Face It by Debbie Harry

Author:Debbie Harry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chris and I were planning to do a remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, a futuristic French film noir from 1965. We would be the producers and Amos Poe would direct. I was to play the female lead, Natacha von Braun, the part that Anna Karina played in Godard’s movie—and Robert Fripp would be the detective antihero, Lemmy Caution, who had been played by Eddie Constantine. Robert, the remarkable guitar player and composer who cofounded the British rock band King Crimson, became a friend after he moved to New York and worked as a solo artist and producer. He sat in with us at one of our CBGB’s shows in May 1978 and he made many guest appearances as well as playing on Parallel Lines, in “Fade Away and Radiate,” the song Chris wrote about my falling asleep in front of the TV screen. Robert and I dressed in character and did some screen tests. You can still find it on the Internet.

Chris and I had met with Godard in person and told him we wanted to do the movie. He said, “Why? You’re crazy,” but he sold us the film rights anyway for one thousand dollars. We found out later that he didn’t own the rights, but that’s not why the movie didn’t materialize. One element was that we knew nothing about producing a film, but the other was that our record company didn’t want us doing it. There was a similar problem when Robert Fripp asked me to sing on a record with him; our record company wouldn’t allow it. And later on, when I was sent a script for Blade Runner, the record company blocked that too—and I really wanted to do that movie. I’m sure it would have helped us sell records, in any case. But it seemed that the higher we got on the totem pole, the less they wanted us to do anything except for Blondie. Especially me. Chris had an outlet taking photos—he shot the sleeve for Robert Fripp’s new album—and for his own company, Animal Records, he produced albums like Iggy Pop’s Zombie Birdhouse and Gun Club’s Miami. He also produced Walter Steding for Warhol’s label Earhole, and an album by Gilles Riberolles and Eric Weber from the French rock-disco duo Casino Music, and also the soundtrack for the landmark hip-hop film Wild Style, plus a whole slew of other ventures.

I loved fooling around and experimenting, but there’s no point if it lands in a lawsuit. The music business is a business like every other, but art and commerce make for uneasy bed partners. “Can’t live with you, can’t live without you.” I didn’t choose to be an artist to have other people telling me how to create. We felt a deep need for creative freedom, a day-to-day rattling away on the bars of our emotional cages.

So, the bell rang and it was time to deliver another Blondie album. During a short break in a yearlong U.S. tour, we went into the Record Plant studio to start working with Mike Chapman on Eat to the Beat.

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