As the name of Blondie’s 1999 comeback album No Exit implies, there seems to be no end for
these new-wave legends.
Debbie Harry & Co. (pictured) hit the road this summer with
rocker Pat Benatar and late-’90s hard-rock girl band the Donnas. The
tour stops in Memphis for a show at Mud Island on Saturday, August 1st.
Blondie drummer Clem Burke took a few minutes from the road to speak to
the Flyer about Blondie’s past and future.
Flyer: Rap music is a huge force in Memphis. But
didn’t Blondie pioneer rap with “Rapture” in 1981?
Clem Burke: I’m sure it was the first hit rap song. The
melody to the song was written by the band, while a lot of rap music at
the time sampled other hit songs. But we wrote our own hit song and put
the rap in, and that’s kind of the template today for modern-day rap,
like with Kanye West.
What’s your favorite Blondie song?
It’s difficult to
choose. But my favorite record is Autoamerican, which has
“Rapture” on it. When we delivered that record to the record company,
they told us it didn’t have any hits, and it ended up having two
number-ones, “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture.”
Is there a new Blondie album in the works?
We hope to have a new record out by the middle of next year. One of
the reasons we went on tour now is to get the band up and running.
We’ll go into the studio afterward and record some new work. We’ve
recorded a few new songs. We’ll be playing one or two when the mood
strikes us during the show.
