Customer Reviews

New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation with Blondie, Iggy Pop and Others 1974-1981

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The problem with all the Blondie books up til now has been that each one was written with too distinct a bias. Lester Bangs's 1980 "Blondie" was a venemous attack that barely concealed Lester's own jealous envy (he was in a band of his own), the Fred Schruers mini bio "Headliners: Blondie" while more objective, was too short to provide a comprehensive biography of the band,1982's "Making Tracks" is a great book but was written by Debbie Harry & Chris Stein themselves, and therefore only tells half a story. Cathay Che's Debbie Harry bio "Platinum Blonde" along with the more recent "Blondie From Punk to Present" are more like fan love-letters than biographies.

That leaves us with Mr. Valentine, who played bass for only two years, 1975-1977. These were, however, the pivotal years of the band's inception and early development, and therefore are the most interesting and crucial to read about. His accounts of living and playing with Debbie and Chris are niether spiteful nor ingratiating, and provide what might be the first objective insights on what being in Blondie was really like. Nobody comes off worse for wear, even though many eccentricities, insensitivites and downright hypocrasies are revealed. Rather, it makes them more interesting and human than ever.

In any summary of a life or career, it's fair to say that nobody owns the truth. There are many subjective truths. But Gary's literary voice rings true, you get the feeling he's being honest in his accounts. He's neither trying to turn you against the Blondies (like Lester) nor kissing their collective ass (like Ms Che). He's just telling it like it was from his persepctive, and the result is a fascinating account of the whole scene.

The pix are quite good, mostly rare, and capture a Blondie that most folks probably don't even remember. A must have for any fan of Blondie and/or the NYC punk era.

I've been a fan of the band Blondie for quite some time and I read everything I can get my hands on about this band. Gary Valentine's book is by far the best look at Blondie's early years. It's a witty, funny, insightful view of the New York rock scene of the 1970's. Since Gary was a member of Blondie during their early days he has all the stories you could hope for about life with the band when they were just beginning and he lends insight into the creativity that went into the writing of his two most notable Blondie contributions - X Offender and Presence, Dear. Just about everyone you'd be interested in from this time period makes some sort of appearance in this book - Johnny Thunders, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Captain Sensible, Tom Verlaine, etc. I will read this one over and over again. Gary takes a good long look at what differentiated the New York, London and LA punk scenes and it's one fun and fascinating read. If you are a fan of Blondie or the 70's glam or punk scene or the early 80's new wave scene then you must get this one!

Complete FUN from start to finish. Valentine kicks off his rock and roll autobiography by dropping the reader off in his late teens when he discovered a bohemian lifestyle in the glitter days of The New York Dolls, and the fact that he was young and innocent at the time makes his adventures quite amusing. Although he was more of a bookworm than a musician, he soon found himself playing bass in a struggling bar band called Blondie. There are tons of great stories regarding the famous punk hangouts CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, and later Hurrah, as well as a plethora of anecdotes regarding peers, friends, and enemies, who have since become punk rock royalty; Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, The Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads, The Germs, Wayne County, etc., Valentine's insight is told as a very keen observer to the freakish lifestyle of the entire scene and he constantly adds touches of winking humor that makes the book more and more enjoyable with the turn of every page.
His tenure with Blondie is the center of the book, as this is where he found fame but not fortune. As a roommate to the first couple of New Wave, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, he enjoyed a strange friendship with them while at the same time being accused of trying to upstage them. Although it may somtimes appear that he is tossing sour grapes at them, he is really just giving his point of view of certain situations. Many of the Blondie stories have been told before, but a different point of view is always refreshing. Valentine never rakes the band over the coals, despite being jilted from their reunion during the late 90's.
The book does not just cover the New York punk scene, but extends to the West Coast as well when Valentine leaves Blondie and forms The Know. For anyone who thought he dropped off the musical radar after Blondie, his adventures continued, proving that he was no Pete Best (the lost Beatle). He wraps up the book with a sex and substance drenched tour with Iggy Pop and his involvement in the early stages of the Blondie reunion in 1996. From start to finish, NEW YORK ROCKER is an incredibly well written account of the punk movement and a very welcome addition to the growing library of books on the topic.

This is a good book. I don't know if its objective or not, because it was written by Gary Valentine, who was a founding member of Blondie, but he didn't last long with the band. Also, when the band re-united in the 90's, he wasn't asked to re-unite. So consider that when you read it. He did contribute the song "X Offender" and maybe 1 or 2 others to the band.

Gary Valentine was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with the other founding members of Blondie, back in 2006. He is a "pretty-good" author, this book covers mainly Blondie, but also briefly covers some others such as Iggy Pop and some of the CBGB New York bands.

Overall, its an interesting book to read, and Gary does have some personal insights into early Blondie, and their founding members.

