The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Blondie

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Blondie's Deborah Harry and Chris Stein discuss their band's formative years and evolution. They recall the 1970s New York City scene, talk about their hits, and discuss using their platform to bring Hip-Hop culture to the masses. Debbie and Chris also discuss preserving their archives for the Grammy-nominated Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 box set.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated

the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone, I'm Ego Wood. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where, you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of,

you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks dad on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg, lesbian. Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio,

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Questlove Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special Questlove Supreme. Your host, Questlove, here with Sugar Steve. I'll say that our guest today are the founding Trailblazers and New York legends, along with drummer, Clint Burke, bassist Lee Fox, guitarist Tommy Kessler, and keyboardist Matt Katz Bohen. They ushered in

be very influential punk slash new weight movement. I know musicians hate when things get a title. I often cringe when I hear the Neo-Soul title. But, you know, this is too legendary

to just casually not spot on describe what they represent in the world of music. They, to me, are the epitome of cool and the epitome of style and practically dipping their toe into every genre of music that defined a movement and a city, pop, rock, punk, disco,

reggae. And they're especially noted for being one of the early, early, early, early, early co-signers of the burgeoning hip-hop movement. You know, there was a period where the first five, depending on who you ask and how conservative they are, 10, maybe 20 years, which hip-hop was hopefully going to be like a a fad that went away, like a flu, that influenza that goes away eventually. But they were one of the very first to co-sign the movement and really brought it to a wider audience, going as far as to use the cachet to bring to light projects like the iconic score to Charlie Ahern's hip-hop classic wild style.

And also being one of the first people to introduce hip-hop to a worldwide audience. of course the legendary Saturday Night Live episode with the Funky 4 Plus One that they literally just put their money where their mouth is. And, you know, it's one thing to just say you're down with a movement, but to really use your power, you know, to do so as another. They're currently celebrating the release of their mammoth against the odds box set, which basically celebrates the hits, the demos, and the remixes of their illustrious career. over 124 songs in all. This is an honor to say, please welcome to Questlove Supreme, Chris Stein,

and Debbie Harry of Blondie. Thank you. I'm the only one clapping today, so just pretend it's like 52 billion people. That was very, very generous. Thank you. No, you know,

it's, I've been a massive fan of you guys, you know, and so. Well, likewise. And I have to say, Debbie, Thank you very much for my note.

You happen to come on the show. I'm talking about the Tonight Show, in which I was hoping to holler at you for a second before. I went on stage, but I had to do something. And then by the time I got off stage, you'd already left because it's like a very long show that we shot that day. But I saw the beautiful note that you left in my dressing room, and I really appreciate that.

Thank you very much. I meant every word of it, even though there were some misspellings and scribbles. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate that acknowledgement. I want to thank Chris for your nice notes that you left me on my recording console. Whatever, Steve. You know, I personally, I want to know, first of all, I really do love the box set.

And as a person that's just starting to think about looking under. the hood of my own career in terms of, you know, looking at artifacts and going through storage units and all those things. You know, oftentimes you're so present in the moment, you don't realize that the most minuscule thing you have is going to wind up being history 10 years later, you know. So in terms of just getting all these artifacts together and keeping those demos and keeping those tapes and all that stuff. What was the process like? How painstaking was the process in putting this all together? It went on over a pretty long period. I just had all this stuff. You know, when we first started making money, you know, I always say the model for the rock star was different

back then, or at least for me. And Debbie, it was, we didn't think about buying Rolexes and Bentley's and shit. We wanted to, we just, I bought recording equipment. So I bought guitars. So I bought, I had my own old MCI set up, you know, the automation, the whole thing. And I got around to a bunch of different apartment. We lived in different spaces and tapes accumulated along with that. And eventually that stuff all died and they gave it all away and stuff. And I wound up with a garage full of tapes upstate New York, which was where we did the assault on the tapes. Okay. So like what kind of tape? Like two inch tapes?

Everything. Everything. Everything. No, I don't know a lot of half inch. A lot of two inch. Yeah. A lot of two inch. I mean, I had, I wound up with a complete copy of the Kuku record that we did with Nile and Bernard. And Nile got the whole thing

on like just like two or three tapes because he was running at seven and a half. know. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. It was, it was economical. I was going to say that at the time, like, when did you realize? I mean, most

artists I know are not sentimental at all. There's a story. Well, I mean, he's not a musician, but, you know, I consider him a historian. Don Cornelius in order to save maybe hundreds, hundreds of dollars, would,

I mean, you know, when it came time to look through the Soul Train archives. You know, the staff there was sad to announce to me that, you know, Don wasn't too sentimental. So, you know, the stage and the lights and the, um, all the designs of the shows of the Soul Train show within, you know, the 40-year history of it, he just had it all destroyed and crushed, crushed and thrown away. And I was like, none of you at all were like, you know, this will be historical one day. Like, we should save this stuff. And, you know, at the time, Don was just thinking, like, uh-uh, storage space is too expensive.

And I can't afford it. So, I mean, oftentimes, you know, I'll tell new artists now, like, don't throw away that concert poster. Don't throw away your itinerary. Don't throw away. I mean, even Prince, like, when Prince passed away, like, literally anything he wrote on is almost damn near, like, five-figure worthy in auctions now. like even directions to the house or or you know prince was world famous for writing uh whoever the lady of the moment was like poetry and stuff like you know revealing too much but what i'm basically saying is did you guys realize in the beginning like

i should save everything like even with besides the music like are you saving the outfits and the wardroves and old posters or ticket stubs or itineraries. I got a lot of junk left. But I know, I mean, are you a hoarder? No, totally. My wife is like, I can't go in there because it's like freaks me out. It's so hoarded out the room and the, you know, in the basement where we are. But, you know, there's so much stuff fell by the wayside.

I sold so many damn guitars that I could retire now on what those things are worth. in today's market, you know? It's just... Really? Yeah, it's just crazy. I would like to know. Well, I'll ask the both of you. I'll start with Debrae.

