Customer Reviews

Rockbird

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I own all Blondie and Deborah Harry albums. This is her second solo album after the 1981 masterpiece Kookoo with N.Rodgers and B.Edwards. Rockbird includes the UK top 10 hit French kissin'in the USA. Giving this album a rate is hard to do for me because I compare it with the other solo efforts of Debbie Harry. To rank Deborah Harry solo albums: 1 Kookoo 2 Rockbird 3 Def Dumb & Blonde 4 Debravation. So t.m.o.this is her second SOLO best. Songs like I want you, Buckle up, Free to fall, Secret life, You got me in trouble and Rockbird are great. Very different than her Blondie work but always that unmistakable voice. Too bad the album didn't hit the charts but at least it spawned a top 10 hit and two other UK top 40's: Free to fall and In love with love.

My first choice among Deborah Harry's solo albums is Debravation, which is for some reason out of print. Of the ones available (and I think they all are except Debravation), Rockbird is my favorite. Anyone who likes Deborah Harry should like this CD.

I'll confess to being an incorrigible Debbie Harry fan: I have a cat name Debbie Harry, and if Deborah Harry released an album with Close to You, Achy Breaky Heart and the theme to the Brady Bunch, I'd buy it.

That said, Rockbird has many excellent qualities: each segue from one song to another is good. The album is well put together; it is the kind of album you play straight through. Or at least I do. I never cut out tracks or pick one or two songs to play over and over. I just pop the CD in and let it go.

If you want to know about individual songs, however, yeah, this one has French Kissin' in the USA, and yeah, it's really, really good.

This album showcases Harry's voice more than any of her other albums. The background accompaniment is very much in the background, so you have the pleasure of enjoying the sound of her voice. This album doesn't recapture any of the Blondie sound, because its not about a group and its sound. Its about Deborah Harry as a soloist. It's wonderful.

After being an avid fan of Blondie, I decided to purchase Debbie Harry's solo albums. I now have all four, and this is my second favorite of them. Rockbird has many different styles, although not exactly the same as Blondie's band works, it does have rock, pop, dance, some disco; it's so hard to label this album because it has a little of everything. My favorite tracks are: I Want You, Buckle Up, In Love with Love, You Got Me in Trouble, Rockbird, Secret Life, and Beyond the Limit. I would definitely recommend this album to fans of Blondie, or 80s music.

This was Deborah (or Debbie) Harry's first comeback attempt, and one that deserved more attention than it got (in the U.S., at least). From the synth-seduction of "French Kissin'" to the superb "Free to Fall," this is a far superior to her first solo effort, the uneven "KooKoo." Though the lyrics (she had a hand in writing almost all of the tracks) are not as strong as those in her Blondie offerings or in later solo work, there are still some pretty clever turns of phrase. Other songs of note are the hypnotic "In Love with Love" and the funk-infused "Beyond the Limit" (sounding suspiciously like a reworked--and much better--cast-off from "KooKoo"). Sadly, when this was released in 1986 it did not get the airplay it deserved. If you're a Blondie/Deborah Harry fan, don't make the same mistake American radio made; get this CD and hear it for yourself.

This album is one of my favorites. I own ALL albums recorded by Debbie Harry and "Rockbird" is one of the best. It reveals Debbie's matured talent and voice like no previous album does. "Rockbird" is a real classic. It is terribly underrated, too. If you like Debbie, you MUST buy this album.

What the pop world needed more than anything was the return of Debbie Harry. In late '86 she delivered a pop classic that saw her back in the top 40, mainly thanks to the huge success of the top 10 hit French Kissin'. Follow up singles Free To Fall & In Love With Love further highlighted her vocal talents. Seth Justman, on leave from J. Geils, uses a large palette of instrumental colours to back Harry's breathy style.

As with her other solo albums (except Def, Dumb, & Blonde) this a nice set of non-Blondie sounding songs. It's not representitive of her overall work but worth checking out.

I bought this on vinyl back in the day, and have yet to stop singing its praises. Deb - even at her 'worst' - is head and shoulders above anyone today...and "Rockbird" is far from her worst. Very far. It is relentless in its musical muscle, and once you start with "I Want You" - good luck in trying to stop listening to this. Following releases (Def Dumb & Blonde/Debravation) may have paled in comparison, but at least there is Rockbird - - - to remind us who is boss!

Debbie Harry's 2nd solo disc, "Rockbird" #97 in 1986, is a great return to rock and funk of Blondie's past. This is Debbie's best solo record and should still be in PRINT! When I first bought this in "86, I said to myself "This sounds a little like J.Geils Band's "Your getting even" album"? Well to my amazment Seth Justman does play on this album and does most of the arranging here. The tracks that are great on here include:

Her big hit on the album "French Kissin'" #57. The funk of "Buckle Up", great ballads, "Free To Fall" just a tremendous song and "In Love With Love" #70, the J.Geils '84 style song "You Got Me In Trouble", and the rockers "Rockbird" and "Secret Life". Get it used if you come across it, it's that good!

Four years after the demise of Blondie, Deborah Harry finally returned with her second solo album. `Rock Bird' is a slick pop piece that largely abandons the facets of Harry's long-established, enigmatic personal style in favour of commercial gloss. Producer, Seth Justman, who played keyboards for the J. Geils Band (`Centrefold', `Freeze Frame'), opts for frothy (at the time) contemporary style over substance, which ends up leaving Harry sounding like one of the pack instead of the leader she had always been.

Everything here is catchy and infectious, with probably the most interesting track being the single, `French Kissin'. Harry and long-time partner and Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein, contribute three songs (`In Love With Love', `Rockbird' and `Secret Life'), with their rocky and amusing title track being the best (and biggest departure) on the album. Harry penned the others mostly with Justman. And the closing partnership with Nile Rodgers, `Beyond the Limit', sounds like a leftover from her dire first solo album, `Koo Koo', though with better production.

It is hard to shake the feeling that Justman's slick, bubble-gummy, of-the-moment production robs Harry of the authority she needs to really shine, though to a far lesser extent than Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards did on `Koo Koo'. Generally, the songs tend to run too long, which also detracts from a sense of quality. It also tends to indicate that Harry needs a producer who really understands her, as Mike Chapman did when she was in Blondie. But in a post-Blondie world, at least she was recording again, even if it was as a shadow of her former self. Definitely one for the bargain bin.