Debbie Harry, the iconic lead singer and face of Blondie recently ditched her downtown CBGB roots for a two week residency uptown at the equally iconic Cafe Carlyle, which previously hosted jazz and cabaret luminaries such as, Lena Horne, Elaine Stritch and Eartha Kitt (just to name a few). As a lifelong Blondie and Debbie fanatic I could not miss this unique pairing and a chance to see Debbie perform outside of The Blondie bubble. Debbie’s setlist consisted of a mixture of her solo material along with some cover songs, culminating with my favorite cover Debbie ever performed, “The Rainbow Connection”, which she famously performed with Kermit The Frog four decades ago. Debbie’s accompanist or collaborator as she would call him was Matt Katz-Bohen who has been touring and performing with Blondie the last half dozen years as well. The theme of collaboration was quite prevalent throughout Debbie’s set. In between songs, Debbie took time to give some insight and exposition behind meanings of lyrics, songs and various artists and people of prominence throughout her career.
The set started off with her performing a very toned down version of “French Kissing In The USA” which was penned by Chuck Lorre (most recently famous for bringing Charlie Sheen to the small screen). Debbie noted that she did not actually write this song, but wishes she did. She then went into “Strike Me Pink” off ’93’s Debravation. Leading into this song, she explained how she collaborated with Ann Dudley and recalled vivid memories of her as a young girl playing with make-up, adult clothes and perfume bottles at her Grandmother’s dressing table, and it was her favorite bottle of perfume that was responsible for the title of the song. In a nod to their late friend, Jeffery Lee Pierce (The Gun Club), Debbie performed “Lucky Jim”. Debbie also spoke how close Jeffery was to the band and how they all kind of unofficially adopted him, and how Jeffery was quite an artist and poet in his own right. For me, this was the low point of the performance. I would have much preferred Debbie to have performed “Under The Gun” off Blondie’s Maria album, which was an ode to Jeffery.
Debbie and Matt then waxed poetic about the juxtaposition of the downtown vibe versus uptown and mused on how exactly they got there… to which Debbie responded with a resounding “Who Cares”!!! At this point, the most unique part of the performance happened. Debbie performed a hodge podge medley, of which I could not figure out the significance of or between the songs. The medley consisted of “On The Waterfront”, “Baby Doll” and “New York New York”. . Of the medley, Debbie’s voice was most pure and strongest during “On The Waterfront”. The audience was then treated to “Dog Star Girl” off of Deaf, Dumb and Blonde. This had one of the strongest reactions of the night from the audience. Before the song, Debbie talked in depth about her greatest collaborator and Blondie band mate, Chris Stein. While Debbie talked about many of her musical collaborators, I wished she included some anecdotes from the early days of Blondie, specifically of the downtown NYC scene. Collaboration continued to flow through the peformance when NYC Musician and producer, Barb Morrison joined Debbie on stage for a few songs and anecdotes of their musical collaboration together, most notably regarding a song which she helped produce, “Needless To Say” from Necessary Evil. Barb went into great detail on the genesis of that song, which came from Debbie talking about a strong personal connection she had with someone close in her life and how rare that actually is, needless to say…. at that point in the conversation Barb insisted that Debbie and her go into the studio immediately to record the song. I was thrilled to get this first hand recounting of how a Blondie song came to be penned and recorded. Debbie and Barb seem to share a fun, trusting, easy bond which was clearly seen through their body language and looks they were exchanging through the performance. The set continued with “In Love With Love” that she wrote with Chris Stein. Debbie shared with the audience that over the years Chris was very kind to her, giving her writing credits on songs she had minimal or no part in writing, but this one she actually helped write.
As I mentioned earlier, Debbie’s set concluded with a magical rendition of “Rainbow Connection” which she performed 40 years earlier on The Muppet Show with Kermit The Frog. This was the absolute highlight of the night for me. The song holds personal signifigance to me, and I particularly love Debbie & Kermit’s performance. Debbie talked a bit before she began to sing that she almost missed this opportunity because she thought this show was beneath her, but once she saw luminaries of the arts collaborating with these strange Muppet creatures, specifically Dizzy Gillespie she said “if it’s good enough for Dizzy, it’s good enough for me”. This moment of the show transported me back to being a little boy watching The Muppets with my parents on the floor of our Queens’ apartment living room. The magic spread throughout the Carlyle as the audience joined Debbie for a pop culture singalong that only Debbie could provide. Debbie not only is Queen of Underground Punk but Queen of transcending musical genres, decades of changing trends and musical tastes.
Great review! Wish I would have seen her!