Blondie’s fleeting fame

Debbie Harry can’t help but wonder what could’ve been, said Mark Jacobson in New York. It’s been more than three decades since she first shook her platinum tresses as the lead singer of Blondie, wailing out the band’s signature brand of new-wave pop along with artists like the Ramones and Johnny Thunders in New York City’s Bowery punk scene. Blondie achieved chart success, churning out hits in the early ’80s. But things fell apart in 1982, when her record company folded. “We had poor management. Suddenly, we were broke. The IRS took our house. I was famous. I’d hear myself on the radio, and it felt like the whole world collapsed around me.”

She admits to a lot of regret that fame was so fleeting. “Big as we were, sometimes I am completely miserable about not becoming a giant megastar, like Beyoncé or someone. I tell myself my little art pretensions held me back, kept me at a certain level, and how truly awful that is. Then I see myself in the mirror and just laugh because that stuff is just stupid, you know?” Now 66, she tells herself she’s just lucky to be alive. “So many of the people we came up with have blown themselves away. I wake in the morning wondering, what would Thunders be into now?” says Harry. “It is all borrowed time.”

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