What was your first musical memory? Oh, wow. I know. Shocker. Oh, that's... It really goes back, doesn't it? I had, you know, children's records back then. I had a victrola.

At least my... That's what my dad called a victrola. and it was in a box, you know, a little suitcase. And it had a speaker that was attached to the arm where the needle was. And you would just drop it down onto the record. And so that those were my earliest things. And I think one of my favorites was the thing, oddly enough, called Little Toot. Little Toot.

Yeah. Was that a Disney record? I don't know if it was a Disney record. It might have been. It might have been. But it was a really great little song that went through a lot of different emotional interpretations. It told the story of this little tugboat and, you know, the worthlessness of this little tugboat and how the big tugboat's always, you know, pushed it around. But then little too became like the hero of the day.

Yeah. And so basically Rudolph the red nose reindeer in tugboats. And tugboat. Yeah. Where were you born? I was born actually in Miami, but I grew up in Hawthor, New Jersey, which is just outside of Patterson, New Jersey. But my parents and all my grandparents lived in Patterson.

Okay. Chris, what was your first musical memory? Well, I don't really remember. locking on to any little kid music i my first affinity for music started when i was like i guess you know around 10 or 11 with movie scores which was and man some of those novelty songs you know like the the chipmunks and purple people eater and stuff but i you know i don't know how much that moved me that stuff but then i started you know like lawrence of arabia what's that story i mean i i it's very hard for me

me to explain to younger people what a huge cultural touchstone West Side Story was. West Side Story was as big as the damn Beatles. There's no question about it. I don't think people, people don't get that nowadays. Oh, God, my mother got so mad at me because I took my sister, who was seven years younger than me to see West Side Story, and she almost had a heart. Oh, no. You took her to see that.

Oh, no. How could you? But it was fabulous. was so wonderful. And, you know, Leonard Bernstein was never better, really. I was going to say that I'm currently reading Little Stephen Van Zant's autobiography, and he too has an immense obsession with West Side Story and pretty much described it as the way that you guys did.

Like, when it came out, it was a revolutionary. It was just a huge deal. I don't know. I mean, you were probably other soundtracks. And I was probably more obsessed with Lawrence Arabia soundtrack, Maurice Jarre, you know. Well, the other thing that I listened to a lot was like the Cowboys singers, which is, you know, Western. Not even country Western. It was really Western music.

And those were, those were great, you know, great songs. And people like Burrell Lives and stuff. Burr Lives, yeah. Burrleys, yeah. Nobody knows who he is now. Okay. So now that you, you know, declared your love for Lawrence of Arabia, I got to ask you. No, no, no, this is important because the very first, okay, so I grew up in the household with an older sibling who, you know, because of my sister's, because of her school situation, you know, she was fitting in with her girlfriends, what they were listening to at the time.

So, you know, she was bringing in a lot of, you know, the classic New Wave and Punk stuff or whatever. But the one album that I remember, even though she had like, you know, each of the beat and all that stuff, like, I remember the day that she brought Auto American. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So on the orchestral session, there was a bit, one of the bass players played on the Lawrence of Arabia soundtrack. Right. And I had that, so that you, that just. I was going to ask, is your obsession because, you know, the way that you opened up Auto American with the European, the European. score. Yeah, I mean, you know, you know, that by then I was in Sedino Rota, very deep,

and all this other stuff, you know, I always had a thing for soundtracks. I think soundtracks nowadays, that's a whole other topic, are way overused. They're becoming like laugh tracks, you know, where they steer your emotions in the direction of where, whoever, whoever, the committee that wrote the thing, they think you should be feeling, you know. And then, you know, gradually I started assimilating the pop music that was around me, like locomotion. Everybody loved the locomotion, you know. And this, you know, this stuff, like the Shangri-Las, I didn't really appreciate until a little later when we were doing the band. I was kind of like commercial to me at the time, you know.

Well, I'm older than Chris, and I remember this thing. I used to listen to radio a lot. I had a little radio and I always had my ear right next to the speaker. The speaker was only, you know, about this big. And they had a radio thing called the hit parade. Yeah. And all those like crooners and, you know, band singers and stuff like that. There was a lot of that.

It was kind of great. Yeah. That's even before. Yeah. And then I went into folk music, of course, you know, because I was 15 and 65. and by that time I'd been playing guitar since I was 12 and folk music was it and I remember learning how to play house at a rising sun

was such a big deal to be you know so can you describe to me what the New York nightclub scene was in terms of like the pre-punk the pre-new wave movement like if it's 74 if it's 73 or 74 Or, you know, where are you playing or like, where are you hanging out at least? Well, we met Debbie was doing a show in a bar. So I don't even, I didn't go out to many clubs before I was in the band situation. I mean, Maxis was kind of the first thing I was going to regularly.

Mostly it was bars, you know, people just setting up on the floor and bars and stuff. and then a little bit later on they became officially became clubs but initially they were bars okay I mean the stuff that we were involved with was like Mercer Arts Center came out of the art scene I mean Max's was an art bar you know all those all those guys

all those people went on to be famous and the art world had tabs at Maxes you know the post-warhol movement or Andy, he was always in the middle of everything. For us, anyway, he was just there. He was a stable. I wanted to know, well, they mentioned Maxis, Kansas City, and it's hard not to think of the Velvet Underground.

