal ferocity with which Blondie ripped through its set at CBGB's in their early days.

Well, the illluminati will tell you that Parallel Lines is the greatest Blondie album, and the charts will tell you that Autoamerican is. Eat to the Beat is supposed to be the album where Blondie got too big for its boots, but that's not the way I see it. Blondie rocks harder on this album than their earlier discs, where Debbie Harry tended to sound like a Martha and the Vandellas wannabe. This time round it's hi-octane New York rock - Clem Burke kicks the album off like a man who really should cut down on coffee, and 'Dreaming' updates the Vandella's sound to late seventies New York. While there's energy there's also plenty of thought - Debbie Harry, with a typically sharp eye, asks "Are you sitting all alone in your rocking chair, transistor pressed against an ear - or are you waiting at the bus-stop for a ride, or just to die by the handle of love - for you and love for me?" The album has its fair share of classic Blondie tracks: the shadow of disco is thrown across the exquisite 'Atomic' (and are they Hank Marvin's guitars we hear in the background, Mr Stein? Has someone been dusting off his Shadows' 20 golden greats collection? I think we should be told) and Union City Blue is another greatest hits staple which is characteristic of the feel of the album. There are some buried treasures here, too - in the slower tempos of 'Shayla' Debbie sings like a reconstructed country Diva, and the band rocks out on 'The Hardest Part', a song which is apparently about holding up a security van. Eat to the Beat certainly isn't perfect - but then neither is Rock 'n' Roll. The pretty silly title track is the weakest link (I mean, why didn't they call the album 'the Hardest Part'?). And while 'The Victor' is a beautifully formed piece of sceaming punk rock it is, alas, totally misplaced on this album, coming as it does immediately after pedestrian (and similarly out of place) 'Sound Asleep'. Maybe that's the point - it was a bit of pre-post modernism to buttress these to tracks together in the first place - but for my money the album could have done without either. It ain't perfect - but I don't think any Blondie album (aside from their 'Best of...', which without question is a 5 star affair) is. Over an album it's the best they were - attitude without being amateur, sophisticated without going through the motions (as they were during Autoamerican and beyond). And, in Atomic and Shayla, some classic pieces of American music.

When you hear 1978's `Parallel Lines', it is hard to believe Blondie could top it. But a year later, they did. From the energetic drum rolls and simple opening new wave lead guitar strains of `Dreaming' to the closing bars of `Living in the Real World' twelve songs later, the drive and energy of Blondie's crowning achievement, `Eat to the Beat', never lets up.

Producer Mike Chapman seems to have taken a different approach on this follow up to his massively successful first album with the band. `Eat to the Beat' has a sense of abandon all the way through. It's completely irresistible pop new wave onslaught almost manages to make `Parallel Lines' sound calculated and lumbering by comparison (which, of course, it definitely isn't!). It is a culmination of everything they accomplished on that record - all the influences and ideas that had characterized their style on their first three albums ... amped!

Everyone is in top form on `Eat to the Beat', from musicianship to vocal performance to song-writing (of which everyone but drummer Clem Burke contributes) and, of course, the stellar thumping-60s-girl-group-crossed-with-new-wave production. Burke might not be a writer on this one, but his drumming is the centrepiece around which the entire record is built. On `Eat to the Beat', he comes into his own.

On this fourth outing, guitarist Chris Stein and keyboardist Jimmy Destri crystalize their roles as the two major stylists in the band. When you think of the overall sound of `Eat to the Beat' it is their writing that defines it (often with Deborah Harry, who co-wrote three quarters of the tracks). Stein is behind the 60s pop rock of `Dreaming', the rhythmic funk rock onslaught of `The Hardest Part', the reggae of `Die Young, Stay Pretty' and the wafting slow melodrama of `Shayla'. At the same time, Destri is responsible for the gorgeous strains of `Accidents Never Happen', the delirious 60s girl group pop of `Slow Motion', the new wave disco explosion of the timeless, career-defining `Atomic' and the closing New York punk of `Living in the Real World'. But it is the incredible departures, co-written by Harry with other band members that make the whole package of `Eat to the Beat' so memorable. With guitarist Nigel Harrison, she crafted the anthemic `Union City Blue' and with bassist, Frank Infante, the hysterically tortured hard rocker, `Victor'.

`Eat to the Beat' is so fantastic, it leaves you breathless. It is the band's crowning achievement, bringing everything together in one prefect 45 minute blast. It is a shame it has had to spend its life in the shadow of its predecessor - but that makes it such an incredible discovery for the uninitiated.

Even though Parallel Lines is recognized as the best Blondie album, I prefer this one. There are great songs on this one, and I think they have one of the coolest looks of rock bands.