Autoamerican [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Blondie
Artist: Howard Kaylan; Mark Volman; Wa Wa Watson
Engineer: Lenise Bent
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Blondie: Deborah Harry (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, bass, vibraphone); James Destri (piano, organ, synthesizer, background vocals); Frank Infante (bass, background vocals); Clem Burke (drums, background vocals). Additional personnel: Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman (vocals); Jimmie Haskill (arranger); Wa Wa Watson (guitar); Tom Scott (saxophone); Steve Goldstein (piano, synthesizer); Ray Brown (bass); Scott Lesser, Ollie Brown, Emil Richards, Alex Acuna (percussion); B-Girls (background vocals). Producer: Mike Chapman. Reissue producer: Kevin Flaherty. Recorded at United Western Studio, Hollywood, California in December 1980. Originally released on Chrysalis (1290). Includes liner notes by Mike Chapman. All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24-bit technology. Personnel: Debbie Harry, Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, timpani); Frank Infante, W.W. Watson, Wa Wa Watson (guitar); Tom Scott (saxophone, lyricon); Steve "Golde" Goldstein, Steve Goldstein (piano, synthesizer); Jimmy Destri (keyboards); Clem Burke (drums); Scott Lesser, Alex Acu�a, Ollie Brown, Emil Richards (percussion); B Girls (background vocals). Liner Note Author: Mike Chapman . Recording information: Power Station, New York, NY (1980); United Western, Hollywood, CA (1980). Directors: Denny Vosburgh; Bob Emmer; Shep Gordon. Photographers: Retna; Bob Gruen; Jeff Mayer. Blondie's penultimate album before their breakup, 1981's AUTOAMERICAN is a fine collection of diverse, slickly-produced pop songs, featuring the all-pervasive "Rapture." It's difficult to explain just how omnipresent this song was on Top 40 radio in 1981--only Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and the "Stars on 45" medley had more airplay--or how enormous its cultural impact. Before "Rapture," rap was little known outside of New York City's outer boroughs, but Debbie Harry's rap, namechecking scene legends Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash (alongside '60s film auteur Francois Truffaut, for the downtown hipsters), brought the style worldwide. The rap was so groundbreaking that it's easy to forget that the first three minutes of the song, where Harry coos luxuriantly over a slinky bass groove, is some of Blondie's best work, as is the rest of the album. The basic Blondie sextet was augmented, or replaced, by numerous session musicians (including lots of uncredited horn and string players) for the group's fifth album, Autoamerican, on which they continued to expand their stylistic range, with greater success, at least on certain tracks, than they had on Eat to the Beat. A cover of Jamaican group the Paragons' "The Tide Is High," released in advance of the album, became a gold-selling number one single, as did the rap pastiche "Rapture," but, despite their presence, the album stalled in the lower half of the Top Ten and spent fewer weeks in the charts than either of its predecessors. One reason for that, admittedly, was that Chrysalis Records pulled promotion of the disc in favor of pushing lead singer Debbie Harry's debut solo album, KooKoo, not even bothering to release a third single after scoring two chart-topping hits. But then, it's hard to imagine what that third single could have been on an album that leads off with a pretentious string-filled instrumental ("Europa"), and also finds Harry crooning ersatz '20s pop on "Here's Looking at You" and tackling Broadway show music in a cover of "Follow Me" from Camelot. Though more characteristic, the rest of the tracks are weak compositions indifferently executed. Thus Autoamerican was memorable only for its hits, which would be better heard when placed on a hits compilation. The 2001 reissue strengthened the release by adding as bonus tracks an eight-minute version of "Call Me," the band's previous number one hit theme from the film American Gigolo; "Suzy & Jeffrey," the non-LP B-side of "The Tide Is High," and actually a better track than most of the album cuts on the original record; and a ten-minute "special disco mix" of "Rapture" that featured an extended percussion break. ~ William Ruhlmann

Although the press and public were initially focused on singer Debbie Harry's model-like good looks, Blondie was one of the first new wave bands of the 1970s to experiment with other musical styles. Beginning as part of the '70s CBGB scene in New York, the band experienced massive commercial success when they merged their '60s girl-group-influenced punky pop with disco, reggae, and rap. After the group disbanded in the early '80s, Harry went on to a solo career and acted in numerous films. Blondie had a successful reunion in the late '90s, touring and releasing an album of new material that showed they were far from done.

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