Did you guys see the Velvet Underground play live there at all? I opened up for the Velvet was when I was 17. What was that like? It was amazing, and it was a pivotal moment in my musical life. They were playing in a place up town called the Gymnasium, which was the Andy had connections to the like these Polish hall people you know who ran these old world halls and his place was was the gymnasium and also did shows this was 1967 I me and my friends all knew who the velvets were at that point and I had a really close friend who had

grew up with known for 50 years who was working for Andy at the time his name joey freeman he's still my buddy and he showed up my house in Brooklyn one afternoon. He said, listen, the opening band for the Velvets didn't show up. You guys want to do it. So we took our guitars on the subway and we went up down. It was like up in the west side somewhere in the 70s or 60 or 70s. And the Velas let us use their amps and Marine Tucker let us put her bass drum upright. You know, because she only played it like a timpity, you know, on its side. Right, right. And they were nice. And we played her.

blues rock set. I don't remember. I only remember we did, you can't judge a book by its cover. But I don't remember much to the other stuff, you know, like Route 66, that kind of joke we were doing. And we were really daunted because this place was

big and echoy and it was like, there weren't too many people there. But then the Velas came on and they took advantage of the echo. And that was also a life lesson for me because, you know, the place you're playing in becomes a part of your sound system. You know, people don't get that, you know, unless you're doing

us all the time. And they were awesome and filled the room. And Andy was there. We never saw him. And somebody came over and said, oh, Andy thinks you're great. That was terrific. That was the event. But it was a really wonderful thing. I saw them at this place called the Balloon Farm. Blum farm, yeah. Yeah, on St. Mark's Place. And Andy was doing the lights. And Nico was with them that night and it was beautiful. It was just, I mean, beautiful visually and in sound wise and everything about it was beautiful. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment.

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I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the Girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else.

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My dad gave me the best. advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore,

it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to thanks dad on the IHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd, found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone's, correct?

I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, the lesbian, Michael Marantini. My mind was blown.

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Like, I know that you were in separate bands, or could you tell us how the band came to be as far as, you know, the official starter Blondy? Well, the scene was very incestuous, and we all had mutual friends, though. The two of us had never met. We think we both were at Woodstock, but we didn't meet there. Debbie had a job working for the first head shop in New York, which was called The Head Shop, which was on East 9th Street. And I remember going in there the day before.

Yeah, it's called The Head Shop. What is a head shop? What is a head shop? They sell, yeah, bongs and posters and rolling papers and weed supply, you know. But it was where you've been. Yo, Doug, I'm sorry, I'm the 40. virgin. And, you know, it was a little more clandestine and it wasn't like, it was kind of understated that it was all based on weed consumption. I, I never knew that it was called a

head shop. Yeah, sure, head shop. Well, because where weed, where I grew up, it was always the, you know, you always at the mom and pop record store. Yeah, right. Yeah. I would assume that the guy also sold weed because, you know, just the smell of the record store. You know, you know, it's just the smell of the record store mixed with you know lysol and incense like to try to well the headchups wouldn't back then in the 60s wouldn't sell weed

because they were too big a target you know they would just sell the the stuff I got it yeah so I was I was in the head shop the day before it opened talking to a girl and all I know that was us and we talked to each other

but three years later or four years later, I guess that was like 69 or 60 or 70 or something like that, then, you know, everybody knew each other and I had friends and one of my friends. You know, it's a very long story. But a mutual friend said, I heard about this band playing called the Stilettos, girl singers, go see them, and that was Debbie and two other girls. So that was it. Did that band have any kind of startup or success, Debbie?

in the other two girls? Well, yeah, I mean, we had a small amount of notoriety, I suppose, and interest. I don't think there was any real reality as far as, you know, a professional career or, you know, recording or anything like that. Everything we did was, you know. You did some stuff with the dolls. We did stuff with the dolls, remember later on? Yeah.

You guys sang back up in a couple of dolls shows and stuff. Yeah. Oh, right. Was that 82? Yeah. Yeah, maybe you're uptown somewhere else. I think there's a picture of us at 82. Yeah.

82 was another club that existed sort of in an even darker way than Maxes or CBGBs. It was an old transvestite club from the 1940s. Yeah, it was very gangster. Yeah. It was number 82, east third street, I guess, or something like that. Something like the second first street all the way. East. It was in a basement. That was a great scene. A lot of

bands played there, but we went there. All the stuff went on there. There's not a lot of info. Okay. So one of my favorite kind of underground New York labels was private stock. Oh, no.

Well, no, a lot of legendary records were in there. And especially for hip hoppers, there's like incredible breakbeats on there. But I got to know, like, How did, what was it like dealing with Larry, you tell? Larry had come out of like the Brill building scene. He had been, he'd been a part of Bell records with, I think, Seymour and Marty. Seymour Stein.

Yeah. They were all partners at one point. And then they split, went through different ways. Marty, Marty Thow, you know, managed the dolls all through their early heyday in the first records and all that and stuff before, before McLaren picked up on them. And Larry was, you know, it was kind of a vanity project for him. I mean, I think his daughter, Jody, who was like the prince person, had a better idea what was going on in the reality of the street music, you know, that was coming out of the streets. Larry was like, you know, a guy with the open shirt and the big gold chain around his neck. Well, he did one.

He liked, he was friends with, you know, that. that one. Oh, Frankie. Valley. Valley in the team. Yeah, Frankie Valley was on the label, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was their big act.

And Peter Lemongelo, man. Peter Lemongelo was Peter Lemongelo was like his M-O-R, M-O-R singer, but the girls liked them because he was like sexy, you know, thing. That helps. And then they, yeah, and then they had, being sexy help. Then they had fifth of the Beethoven. also on the label, which was a big of them. Yeah, yeah, Walter.

Walter. Samantha's saying. Yeah. There's an odd place to be for us. It was very odd. And we tried. You know, we live in a time now which, you know, literally you can create a fully produced and realized album on your laptop.

Right, right. But what is the process of getting? a demo. Like, okay, you're going to start a band. Now, I mean, at any point, are you guys like, hey, we're just hanging around doing the scene, or are you guys like actively like we were trying to get a record deal? Yeah, I mean, that was the goal was to get the music out. Everybody knew, I mean, we all grew up with records and records being very important to us. So that was, of course, a goal. But in New York, so there was, I don't know, hundred bands instead of 100,000 bands the way it is now, you know.

