I have always been a passive fan of Blondie. Largely, the Blondie phenomenon was over by the time I became aware of music, but there are a few songs that I like quite a bit. I enjoy "One Way or Another," in spite of it sounding like it was written by a stalker about her victim, and there are others I don't remember right now but which I like a lot; but mostly I love Debbie Harry. I think she's fantastically cool. She's beautiful and strange. She (still) wears too much brightly colored makup and bleaches her hair and dresses punkily and has a very big persona. She was also on the forefront of quite a few trends, back in the 80's, several years before they became pop culture phenomena.
Like rap.
The Blondie song, "Rapture," was the first mainstream song to contain a rap. And Debbie Harry was, unfortunately, the one rapping. Take a look. Forward to 2:06 and let the horror begin:
She's just horrendous. I've never heard such a bad rap. I have heard better raps at comedy improv shows. Or on commercials. For that matter, I'm willing to bet that better raps have been laid down at a retirement village in St. Paul.
Of course, at the time this song came out, no one outside of the NYC street/club scene even knew what she was doing, so we had nothing to compare it to. We just knew it was new and intriguing. Like Debbie Harry.
Yes. It is just terrible. I keep wishing that they would remix it.
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