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Blondie Live

BLONDIE - Blondie Live Audio CD

A fair review of the BLONDIE "Blondie Live" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all BLONDIE reviews here, or go back to the BLONDIE tabs.

Band: BLONDIE
Title: Blondie Live
Rating:

Release Date: 2004-10-04
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dreaming 2: Hanging on the Telephone 3: Screaming Skin 4: Atomic 5: Forgive and Forget 6: Tide Is High 7: Shayla 8: Sunday Girl 9: Maria 10: Call Me 11: Under the Gun 12: Rapture 13: Rip Her to Shreds 14: X Offender 15: No Exit 16: Heart of Glass 17: One Way or Another

Energetic Performances of Classics

really like the drum solos and emotional vocal performances. I love this CD, i listen to it all the time.
Highlights include: Rapture, Call Me, Rip her to shreds, Hanging on the telephone, Atomic, One way or another, Maria (the best version i've ever heard). .

Blondie - 'Live In New York' (BMG Special Product)
I got to see them play live a few years later and believe me,Blondie is still a fun act to go see. Very nice reunion gig of the '70's new wave/pop band while out on their '99 reunion tour. Total of seventeen cuts here to show you the band still means business. Enjoyed hearing again "Hanging On The Telephone","The Tide Is High"(I usually don't care for this tune),"Shayla","Rapture","X Offender",their signature song "Heart Of Glass" and "One Way Or Another". Four original members intact include Debbie Harry-vocals,Chris Stein-guitar,Jimmy Destri-keyboardist and Clem Burke-drums. I remember when I saw them play,there were two others with them,making Blondie a six piece. Couldn't find any info on the disc's cover. Recommended if you're an old school fan. You shouldn't be disappointed.

Still radiating, only slightly faded
But I've always liked Blondie, and didn't get to see them live, so I made an exception. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of live albums and rarely listen to them.

I'll get one thing out of the way: the band hasn't lost anything over their period of collective inactivity. They can still rock even when they don't have studio tech to cover up any rough patches. It's a solid performance, with some ad-libbing here and there (some of it a little embarrassing), but aside from the occasional interlude there's little deviation from the sound of the studio recordings.

What also results in disappointment as far as this release goes is something that plagues most artists who have been around for decades and achieved a kind of legendary status: the pressure to "crowd-please" and play the most popular songs, and not much else. Except for a few deep cuts from the then-current album, it's all hits. There aren't any real surprises; even lesser-known tracks like "Shayla" and "X Offender" are regarded as signature tunes. It's unclear whether this reflects the actual live shows, or it is simply the way they chose to sequence this album, since it features extracts from a number of performances. In any case, the end result is rather predictable.

In the end, there's little actually wrong with the album, but it is completely inessential for virtually everyone. Those who have been to one of the shows may want a souvenir, but anyone else is better off with 'No Exit' and one of the many "best of" collections that have been released over the years.

Decent Live CD
Impressively, they've continued to record music and play live gigs. Blondie was, of course, one of the premier bands of the late 70s and early 80s, when they racked up four #1 songs. I really like Blondie, and I have one of their greatest hits CDs as well as their remix CD from a few years ago. However, I have to admit that I didn't buy "Live" on purpose - it was shipped to me by one of the music clubs to which I belong, and I forgot to send it back in time. So take my comments in that context.

First the pluses --> All in all, "Live" is a decent concert collection. Debbie Harry is generally in good form, although she does get a bit shrieky and off-pitch on some songs. Her interaction with the crowd and "stuttering" vocals on "The Tide Is High" are fun. In addition, a knockout version of "Sunday Girl" cleverly incorporates a section of "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia. The song selection is also quite good; "Live" includes most of their hits as well as a few somewhat more obscure songs, such as "Shayla" and their recent European #1, "Maria. "

Now the drawbacks --> Relatively little crowd interaction with Debbie is included, which is a mistake for a band that is so personality-driven. Part of this situation probably is due to the fact that the songs were recorded during different venues spanning 1998-1999. However, the outcome is a definite lack of cohesion. In addition, very few of the songs are anything other than a live re-creation of the studio version of the song, making for fairly boring listening. If I want to hear these songs, I'll listen to their greatest hits CD.