So that made a big difference. I always wanted to know this. And I know it's a captain, obvious question. But what was the actual reason why you guys settled on the name Blondie? We had been trying to pick out a name. And, I mean, you know, you search for a name. And we called ourselves Angel and the Snake. for a few months and that that was sort of, you know, it wasn't really,

it would have been a good name for nowadays, but at that point. For a metal band, yeah, maybe, you know. Well, we wanted to be a metal band, but. I don't know if we even had that much of a, I don't know what we wanted to be anything. Well, I was working as a beautician. I was working in New Jersey as a beautician. And, you know, during a slow hours, you know, we would do each other's hair. And so one day they did me and I was, you know, had blonde hair.

And walking to Chris's house, you know, I was getting, you know, some street noise. Hey, blondeie, hey, blondeie. And I just said, oh, okay, well, that'll work. And that was that. Oh, okay. Yeah. I always thought it was a blondie, Dagwood reference. Well, it became that.

Yeah, we were aware of that. And, you know, and those guys never bothered us for all, all the time. They never, it was never any. Y'all look tough as shit, yo. Like, no, I mean, there was never any complaints about us commandeering the name or anything from the comic people. Oh, you mean that? I thought you meant just, I thought you meant just in New York. No, everybody bothered us.

Forget about that shit. Yeah, we got bothered a lot in New York. To be fair. I did say to the guys, you know, when we started getting, you know, official attention that they should all bleach their hair, you know, and be like wrestlers, you know, and the guys should all have blonde hair. We'd all have blonde hair. But no, nobody wanted to do it. Just while we're on the name, Blondie, so by now, of course, we all know your name is Debbie Harry, but people must have been calling you personally Blondie. this whole time.

Is that the stirs bother you or is that something that you just got used to? Or do you say, hey, my name's Debbie. You know, the band is Blondie. Well, I think there was that, you know, kind of the definition thing for a while. I didn't mind especially being called Blondie because I had the blonde hair. And, you know, basically, you know, I guess little boys get called that too, you know, hey, Blondie. But usually, you know, little girls with my color.

are called blondeie very often. So it didn't really bother me. It did bother me, you know, that we had to sort of identify ourselves constantly. But I think that, you know, I guess it's something that you, you know, you learn, right? You learn that you have to identify yourself. Well, as I said, the top of the show,

people will often lump you guys in with the punk movement or the new wave movement. you know, it's kind of like I didn't necessarily think that you were either because for me, at least with the first three records, like from the self-title record to parallel lines, you know, there's a heavy sort of post, I guess you could say wall of sound feel in there, like in terms of like a very updated, like an updated kind of specterish thing going on. so for you was it always an

eye-rolling thing if you know critics that obviously weren't on the scene that were like hanging around the seat like was it weird to get typecast to be part of a movement that really I don't know I think between you guys and the police like

even though you're you're lumped in with this movement you guys really weren't that level of punk to me like you guys were more of a stylish at least my how it how it looked to me when I was like nine or ten years old. I think I think the punk form is much more defined nowadays and you know in 2020 onward.

You know, you got all these bands, you know, surfboard and Amel and the sniffers and all these guys are very defined in their punkness, you know. Back, I mean, when you think about, you know, us in television and talking ads and Patty, it was very diverse that kind of sounded. And it wasn't so, I mean, the Romans were very much in their own groove of the thing, but they were specifically them, you know? Yeah, I mean, there was rockabilly. There was the sort of art rock, you know, blues. It was all a punk scene and incorporate a lot of different styles of music, which, you know, we were actually experimenting with, you know, and trying to.

to pull in, you know, references that, you know, sort of befitted a girl singer and, you know, a rock band and with, you know, attitude, you know. I think for me, I wanted to be a punk. I felt like I had enough attitude, but. Well, the punk definition was very much like a lifestyle thing the way a hippie was, you know. It was, you know, it was like stylistic and. about do it yourself very much about do it yourself too and you know and then it was uh it was a backlash against all the real heavy m o r stuff that was happening in the mid 70s then that was

you know above ground you know whatever you know the exles and linda ronstand and stuff was pretty right you know sedation for us you know at that time socially who were your peers of that movement like were you friendly with the Ramones or the New York dolls? We were very close to Ramones and the dolls. There was kind of, there were kind of two camps at CVs

of the art rock people and the pop rock people and we were kind of in the pop rock side. You know, and it was a band called Miami's. It was a band called Fast. You know, those people. Richard Hell.

Richard. Richard. Yeah. Johnny. Johnny. Heartbreakers were great band. Yeah. all that stuff you know i believe

that my band was the third the second or the third to last act uh to play at cbgbs i got a note was that bathroom always filthy bathroom you get the bathroom used to be upstairs and the stage used to be on the left facing facing the stage and then it moved to the right and the bathroom moved downstairs and got even worse. It wasn't, it was probably a little less gross

when it was upstairs. Yeah. I see. Any, any fond memories there? I hate being that person that's like, like salivating over like, again, these folklore stories of clubs of your and you guys are just like, whatever, we showed up and we played.

But, you know, at any point during that period, did you know that this was like the, the zeitgeist of? of the scene or again, was it just a, hey, Thursday night we're playing? Yeah, no, we were pretty much in the moment. You know, and what I also say is everybody, every single person I knew would say, this is, New York is so horrible, I just got to get out of here. I can't stand it anymore, but nobody left.

And there's this great Lou Reed monologue where he talks about how awful it is in New York for him, but how much more uncomfortable he is everywhere else. So that was that pretty much. But yeah, I mean, lots of crazy shit went down at Steebies all the time. Maxis too. It was, you know. Well, it went through stages, you know, stages of development because it wasn't like a full-on, you know, big club scene from the start.

