Latest / DISGRACELAND / Blondie: Punk vs. Disco, Held Hostage by Phil Spector, and Riding with Ted Bundy

Transcript

Blondie: Punk vs. Disco, Held Hostage by Phil Spector, and Riding with Ted Bundy · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome into another rewind episode of Disgrace Sland
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and boy, oh boy, do we have a good one
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for you today. A controversial one. This one is on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the band Blondie. More specifically, it's on this story about
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry, a story that I love, A story that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: at its very core is so true, crimey and very controversial.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: A lot of people don't believe that this is true. However,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry herself, she's the one who claims that this
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: story of an abduction at the hands of none other
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: than Ted Bundy absolutely happened to her. And frankly, those
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: who are so called Ted Bundy experts the proof that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: they offer up to dispute Debbie Harry's account of what
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: went down, it is complete weak sauce. I love this
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: story because every time I talk about it on social media,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of people get upset and they come at
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: us and they say, we don't know what we're talking about.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: But I believe Debbie Harry. And again it goes back
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to the actual proof. All right, So you can listen
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to this episode, you can tell us what you think.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Be the judge yourself. Let us know. Aside from that
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it's just a great story about the foundational era of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: punk rock in New York City in the early seventies,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and just a trailblazing artist Debbie Harry and her fantastic
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: band Blondie. You're gonna love it. Here you go. This
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Blondie are insane.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: The band got its start in New York's fertile punk
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: scene in the late seventies, a time when fear and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: violent crime had a stranglehold on the city. Two members
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of the group were mugged on the street. One of them,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry, was then raped at knife point by her attacker.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry also barely escaped with her life after she
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: unknowingly accepted a ride from a serial killer. Debbie and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Blondie were loved and desired by many good and bad,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: including producer Phil Spector, who once held them captive inside
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: his lavish Hollywood mansion. But Blondie didn't need Phil Spector
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to make great music, some of the coolest genre bending
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: music of all time. Unlike that clip I played for
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my mellotron called Robert
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Stack Attack MK one. I played you that loop because
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to a clip from Les
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Freak by Chic. And why would I play you that
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: specific slice of ah Freak out Cheese? Could I afford it?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: January nineteen seventy nine, And that was the month that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Blondie released Heart of Glass, a song that out punk
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: punk pissed off some of the most devoted fans improved.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: They were capable of surviving just about anything. On this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: episode Fear and Violent Crime, Punk versus disco, muggers, serial killers,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry, and Blondie. I'm Jake Brennan and this is
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: this grayest Land nineteen seventy five. You step off the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: plane and La Guardia is humming. This is your first
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: time in New York City. Maybe you came from the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Midwest or some town down south. Maybe you hopped a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: puddle jumper from New England, or took a seven forty
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: seven from across the pond. But you're here now, and
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: it's crazy. The terminal is swarming with people and they
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: knock up against you as you try to get your bearings.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Limo drivers are holding signs with the names of people
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: who aren't you. Harry Krishnas float by, bells ringing, consciousness expanding,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and in the middle of it all there's this guy,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: average build, average height, average everything, handing out pamphlets to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: whoever will take them, which includes you. Because you, my friend,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: are way out of your depth, a fish out of water,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a hay seed, a jabbroni. This man in front of
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you is going to make you take this fold of
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a piece of paper because you have no other choice,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: because you're new here and you're a victim in waiting.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: The pamphlet has an image of a hooded skull on
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the front, with a large, bold text that reads Welcome
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to Fear City and at the bottom of the page,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a survival guide for visitors to the City of New York.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: If this pamphlet is to be believed, Right here, right now, robberies,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: aggravated assault, larceny, burglaries, they're all on a meteoric rise. Meanwhile,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the mayor's making sweeping cuts to public safety in order
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to balance the budget. New York is no longer New York.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: As this pamphlet tells you, New York is a living hell,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and in a living hell, there's plenty to be afraid of. Muggers, rapists, thieves,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: criminal devians of all stripes, everyone ready and able to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: rob you, mean you, even kill you. You have no