If you enjoy live CDs and like Blondie, then you will probably add one star to my rating. Unfortunately, as much as I like Blondie, I can't go above 3 stars; and one of those stars is just because I admire a woman who can still rock in her 50s!
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Solid Live Performance - Mix of Old & New
In 1999 Blondie returned with the album "No Exit" and they showed they never missed a beat. Sometimes when a band reforms after a hiatus, it often returns to mixed results. When I listened to Blondie when I was younger, I often confused Deborah Harry as Blondie. I often discounted a solid band that consisted of not only Harry, but Chris Stein on Guitar, Jimmy Destri on Keyboards, and Clem Burke on Drums. What really showed how well this reunion would go was a follow-up live album - and the quartet does not disappoint. "Blondie Live" is a combination of recordings in London, Las Vegas, and New York. Sometimes this collection is actually sold as "Blondie Live in New York", but the "Blondie Live" title is more appropriate given the recordings are from multiple places.

Usually I would be critical of this type of live album for two reasons: 1) I prefer a Live album to be a recording of a single performance and 2) If a mixed bag of live performances is used, I would prefer to hear the recording when the song and band were at the peak of popularity (i. e. I normally would like to hear a live recording of "The Tide is High" the year they toured with that song). In the case of "Blondie Live", the mixed bag formula works - and works well. I understand that Blondie is focused on a comeback period of live performances and wanted to focus on the comeback as opposed to the past. The good thing is - the album does come off flawlessly with the multiple sources for the live numbers. It almost seems like a single concert.

What I like best about the CD is that Blondie doesn't immediately launch into their commercial hits right away. They start the CD off with some old songs such as "Dreaming" and "Hanging on the Telephone" - then follow with a newer song "Screaming Skin". These songs might be popular among Blondie fans, but the most interesting thing is the first big "commercial hit" to the general audience doesn't follow until "The Tide is High" at track 6. Songs like "Call Me", "Rapture", "Heart of Glass", and "One Way or Another" are included on the CD, but they really are spread out among the CD. I think this is a good thing.

There are four songs from the new "No Exit" album and they are solid tracks. "Screaming Skin" has the classic Debbie Harry narrative type vocals and the band really pulls this one off live - especially when Harry sings ". . . I'm a multicellular individual just way out of proportion". "Forgive and Forget" isn't the strongest Blondie song, but you can hear the relentless drumming of Clem Burke on that track. "Maria" was the most popular track from the "No Exit" album and it doesn't disappoint here. This is another song in which the band is awesome - Harry's vocals, Destri's keyboards, Stein's guitaring, and more relentless drumming by Burke. "No Exit" is another awesome song. This was a song that Blondie with Coolio as the title track for "No Exit". I would have like to have seen Coolio on this track, but this is a true "Alternative Rock Rap". Harry pulls the rap off flawlessly. Blondie were innovators back in 1980 with "Rapture" and they prove they are still innovators by once again putting a modern spin on a rap-like song.

It is actually the commercial classics that are a bit of a disappointment on this album. "The Tide is High", "Call Me", and "Heart of Glass" are kind of letdowns on this album. "One Way or Another" is average. However, "Rapture" doesn't miss a beat. To me this is the best Blondie song ever done, and in the live version of this song is awesome. Clem Burke's drum intro followed by Destri's keyboards set the tone very well - and of course Harry's vocals are right on the money. When ". . . only eats guitars" comes on - the band goes into an incredible instrumental in which Stein's guitar work takes center stage.

The liner notes do feature the associated credits of each song in terms of songwriters and publishers. There are footnotes that map the songs back to the dates they were recorded. There are no lyrics and there is no association of the songs back to the album. There is a collage of some blurry "concert-like" photos in a fold out liner note insert.

The best thing about this album is it really helped me to discover Blondie beyond the hits. I got an appreciation for some of the older songs and also got into some of the newer songs. On top of everything, this is a really solid live performance - one worth making the investment into this collection.

You can see a complete list of all BLONDIE discography, or go back to the BLONDIE tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.