You know, it was a biker bar with, you know, some, you know, Bowery guys, you know, Alkees and stuff that hung out at this bar. and then for some reason Hillie you know started having music and you know I have suspicions about it

you know there used to be a club a club restaurant on 9th Street right off of 6th Avenue between 5th and 6th and it was called Hillies I somehow think that Hillie was involved with that

and no he ran a couple of bars yeah I think he had one that was like downstairs from Trudy Heller's too at one point. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah. He had a couple of bars around town. And he had, he was a singer also. He had a, he had a country single on the jukebox in CBNs that I don't really hear people talking about too much. I don't remember what the heck it was, but it was there. New York is great for clubs, you know. I mean, it's always been that way. It's great. How often is the rotation? I know that for me in Philadelphia, there's a,

really only, at least for the roots, like maybe if you're lucky, there's like six clubs to play. Because we also had like, you know, five or six major colleges there. So, you know, where you play at University of Penn, play a temple, play, you know, you would just go to where

the colleges were. But as far as rotation is concerned. Well, there was a thing where if you played at maxes, you shouldn't play at CBs the next weekend. You had to like wait a week. But there were other little bars. It was like Broadway Charlie's and a place called the mushroom and that Monty

Python bar and all these little things are mothers, mothers was on tourney right across from to Chelsea. There was a and my father's place was up in what Long Island City that you know, stuff would come and go. I would assume that, you know, by the time, at least by the time you guys get to Chrysalis that, you know, you're not, you're no longer a like a local rock band and you're also doing national and going out of state and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah, all that stuff went on. But still, the other thing people may not get nowadays is what a goddamn Wild West show.

The music industry was the touring touring in those days. It was now it's so slick. You know, you got Live Nation, all this stuff. You know, boom, you go there. I was going to say, was there something as a rider? Like, okay, okay, because I ask each act to do this for me. because I truly want to know, you know, and the thing, you mentioned at the top

about the Rolexes and all that stuff. Yes, I'm in the hip-hop generation, especially the first generation of like post-hype, William videos where around 94, I would say that, yes, like even coming into the game, like we came into the game with two tour buses and a really good rider and musilix and like, you know, like, where's my, where's the, you know, the,

where's the manicure stat, like that sort of. So we did a fucking, we were fucking, we did a tour of Australia. Oh, God. We were in like a school bus. Man, that was it like a, let me know. Old school with like that was filled with dust. You know, and we had like an America. When we went on the tour with Iggy and Bowie, we were in an RV,

which was like really crappy and falling apart. I remember too. So all that kind. stuff was was yeah all right so let's skip to skip the parallel lines can you walk me through the process like okay so the idea of like tour buses and good hotel lodging like at what at what point does that even happen or is that something that was just invented in the 90s like yeah i'm gonna go with 90s because yeah we had some man it was you know there was a lot of We briefly...

We live for these nerd stories. So don't think you're like spearing us by like, you don't want to hear about the time when... But we stole our lunch meat or something. We never had... We never flew private. There was just no such thing. Like briefly, I remember there was like 10 minutes with...

When we were with Chip Gordon, there was like in Europe, we had a little four-seater jet for a couple of publicity dates. But that was like, you know, two flights or something like that. We went on the conference. We were on the, we were on the fucking Concord a bunch of times.

That was, that was nice. Yeah. I was going to say, Shep, Shep is one of my closest friends. And what time does he enter managing the band? I think the late 70s, early 80s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So he was there for parallel lines? No. No, no, that was. E to the beat. Okay. It was towards the very end. Yeah. Okay.

Well, auto American, I know he was there for that. An American and the Hunter, which was, you know, the most successful. Yeah. The auto American platinum plaque is hanging up above the guest bedroom. So you guys, Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandros record. Oh, I like that. Or above when I stay at his house in his guest room.

So with parallel lines at least, which, you know, many consider that to be. be like your super breakthrough with it. Can you talk about the making of harder class, aka once I had a love, and bringing that forth? Well, it was all about getting the rolling rhythm machine hooked up with this, the Roland, whatever the hell, I can't remember. I should know this off my head, but I don't. Was there MIDI back in the day?

No, it was, it was all voltage PCI, voltage controlled, you know? Okay. So it was pre-Midi. and that was such a huge deal. That's where the whole song was built up on the synth being hooked to the rhythm machine. And everything was built around that. You know, we had the chords and stuff and the structure somewhat, you know. Very time consuming.

Very time consuming. Yes, yes. I mean, going in with Chapman was great. Chapman was a master and he was at the peak of his game. And we were also at the peak of analog, too. It was at the high point of fucking analog. You know, he had. He had the one, the digital reverb, I guess is, I don't know, even tied or whatever the heck that way it is.

He had that one unit. But everything else was just like that. And I'm glad we got to be there at that moment, too. But Chapman was great. He was like going in with George Martin for us. It was like a whole, you know, he was like the extra member of the band. It was just, it was fantastic. You know, he beat the heck out of us, but it was great.

I was going to ask with, because the thing is, is that, you know, Hard of Glass was even more than, even more than Miss You, I feel like Heart of Glass is like the perfect, perfect dance song that's not blatantly a disco song. Not to say that Miss You by the Rolling Stones was a blatant. People seem to consider anything with four on the floor to be disco. But I always wanted to know, obviously there had to been some sort of conscious decision like, okay, Let's make something accessible. We always sound like craftwork. We were referencing graft work. Oh, okay. That was it. Not so much disco music. But I always wanted to know, like, for such a song that has such a steady four-on-the-four pace,

why was their decision to make the last bridge into seven, eight meter? I don't know if that was an accident or not. I mean, Chapman would, Chapman would edit fucking slice the two inch tape with a fucking razor which is kind of unheard of No you guys were playing

dun da da da Which I was like wait a minute It's that one little section I can't I mean I'm sure If you asked everybody Everybody would have a different opinion about why that came about Whether it was accidental or not

I don't know You know Hard of Glass seems very accessible To play at a jam session But there's always that moment right after the last there's always that moment right on the course

where I'm looking at the people like wait are we are we about to do to the lever are we going to do the 7-8 part we're just going to act like the beginning

the beginning and then it's always a car crash that's always that's very gratifying thank you it's made it all worthwhile the drums are all piece together

the way a disco record the bass drums recorded by itself the top kit yeah yeah the top kit's recorded by itself, you know? Yeah, that was the only song like that.