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: idea what these sub human city types are capable of,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and you also have no idea that this pamphlet was
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: created and distributed by police and fire unions as a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: subversive means to drum up support for Popeye Doyle and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: his partners currently nursing a cold one on unpaid leave
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: while a garbage strike strangles New York with rotting trash.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: All you're focused on are the guidelines written inside this
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: piece of paper. Stay off the streets after six pm,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: avoid public transportation, safeguard to your handbag, and perhaps most importantly,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: do not walk anywhere. Over in Manhattan, Debbie Harry and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Chris Stein were doing what New Yorkers did. They were walking,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: But Debbie Harry and Chris Stein weren't a couple of
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: roubes fresh off of plane from Des Moines. They weren't
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: victims in wading either. They were lovers, musical partners, leaders
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of the band Blondie, a band that thrived in New
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: York's sketchiest corners. It would take more than a single
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: fold pamphlet to strike fear in their hearts. Fear wasn't
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in the plan. Not tonight. Tonight, they were riding a
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: very specific high, the KINDI get after your band plays
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a killer set inside a tiny club that reeks a
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: beer sweating piss. Tonight's show at CBGB with the Ramones
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: was one for the books. Blondie sounded tight on that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: shitty little stage. Every show they played these days was
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: better than the last. They were broke, They were struggling,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: but all the same, they were quickly gaining an audience,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a real following, not just the dudes who whistled at
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Debbie in her beach blonde hair that gave the group
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: its name, but real fans of the music, of bands
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that were steering rock and roll back to its simpler roots,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: back to New York's musical past. A little shangri las here,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: some ronnettes there, but not quite. This was fast, this
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: was loud, This was new, and just like Debbie and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Chris weren't afraid of some fierce city freak lurking around
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the next corner. They weren't afraid of the new, new music,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: new fashion, new ideas. Embrace it all, Andy told them.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Andy Warhol was a regular at Maxis Kansas City, the
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: spot where Debbie briefly worked as a waitress. It was
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: now one of the local nightclubs that booked Blondie on
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the regular. Debbie didn't want to go back to waitressing,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: just like Chris didn't want to go back on welfare,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: so they took Andy Warhol's advice. They didn't fear the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: new and they also didn't fear having a good time.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Punk rock could be fun if you just let your
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: guard down, you can dance to it. But people in
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: New York circa nineteen seventy five weren't dancing to punk.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Everyone was too cool for that. Even if Debbie Harry,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: one of the coolest fucking people to walk the planet
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: then and now, encouraged dancing, the crowds just stood there,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: arms crossed, quietly judging while the band played, or, in
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the case of Blondie, probably undressing Debbie with their eyes.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: The whole scene was a sausage veest, even Patty dressed
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: like a man. Debbie Harry did drag too, but she
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: did girl drag, not boy drag, a blow up doll
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: who would gladly kick your ass. And though the punk
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: bands in New York hadn't come to blows yet, the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: divide had already begun right there in CEBGV a line
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: drawn in the sand, rather a line drawn on the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: club's beer stained floor on one side, the Ramones and
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Blondie on the other. Patti Smith in television, pot versus art,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: those who danced versus those who did not. Tonight, Debbie
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Harry was done trying to get another crowd to dance.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: She just wanted to go home. She and Chris Steine
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: made the short walk from CBGB to Chris's apartment at
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the corner of First Avenue in East First Street aka
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: First and First aka the nexus of the universe according
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: to longtime New Yorker Cosmo Kramer. But I digress. It
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was dark, it was late, and their footsteps were in
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: sync and impatient. Just as they reached the front door
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: to Chris's place, however, another pair of footsteps came rushing
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: from behind them, loud and coming up fast. Debbie and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Chris spun around and saw the hooded skull, Death's shrouded head,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Fierce City and Carney. The man wore a leather jacket
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and held a large knife. He wanted money and had none.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: What about that? Fierce City motioned to the guitar case
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: in Chris's hand. Chris didn't want to give up his fender,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: but what was he going to do? The guy had
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a knife, so Chris handed it over. What about drugs?
