Customer Reviews

Koo Koo/Def, Dumb & Blonde

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

 

 

I love Deborah Harry (with or without Blondie), and it's great to have her first solo album, 1981's Koo Koo, back in print and digitally remastered. The album is very much of its time, but I hesitate to call it "dated" because I enjoy it so much. The stripped-down sound is worlds away from Blondie's at it gave Harry a voice of her own.

Her third solo album, 1989's Def, Dumb, & Blonde is also great but for a completely different reason than her first album. Eight years after Koo Koo's release, it served as a welcome return for Harry to a fuller, poppier Blondie-esque sound.

The problem with this edition's Def, Dumb, & Blonde is that it only has eleven tracks. The cd version released in 1989 and re-released in 2005 has fifteen. I understand that the original vinyl album released in 1989 had only eleven, and the four extra tracks were bonus tracks appearing only on the cd. Why didn't BGO re-release the original cd version, as opposed to the shorter lp version? There's plenty of room for all fifteen tracks on this cd.

If both Koo Koo and Def, Dumb, & Blonde were here in their entirety, I would give this 2-disc set five stars. Since D,D, & B is incomplete, I can only give it three stars.

(The missing tracks are Bike Boy, I'll Never Fall In Love, Comic Books, and Forced To Live.)

Serious Deborah Harry fans might want to buy this 2-cd set for Koo Koo (it costs less than used copies of previously released editions) and buy the fifteen-track version of Def, Dumb, & Blonde seperately. More casual fans could make do with this set alone or with Harry's greatest hits album, Most of All.

Okay, since I'm a Blondie/Debbie fan since 1978, I'll throw my hat into this...

For anyone wondering, BUY THIS COLLECTION IF YOU WANT A BRAND NEW REMASTERED VERSION OF DEBBIE'S 1ST SOLO ALBUM. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE OTHERS HERE ON AMAZON...TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE. SO HAPPY WE HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE! ALSO, IF YOU HAVE A COPY OF DEF, DUMB, AND BLONDE, BUY THIS ONE ANYWAY, SINCE IT'S THE TRUE REMASTER AND NOT JUST A REISSUE FROM 1989, LIKE THE ONE WOUNDED BIRD RECS. RELEASED 4 YEARS AGO. THE DIFFERENCE IN SOUND IS VERY OBVIOUS.

KOO KOO, from 1981, is a pretty good album. It's interesting, but a very different kind of animal from what Debbie had been giving us since 1976 w/ Chris and the boys; which is odd, considering how diverse her music w/ Blondie was. Like many others have said over the years, many of the songs sound like B-sides to A-sides: They're interesting, somewhat avant-garde, but not particularly hooky or memorable in the way that her previous output was. I'll put it this way...it's an odd follow-up to Blondie's masterpiece AUTOAMERICAN, which featured excellent forays into Art Pop, Punk/New Wave, Disco, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, Broadway show tune, and Rap. This is also a diverse album as well, going from New Wave, to Funk, to R&B/Jazz, Reggae (in The Police vein), Mid-Eastern-flavor, to Disco/Dance w/ a little Rap for good measure. It's very 1981, yet it sounds very artsy by today's standards...its style is rather timeless, like so much of Deb's music(I was alive and well in 1981, though only 7 yrs. old and this was my 1st time hearing the entire album 28 yrs. later, and it sounds contemporary and dated at the same time). As always when a leader of a group goes solo for the 1st time, the material and execution is incredibly crucial. Debbie and Chris Stein teaming up w/ Chic was not a mistake or mis-pairing; it's just that the songs aren't as important or memorable as everything that she did before or after, except most of 1986's ROCKBIRD, which, excepting a few tracks, was not a good album. There are some songs I hear on KOO KOO, and wish the production had been more textured, or more lyrics were added to the songs, or other voices, instruments, etc. Some of the songs sound unfinished or incomplete. No clear endings of thoughts or themes. The production is very minimalist on some songs, and it's jarring after coming from Mike Chapman's gorgeous, lush sound paintings. It's definitely worth buying and hearing. I also think the reception of the album was affected by the singles they released. I believe "Jump Jump" should've been the 1st single (a good intro for Deb's solo work, but not SO different from her previous stuff), then "Backfired" (Disco/Dance from Chic), then "Chrome" (beautiful vocal) for the New Wave fans, then the beautiful, Jazzy "Now I Know You Know" (one of Debbie's best vocals in her career; a great display of her range, and maybe the greatest of the highlights from the album), then "The Jam Was Moving". Blondie fans at large wouldn't have been as put off w/ these releases. The joke is, Debbie and Chris were trying to distance themselves from the pull of Blondie and the group's music, but the best songs on this album are the ones that are the most Blondie-esque. Go figure.