That was the only one that was done like that. What was the logic behind that? A better mix to it? Mike had done some kind of disco music. Yeah, maybe to be able to bring out the kick a little more. I don't know. Oh, okay. Okay.

I see that. I think it was his ears, you know? I mean, that's, he had those ears, you know. What studio was this at, parallel lines? It would be Power Station, right? Power station, Mia or record plant, record plant,

record plant or power station, yeah. At the time of parallel lines, and now, I guess also, do you prefer, which do you enjoy more playing live, we're making records? I like recording.

I'm a recording guy always. I'm not doing a tour, but that's mostly because of health stuff. But they got to replace them for me lately. But I think that, Maybe probably both made me. I know she gets off on doing the shows a lot. I mean, I like doing the shows.

I always love doing the shows, but I've been doing recording ever since I was a little kid, man. I was screwing around with, you know, old Wall and Sack, real-to-reel recorders and stuff like that. And I would always have a Tiac 4 track that if I could beg bar or steal. So, I mean, that's just part of my life is doing a recording. I love the laptop digital stuff,

go sitting with logic for hours and tweak. stuff. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but

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There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same.

same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target.

He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco,

joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else.

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What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through. and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging. in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone's correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alesspian, Michael Naranini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Does the music creative decisions start with the two of you, or is it an actual democracy in which the six of you sort of, you sort of, you?

It's a monarchic democracy. A passive, aggressive, uh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, what do you guys think? Okay,

this is what we're going to do. So, yeah, I mean, I always managed to get a lot of, by that time we had been re-ringed. I mean, I,

I, okay, so the, the only song that we, before we recorded it, I knew was going to be a hit as tight as side. I mean, the other ones,

I, really didn't, I wasn't sure. But I knew if we could pull up a decent recording of Tides High that it would be successful. Were you fan of the Paragon's original or? Yeah, the original is Godhead. And it's probably the only reggae song I ever heard that has a violin in it from that period, which is the most of the horn lines are based on the violin line. This is why I have to figure out. There's about nine mammoth songs in E minor that that that come out in, you know, the first half of 1980, nine mammoth dance floor rockers in E minor.

I will ask this much. Was good times that much of an influential song that it's almost like, was it unavoidable? Because, you know, when I ask some of these people, when I ask, you know, the other artist's question, And someone will say, like, you know, like sometimes you just so consciously go there without purposely trying to go there. Whereas like, you know, Brian may, may confirm or may not confirm that another one bites the dust was exactly what's our version of good times. Yeah, no, rapture was totally homage to chic.

Okay. I just wanted to know. Yeah, it's no question about it. I mean, I was totally thinking of that. The whole, the baseline is the first thing that came up. Yeah, that was an extremely, that was a. extreme radical thing to do. Like, you know, of all the songs in your catalog, that was super, super risky. Could you just talk about how does hip hop reach you as a New Yorker? Like,

were you aware of what was happening in the Bronx? Yeah, we, no, I really wasn't that aware. We'd heard rappers delight, you know, on the radio, a couple of things. But then we hooked up with Freddie and Freddie I guess was 77 took us up to this event at a police athletic league up in the Bronx and that was like just this eye-opening experience. You know

it was... Wait, what year did you meet Pathfire Friday? Probably 76 or 7. Oh, damn. Okay. Long time ago. Yeah, I mean, I've gone over the date with him trying to figure out what year that was. He thinks

70, 7 was. was when we went up to this thing. One of my all-time, well, I won't say great punishment stories, was kind of like a fist fight that I almost got into with my cousin because, you know, at this point, it's the summer of 1981.

And he's singing, like, we're, I don't know where we were coming from. We were coming from, like, my grandmom's house, who was walking from the corner store. And going back home, and he's singing to himself and he's like, you know, Fast-frey, finity,

yeah, my mind, Fast is fast, fast, fast as fast, fast is fast, fast as cool. And I was like, wait, why do you repeat that three times? And he's like, because that's how the song goes. Flash is fast, flash is fast, flash is fast. I said, no, it doesn't. She says, five, five, right?

So, basically, my cousin never heard of rapture and I never heard of the adventures of Grand Master Flash on the Wheels of Steel, which for hip-hop historians is basically the first time that the world is hearing what cutting and scratching is like. You know, Grandmaster Flash goes in the studio, and he does a seven-minute open format demonstration of the records of the day. You know, it takes Sheeks good times and Apache and Rapture and, you know,

just the party songs of the moment. does a demonstration of what scratching is, you know, because for most hip-hop records, you know, you'd have to get a band, get Keith Blanc or whatever, to redo the breaks and whatnot, because technology wasn't there yet. And so, you know, of course, I'm, my level of no-it-all snobbery, you know, was, I was so angered. Like, he then knew he could get my goat, so he would just sing it like, anytime he just wanted fuck with me, he'd just be like, Flash is fast. Flash is fast. Flash is fast. And I'm freaking, you know, and then we just, you know, we got put on punishment. So, you know, at the time, like, for you, were you shocked at the reception? Were you nervous about it?

Or for you, was it just like, this might be filler on the album or like, yo, this shit's going to go to number one? Frankie Crocker was a major component in that. I forgot. Yeah. If it goes to Paradise Garage is going to Frankie Crocker, then it's going to the world. Okay. He was a big supporter and we are eternally grateful. Yeah.