If you are one of the millions of Blondie fans who ever wondered what happened to Gary Valentine (the composer of Blondie classics "Sex Offender" and "I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear") after mysteriously disappearing from the lineup in between the eponymous debut LP and Plastic Letters--and if you wondered why Valentine looked so uncomfortable being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next to Debbie Harry and Chris Stein -- then this is the book for you. Valentine spent ensuing years as a writer and it shows in this gripping, insightful and informative book. Though there are some awkward misspellings--like Ric Ocasek of the Cars' name-- this is an absorbing, entertaining and anecdotal account of the birth of punk, the malaise of latter-day new wave, and the rivalry within a classic band--by someone who lived it every step of the way.

It would be almost impossible to have lived through the time period and cultural place that Valentine did and not have a few interesting stories to tell. Unfortunately he reveals himself as a not very likable character. He credits himself with Blondie's success - although he only played on their first album. Nasty jabs at the other members of Blondie, as well as complete disregard for a former girlfriend and sick child, make for very unpleasant reading at times - vitriol and envy seem to be the driving force behind his writing. Still, it's a least a better book than Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius, which is a completly embarassing, amateur mess. Not sure how it's possible to make such fascinating subjects boring and repetitive, but Valentine manages to do it. 'New York Rocker' is certainly interesting, but it leaves a bitter taste.

I thought this book was an excellent account of the birth of an era. I found it wonderfully subjective and the account felt honest and real. His voice was straightforward and the stories were humorous as seen through a young man's eyes; it all seemed so new and fascinating to him and hinted at some hero worship from Gary to Chris and others. I consider him to be a fine writer with a personal touch to his credit. During that era, I played music in a different scene and declined most offers to visit there but always wondered what I had missed. Witnessing it through Gary's eyes put me there and it felt delighful to associate my personal memories along with it.

Blondie is one of my all time favorite bands so I'll enjoy virtually anything written about the band. True to form I blazed through New York Rocker in a day. While the book contained no major surprises, with the exception of how the song X-Offender was inspired (Making Tracks tells the story but changes the names to protect the innocent), just learning the small details about their lives during this period and reliving some of the band's early experiences was very gratifying. For a first time author the book is also very readable.

With that said to me Valentine seemed oddly detached from the scene he writes about and ostensibly experienced first hand. Even as a member of Blondie he seemed on the periphery of the New York punk scene. There are precious few direct insights or interactions with virtually any of the principle players in the New York music scene. Whereas Debbie Harry or Chris Stein were mainstays in the scene, Valentine was seemingly a comparatively minor player who was really just passing through. A memoir from Chris Stein or especially Debbie Harry would be a much richer story. Similarly, while Valentine offers some opinions about other performers, often this information comes from other sources, such as Heylin's history of American punk rock. And even things that would be very interesting in detail, such as his first performance with the band at CBGB's, get passed over too quickly.

As to his tenure with the band and why he got kicked out/quit, Valentine presents the usual creative and personality differences. The main source of personality conflict according to Valentine was not Debbie Harry (who Valentine is honest enough without saying so outright to recognize as the star of the band) but Chris Stein. Valentine questions Stein's musicianship and presents him as tempermental. In this there is nothing exceptional in comparision to myriad other band break-up stories, but it is still worth remembering that this is the point of view of one individual in a two-sided tale. By his own admission, as later events Valentine candidly discusses show, Valentine had his own share of eccentricities and was a willful individual in his own right. Valentine also mentions creative differences, but Blondie's rise to superstardom after his departure compared to his own limited success with his own band, The Know, puts these differences in perspective. Finally Valentine offers an entertaining account of touring with Iggy Pop as a member of his band after his time with Blondie.

In sum, while I would not recommend this as a history of the New York punk rock scene, the book makes no claim to be anything other than a musical biography. As a personal chronicle of the early history of Blondie, it is a book that any fan of the band will enjoy. I may not have learned much that was new, but even reading a different perspective on events I already knew about was worth while.

I got this book the other day here on Amazon and I couldn't put it down. Especially during his years with Blondie which were from my point of view the most interesting stories in this book. He has a lot of crazy, funny, scary, and sad stories to tell in this book and they are very entertaining and gripping to read. I couldn't put it down. I had to know more. I love his insight into the whole scene from that period. He links the glitter period to the punk period and back again very well.

Read this book.

Extremely readable memoir of Mr Valentine when he arrives to NYC as a young teenager. What's makes the book a worthy read is that he has a knack for offering interesting details about what it was like being part of the music scene in NYC in the late 70's. Even when he wasnt in a band he was a active "fan" and part of the scene. The book is well-edited and it moves along at a nice pace. As some of the other reviewers point out, the writer isnt particularly nasty in his opinions but he also doest shrink from saying what he feels about other folks he knew at that time. There was prodigious drug use going on around him and it was eye-opening for me that so many rockers where sticking needles in their arms in those days. If you like NYC Punk, this is quite an intersting and informative read.