The opposite is true for 1989's D,D,&B: I feel that this is Debbie's best solo album, w/ NECESSARY EVIL a close second. Here, the Blondie and Deborah Harry personae are fused together. This album really feels and sounds like the 1st Blondie album after THE HUNTER. You could swear the drumming is Clem Burke. The backing voices are the rest of the boys. Since Mike Chapman produced much of the album, the Blondie style is even more apparent, though you're aware this is a Debbie album. The vocal and sonic textures are a complete opposite to the seemingly intentional hollowness of KOO KOO. Honestly, I don't make much of a distinction between the two faces of Debbie. I don't think Deborah Harry has ever held back on style or experimentation w/ Blondie, so I don't see her solo albums as being complete oppositions to the group's work. The best part of this album is that Debbie's voice is probably the strongest it's ever been. Her range is just as good at 43 as it was when she was in her 30s. Not many artists can say that. Highlights of the album are every song, for her personality as an actress of songs takes centerstage; but of greatest note are "Maybe For Sure", "Calmarie" "Get Your Way", "Sweet & Low", and "He Is So" (Debbie's voice sounds like an instrument on this one...this could easily have been on a Blondie album...classic Harry/Stein on this one). The only two drags of this collection are: No lyrics, and not all of the extra songs from D,D,&B are included, which means you need to own the Wounded Bird Records edition to hear the other songs, which are just as good as these included here.

The remastering sounds excellent.

Just to clarify: Although Amazon has this listed as a single CD, I was very pleased to find that this is a two CD package, with all of KOO KOO on one disc, and the shorter (vinyl?) version of DEF, DUMB AND BLONDE on the other disc. It definitely plays better with the albums separated.

KOO KOO, while no masterpiece, is hardly a musical disappointment, and had one of the most striking album cover images of the '80s. The grooves from Chic trio Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson are solid and well produced. Harry's voice is spirited and she sounds like she's having fun working with some new musicians. But there's definitely an X factor missing ... nothing sounds like a hit, and none really succeeded. However, "Backfired" is funny and sassy, and "Now I Know You Know" is as sultry as anything Harry has cut in her entire career. Reggae song "Inner City Spillover" has some truly weird lyrics!

DEF, DUMB AND BLONDE sounds a world away, made almost ten years after KOO KOO. The original U.S. CD was better, which had a total of 15 songs compared to this version. It suffers from a frilly, let's-have-fun! 80s production and Harry also sounds like she's somewhat surrendered and defeated, after the failure of Blondie's THE HUNTER, and of second solo album ROCKBIRD. There's a sense that her time had kind of come and gone to this album, which always makes it sound kind of sad to these ears.

I was so let down by the missing tracks on Def, Dumb, & Blonde I am sorry I bought the combo.

I have Koo Koo on vinyl. I remember when it came out in 1981 and all the fuss with it over Debbie leaving "Blondie" know we know better. I like most of the tracks on it. Still enjoy it to this day that's why I was glad to find it on cd. Def, dumb and blonde was a great surprise. Lot's of great songs I've never heard. A great addition to any Debbie Harry or Blondie fan.

Item came quick, was in great shape! Nice to get a hard to find item so quickly. Will use these guys in the future for hard to get music. Great to find a vendor who delivers the goods in a frustration free expediant fashion.

I have always be a Blondie / Debbie Harry fan. I was pleased to find these 2 albums again. Both contain excellent music and Debbie's fantastic vocals.

Pairing Deborah Harry's first solo album with her third is an odd combination. One is terrible, the other is fantastic. It would have made more sense to combine `Koo Koo' with her second, the frothy `Rockbird'. Additionally, this version of `Def, Dumb and Blonde' is the vinyl release, which is four songs shorter than the original concurrently released CD issue (a common record company ploy at the time, which was designed to encourage people to move from vinyl to disc). Without those four songs the album is decidedly weaker. Given that `Koo Koo' is so poor, I recommend buying the full CD of `Def Dumb & Blonde', where you will receive another four great songs in place of 10 weak ones.

For her first solo outing while still in `Blondie', it appears DH was trying to release something that did not sound like Blondie, which she definitely managed with `Koo Koo'. Instead of working with Blondie's rock producer, Mike Chapman (Suzi Quatro, The Knack, The Sweet, Pat Benatar), she worked with dance producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (Chic, Sister Sledge, The Jacksons, Diana Ross). The result is that `Koo Koo' sports a thin sound, contains slight, lack-lustre songs and, worst of all, fails to capitalize on Harry's awesome vocal abilities, leaving her enigmatic style sounding silly alongside all the popping basses and excessive rapping.

Most of the songs are flat out terrible. Were it produced by Chapman, the song `Under Arrest' would have sounded very much like a great Blondie song. Unfortunately, without him, it and everything else just sounds daft and under-realized. The best thing about it is the incredible cover art by H.R.Giger.

In 1989, following 1986's poppy `Rockbird', Harry finally released an album that was not only produced by Mike Chapman, but was every bit as strong as `Parallel Lines', `Eat to the Beat' and `AutoAmerican'. `Def, Dumb and Blonde' is Harry at the peak of her enigmatic powers, tapping punk, new wave, dance, pop and 60s girl bands to create a delectably assured whole - one of the very best things she has ever recorded, with and without Blondie. It is clear evidence of the benefits of working with a producer that `gets' the artist - which her previous solo project producers evidently did not. It might have been a relative commercial flop, but it is an absolute must for any rock collection.

Def Dumb and Blonde was always great! and underappreciated. I read somewhere it's the best of her solo albums. I had the cassette, probably no extra 4 CD tracks on that.....thanks for rereleasing great albums!