I mean, at that moment, did you realize you were seeing a revolution at the time or was it just like? No, because, you know, it's funny what you said earlier about being a fad because I talked, I was up there with all these record company guys and people on the instance. side of the industry and 99% of them all said oh it's it's a fad it's going to go away they said they said that they said that about punk too yeah that was their favorite thing to say you know and and the other thing was so you know when kiss when every time that there was a technological advancement or you know update um you know say ah you know it's not going to last That was the big thing to say

It's not going to last One of the first things I did When I started working here at 30 Rock Which of course, you know Where the Tonight Show is and SNL And all these like legendary shows There's a giant database system That's hooked up to all of our computers

So any episode of SNL I want to watch what it Like you can't get it on YouTube But I can sit here for days And go through the archives How hard was it for you guys to actually broker that deal so that the funky four plus one gets on S&M? I do the real hard aspect of the funkies being on the show was trying to get them to scratch.

And I was going to say, I couldn't get it done. And even there was a moment when they even got a limousy and sent two of them uptown to get a cable. You know, that didn't work. They just couldn't get it done. They went on to a tape. And then they also went on in the crawl at the end of the show, you know, with under the credits. Right. But, you know, I mean, Chirac is still, by many, considered the first female rapper, you know.

Yeah. No, that, that to me was a credible cosign because, you know, they were, to me, like the epitome. And, you know, the fact that you didn't see female emcees that much. And, and. Yeah. And they could have been like, hey, go with someone to go with Flash in them or go with the Sugar Hill gang. And the fact that you guys saw that. We were buddies with those guys.

I hung out with Rodney for many years, you know. Legendary Rodney C. Yeah. So get into it. So how did you meet with Charlie Ahern and your involvement with Wild Style? Are you shocked at all that suddenly? not even suddenly, I'll say that a good 15 years after

you create these tracks that suddenly, like, they do become sort of like a staple of hip hop culture, at least like us using those breaks for real, not just for the purpose of wild stuff. Yeah, no, no, I'm shocked. I mean, I, what I did was aware of

when I told Charlie at the time was, you know, as soon as this thing comes out, there's going to be 100 Hollywood movies like this. And like Beat Street was like immediately there after like a bigger budget version, you know. But it was, it was great. It was just all people that we worked with. It was a part of the TV party value, that whole thing, you know.

Right. I mean, I think Lenny plays drums on some of that stuff. And he was in the TV party orchestra. Yeah, I was going to say, who's the other, the blondie guys are not playing on that, right? No, it's just, I came into the studio with my old Roland synth guitar and put tracks on top of what was already had been recorded, which was bass and drums. And then Freddie did like those sound effects of like electric razors and all kinds of weird stuff that he did.

So wait, who did the bass in the drums? I might be Lenny. I'm not sure. You got to ask Charlie on this. I never, you know, I never got together with him. I did that I did those tracks with Caz and I only met Caz like three years ago for the first time, you know. Really? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. And that one track that I did with Kaz, I tried to sync synthesizers up to the scratching by just taking the line out of the one of the, out of the, out of the scratching track and hitting the, putting it into the voltage controlled input of the sin. So that actually is happening on, I don't even know if that's been done since.

It's a little chaotic. I was about to say, that's very primitive level of, uh, yeah. of making that stuff who has the master tapes to those sessions Charlie I guess he's in control that whole thing I might have

I might have copies up in the tapes I'm not sure yeah I was about to say down by law it might be like one of my all time favorite everybody everybody gravitated towards that and it was so smart that they pressed up vinyl and gave them out to the people

who were doing the shows that were being filmed Right. They all gravitated towards that one track, too. I was going to say, like, how many copies of those instrumentals were made? Initially, I don't know, 20 to 50 maybe. Oh, okay, okay. But then, you know, it's been repressed and re-released on like a white label thing that's like simulates.

I mean, I had guys, I would go to the UK and I had guys come up to me and begged me for copies. the original i you know i didn't have any good yeah you know i think i like they they reprinted them at least the instrumentals like uh you know around like 93 94 so yeah but for the longest um you know i i couldn't find any of those things and was but that basketball throw down sequence is like the greatest goddamn thing to me it's it's so it's never been done since you know and they did a lot of tanks to get that. But it's, you know, you can find it on YouTube. It's just awesome.

Hey, Deb, I wanted to ask about your, your first solo outing, working with now. You did Backfired and. Cuckoo. Cuckoo, yes. Could you talk about the process of making it like, had you always wanted to do your own solo stuff or? No. Well, I think it became apparent that we, you know, I guess, had divergent interests, you know, with the Blondie format. And as, you know, in the record industry, as you well probably know, that, you know, a lot of times the labels reject, you know, you changing.

And, you know, Chris and I were, you know, we liked a lot of different things. And we especially liked Sheik, you know, we liked Nile and Bernard and Donna Summer. So, you know, I guess we just got to know Nile a little bit. Bernard was a little more quiet. Nile was out there, you know. He was very social. He was. Yeah.

Yeah. So. One of the first times we met him, he was going on about how much he loved Devo, which was, you know, and he said to this day, he says he wasn't, didn't know much about rap music and that we were the ones who introduced him. So I, that seems strange to me. But he's the proprietor of, right. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, there's, that's, that's a common story where, you know, when he was alive, um, I'd always he's Prince about the fact that, you know, Prince, Prince, um, is very, is a very famous, uh, lurker on the internet, you know, would often kind of eye roll, proverbial eye roll whenever I talked about, you know, his diamonds and pearls, gangster rap period, you know, with the gun mic and all that stuff. And, you know, I would tell him all the time that you were actually more hip hop when, before you were rapping on purpose. You know what I mean?