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Chris had a few doses of acid in the freezer
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: inside his apartment. Did he want those? Nah man? Fierce
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: City didn't want to trip out. Fiar City wanted to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: get high. The man now motioned to Chris's front door.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Take me inside and let's see what else you got.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Debbie and Chris let him inside the apartment, the knife
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: at their backs. The man tied Chris to the bedpost
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: with a pair of pantyhose. He tied Debbie's hands behind
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: her back with a scarf. He ransacked the place. He
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: found a camera and another guitar, this one a Gibson
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: sg that Chris had borrowed from one of his Blondie bandmates.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: He took what he could get but he wasn't done taking.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: He wanted more. He untied Debbie's hands and told her
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to take her pants off, and then, at knife point,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: he raped her. Fierce City, took the guitars in the camera,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and disappeared into the New York City streets. Blondie, a
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: band that was making moves but was nonetheless broke and struggling,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: found themselves down two pieces of precious gear, and Debbie
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Harry found herself in shock. She was angry, she was furious.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: She wasn't afraid, because Debbie Harry was determined to never
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: become a victim. She was a survivor. Teenage Debbie Harry
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: couldn't wait to get the hell out of Jersey. The
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Burbs were so pathetic, so predictable. Fall in love, get married,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: settle down, two and a half kids, picket fence, the
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: whole nine sounded like a death sentence. Debbie Harry wanted
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: to live. She took the bus to New York City
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and saw people really living, beat Nicks, musicians, visionaries. She
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: took the bus again. She watched the velvet underground get
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: up tight under an explosion of color and light in
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Saint Mark's Place again, moondog, blind bearded, a Viking helmet
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: on top of his head, passing out his poetry on
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: sixth and fifty third. More people per people, freethinkers, free doers,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: all them doing something different, something divine, something dangerous. Even
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: she could do that. She could be dangerous too. She
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: just wanted to be something that she couldn't be in Jersey.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: In New York, she was a secretary, a waitress, a
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: hostess at the Playboy Club on East fifty nine. But
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: corsets and bunny years weren't her thing. Neither was the band.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: She found herself singing in the Wind in the Willows.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Just like Pink Floyd, they took inspiration from classic children's literature.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Unlike Pink Floyd, the Willows were not part of the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: new folk rock. Cheese wasn't Debbie's bag. So for now,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: at least, the gig was over. The jobs dried up,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and the money ran out. Before long, she was back
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: in the Garden State, and she was back to taking
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the bus into the city. Nineteen seventy two, visiting friends
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: on Avenue C. Tonight, New York smelled like urine and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: hot trash. Debbie Harry wanted to get across town to
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: see her favorite band, the New York Dolls, also hot trash,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but the good kind of hot trash. The Dolls were
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the hottest and trashiest band in the growing underground scene,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and though Debbie was crazy about them, her friends were not,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: which meant she had no one to bum a ride
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: off of. Fuck it. It was only one mile down
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: West Houston sixth. She strapped on a pair oftol platform
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: she was and began to do that thing you weren't
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: supposed to do in fierce city. She began to walk.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: She barely made it a block. The platforms were killing
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: her feet. She stuck a hand up in the air
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in case any cabs drove by. But cabs didn't come
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: to Alphabet City, not in nineteen seventy two, when it
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: was all drunks, junkies and musicians, a demographic that kept
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the rents low, and thus was the last place a
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: cabby could expect to find a paying customer, or so
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the thinking went. One car did slow down, however, a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: white VW Beetle. It traveled up Houston and then turned
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: right on Avenue A. The platform heels were excruciating now,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and Debbie stopped to take them off. She looked down
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: at the sidewalk, broken glass everywhere. New York City was
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a mess, but it was her mess, well hers and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: sixteen million others, including the guy inside the white beetle,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: which was coming around again. This time it slowed down
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and stopped. The driver was alone. He called out and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: asked if she needed a ride. She didn't know this guy.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: She did know better than to get in the car
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: with a total stranger, though, especially in a city where
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the murder rate had already broken records the first half
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: of the year. Debbie told the guy thanks, but no thanks.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: The beatle pulled back out into traffic and took the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: right on a first avenue. Debbie kept walking, hobbling. Really
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: what a slog At this rate, she was going to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: miss the dolls and have nothing but shredded feet to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: show for it. Miserable as she was, though at least
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: she wasn't in Jersey. She had just broken up with
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend, a house painter, a real man's man, and
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a real pain in the ass. Too jealous, paranoid, aggressive,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: he went through her phone bills and called her friends,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: followed her around like a psycho, convinced she was lying
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in two timing him. He especially hated it when she
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: went into the city, not because he was concerned that
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: she would wind up in some kind of trouble, because
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: he couldn't deal with not having control over her. When
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Debbie ended it, the dude flipped, broke into her apartment,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: held her at gunpoint. She called the cops and they
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't do shit, couldn't do or wouldn't do. Remember this
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: happened in Jersey. Then they said New York City was
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the place to fear it. Right now, Debbie didn't feel
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: any fear. She was sweating, her feet were killing her,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and that beetle came around again, the only car on
