Deborah Harry : Platinum Blonde Book

As the lady once said herself, Deborah Harry is far more famous than she is successful. The two or three years of Blondie's pop supremacy as the 70s turned into the 80s can hardly account for her enduring stardom, so effortlessly revived when Maria, their comeback single, barnstormed to the top of the charts in early 1999. It seems a good moment then to take a second look at Deborah Harry, and to peel away that multitalented peroxide persona--in Cathay Che's words, "a 50s bad girl, a 60s hippy, a 70s punk, an 80s pop star and a 90s post-modern artist." Harry has already told her own story in Making Tracks, written with Victor Bockris, so Che presents only a rather pre-emptory account of her career, useful as a corrective for some of Harry's more sweeping claims, interspersed with some good-natured interviews with Harry and her ex-partner Chris Stein. Her portrait comes into its own in the thoughtful essays (based on interviews with the likes of RuPaul, John Waters et al) on Harry as icon and wannabe, in which Che places her heroine back in the bohemian, often gay, artistic and intellectual circles which spawned her, and which make far more sense of the "Blondie" creation than a purely pop/rock genealogy. With a filmography and exhaustive discography, this may look like a book for fans, but it's also an honest attempt to understand the making of a real and lasting icon. -- Alan StewartRead More