Because everything about him was, you know, was that. It was, you know, he's drum programming. He was ghost writing. You know, he was making up his own groups and had aliases. Like, everything that was hip-hop, even down to, like, the women that he chose to market it. Like, all that was, that was the blueprint that hip-hop built itself upon. You know what I'm saying? and so oftentimes

I just find it weird that the second that he becomes aware of hip hop then that's sort of like that's where it got weird but he was to me 100% hip hop before he sort of became aware of it so you tell him the story of now Rogers like really not being into it even though the irony of the good times thing can you speak upon like the the circumstances after 82 and the band wanting to take a break was it just because you guys were just on a 10 years stretch by that point oh no we were all fucked up on drugs i got really sick i had this long protracted illness uh just all kinds of crap what's going on you know our finances went to shit um we got you know we got victimized in a lot of places they found out this accountant we had the two years we've made the most money to pay our taxes, just tried to get us at the tax shelters.

Yikes. Yeah, it's just standard showbiz bullshit, you know. You know, at this point when you're celebrating your entire history, like for you, what's the, what's the biggest lesson that you've learned? Oh, geez. Well, there's a lot, you know, just relax for yourself. Don't trust anybody. you know just the basic stuff and it's all going to sound so cliche we we love cliches on the show

like because to me it's about the creative process but it's also about you know what what have you learned in hindsight you know i mean i just love the fact that you saved all those demos um yeah i for one wasn't too sentimental with the demo i was smart enough to not throw them away but now I'm going through the painstaking process of just going through trash bin after trash bin after it because I know like in 10 years I'm going to have to make some sort of sense of it. So can you just talk about the process of finding these things?

That was long and arduous. You know, I just, we did the last Blundie album we had at the magic shop and Steve there, you know, the place where Bowie did Black Star, You know, his last, he did his last two records there, and phenomenal amounts of stuff came out of that place. And so we really liked the last band to record there. And Steve there has the record tape salvaging company also.

You know, he bakes the tapes and does all that stuff. So that was easy. We just, I just, I turned it over to him. Our manager, Tommy, oversaw the thing. And, you know, I would get these million, the little fragments on Dropbox and listen to stuff and go, yeah, this is cool, whatever, etc.

So, Chris, what was, like, the coolest thing that you found in the archives, you know, like personally to you, where you were excited about what you found? Did we have a version of the moonlight drive by the doors that we recorded in the studio while we were doing either the first or second album? which is really great

but whoever was sitting in the control room didn't hit record at the top of the song so they did a good job coming in after the first movement but and it's you know that I don't know that I was aware that that existed even but that's out there

wow and that's on the box set yeah that's on the box set yeah it's a cool thing did you fade it in And on the box, cetera, did you just start it? It starts with some drums. But it, you know, it misses the whole little intro section. First, first verse. Yeah.

Yeah. Fired him. It's cool, though. Could you briefly talk about, so at one point, you guys were going to work with Giorgio Moroda? Yeah. Well, Giorgio didn't want to put up with the band bullshit and all the ego mania. And us having to play things a hundred times to get it right.

and all that stuff. He's like, he just wants to go in there and get it done. One and done. So you're saying that your process was more meticulous in terms of like wanting to do. Because you guys are super tight as a band.

I was going to ask like, no, no, quite the opposite. The opposite. We were sloppy and we'd have to go over shit a lot to get it done. I mean, by, you know,

after a while, by now people have their skills honed. But in the early Blondy days, it was pretty, funky well i mean you know i mean the way that you execute it call me at least uh you know i you guys were airtight by then you know so i yeah but call me has call me has a lot of georgio session guys on it as well as the band you know yeah i mean clems on in there for sure okay uh i i can't i've not even a hundred percent on who's what in that track okay i see

But I do want to know in closing, just where are you now as far as, like, creativity is concerned and still? Well, we just finished a 12th record with John Congleton. And that was, that's very exciting. It's a little, it's a little more raw than the previous one. I'm listening to the mixes coming back. It's great. I'm excited to get it out in the world. when do you

when do you propose that that will be ready next year next year okay I have a final question quest if you don't mind yes um it's it's kind of uh I ask a lot of

people from your generation especially um about their vinyl record collections from your past you still have your your vinyl I still have them but I don't I you know I'm happy to listen to digital stuff at this point that you know I do a lot of photography still and I'm not going to go back to film

I mean I like film it's nice but it's also kind of it's kind of like a fetish but you still have a turn to yeah but I haven't put anything on it in 10 years or whatever you know yeah I know you guys sorry Steve

it's nice that he still has this collection you know a lot of people yeah no I got plenty of stuff I got Charles Manson's record I got the first pressing. Really? Yeah. Okay. What was I watching?

I was just watching some dumb TV show and they closed with a Charles Manson song. What the heck was that? I can't remember. Yeah. But for you, okay, so for you, what's in your top five records of all time? Oh, man. Well, that's a lot. You know what John Fahy is?

I know John Faye. Yeah. John Faye's like superhero. Yeah. I saw him play. I even talked to him briefly. Top five. Beyond that, just, you know, standard stuff,

what you'd consider, you know, Bowie Records. Like, I was at Studio 54. And when James Brown did have that double-old meeting. Oh, no. Yeah, I saw one of those shows. It's funny to say that for James Brown fans, I will personally say that the thing that I admire most about James Brown is that he doesn't know mediocrity.

So either he will be the height of perfection or it's the worst shit ever. And as a kid, as a kid, I remember saving like seeing James Brown live at Studio 54. And, you know, this is when I'm first starting to discover breakbeats and everything. So I was like, oh, man, look at the cover. He's sweating. Oh, it's going to be real good. And I brought it home. And I was like, ah, this is the worst.

So. I was at one of those shows. I don't know if it was the one that are on the record, but they kind of remember it. Yeah, Live at 54. Well, you know, Chris, I want to thank you. We had a technical difficulty and we lost. Yeah, I guess she fell out. She got lost in the ether.

but anything to have you want to get together and bullshit i'd be happy to also my pleasure yes definitely you're you're a legend and i appreciate you glad of course so on behalf of sugar steve and and umpil and laia and fantigolo this is quest love of quest love supreme and thank you chris and debby for going over your history with us and we really appreciate it and we will see you next time next go around of quest love supreme all right is a production of IHeart Radio. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, visit the IHart Radio app,

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