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the street again. The driver pulled over and called out,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: need a ride. Debbie could see the guy clearly now,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: good looking, clean shaven, short, hairy, with a bit of
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: a wavy curl to it, persistent, motherfucker. Debbie paused. She
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: didn't hitchhike, never, not even in her hippie days. When
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry went to Woodstock, she drove, but she was
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: hot and her feet were throbbing, and the show was
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: going to start any minute, and it would likely only
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: be a few minutes by car to get there, so
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Debbie jumped in the beetle and shut the door behind her.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: The driver pulled out on the house too. She thanked
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: him for picking her up. He just grunted and stared
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: straight ahead at the open road. That's when Debbie noticed
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the smell coming off of him. Not body odor, it
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: was beyond that. It smelled like something rotting. The hair
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: on the back of her neck stood up between the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: heat and now the smell. The air and the car
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: was stifling. The windows were barely cracked and the stench
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: burned her eyes. She needed fresh air, needed to breathe.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: She reached for the crank to roll her window down,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: but there wasn't a crank. There also wasn't a door handle.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Debbie panicked. She had to do something, and do it fast.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: She had to get out of this car. With one
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: eye on the driver, she propped herself up on the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: outer edge of the seat. She shoved her arms with
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: a little crack at the top of the window. The
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: driver turned his head from the road to look at Debbie.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: He was on to her. He took a hard left
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: on the Thompson Street. I'd a slam Debbie into the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: door and prevent her escape. She arched herself up higher,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the pit of her elbow now wrapped around the top
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: lip of the window. She stretched her arm out lower,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: now all the way down to the outer door handle,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: and she yanked it upward. Just as the driver swerved
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and the car door flew open. Debbie, in her platform shoes,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: toppled out into the empty intersection, her ass at the pavement,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and the VW Bug completed the turn, passing her door
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: flapping open. She didn't know what she'd do with the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: driver through a U turn and came back for her.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: All she knew she had that feeling, the one that
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: drove her to New York City in the first place.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry wanted to live. She jumped to her feet,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and she waited. She was ready for anything, the beatles,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: gurgling engine, the ungodly stench infesting the car's interior, But
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: nothing happened. The car never came back. Debbie Harry walked
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the rest of the way to the New York Dolls Gig,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: knowing full well that only a naive Jersey girl would
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: think that this would be the last time she'd find
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: herself trapped and looking for a way out. New York
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: City was dangerous. The whole world was. But Debbie Harry
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: was dangerous too. We'll be right back after this word.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Were were Thirty one year old Debbie Harry was pissed.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: She was looking at a promotional poster for Blondie's first album,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a whole slew of posters actually pasted up on walls
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: throughout Times Square. The posters featured her, just her, not
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend in rock and roll co conspirator Chris Steine,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: not bassist Gary Valentine, her drummer Clem Burke, not the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: new guy Jimmy Destric who just joined on keys. It
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: was all Debbie. Platinum hair, red lips, black sea through blouse.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: The record label promised they'd cropped the photo, but here
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it was. They left very little to the imagination. She
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: kind of couldn't believe what she was looking at. Well,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: actually she kind of could. Dudes were dudes, and dudes
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: ran this business. She was now in the music business.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Dudes who heard the name Blondie and immediately thought only
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of her, Debbie Harry. Maybe that photo in Punk Magazine
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: or was it cream the one where she's wearing that
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Vultures T shirt, A studded belt in underwear looking like
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: a punk rock Barberella. She was sexy as fuck, no
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: doubt about it, and she knew it. Everyone in New
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: York knew it, and soon the rest of the world
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: would too. But what she was looking at now didn't
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: feel sexy. It felt like a violation. Not simply because
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: you could see everything in this photo, nipples and all.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: That wasn't exactly what was pissing Debbie off. What was
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: pissing her off was that they cut out the guys,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: her bandmates. It reinforced this erroneous idea that Blondie was
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Debbie Harry, which couldn't have been further from the truth.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Blondie was, so said the T shirts and the pins,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the ones that Blondie had printed up in the wake
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: of the Sea through poster bullshit black background, thick pink
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: texts that read Blondie as a group with an exclamation
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: point there at the end. Those pins were similar to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the one Phil Spector was now wearing. His said in
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the Flesh, a reference to Blondie's song of the same
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: name from that recently released self titled debut album, a
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: song that owed a sizeable debt to the girl groups
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of the nineteen sixties, groups that Phil Spector himself had
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: produced some time ago. These days, Phil's reputation had more
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to do with guns and wild mood swings than it
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: did making records. February nineteen seventy seven, Hollywood, Los Angeles
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: loved Blondie in a way that New York never could.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: It was like cheap tricks stumbling into Buddhacan. And there
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: are two week long residencies at the Whiskey of Go
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Go were CNBC in Affairs Week one. Petty and the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Heartbreakers opened for them. We two their power pop buds.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: The Ramones taught the Sunset Strip how to properly pogo.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Debbie was just stoked to see people dancing, but Phil
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Spector did not dance. Instead, Phil Spector emerged from his
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: mansion up in the Hills and made his way into
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the Whiskies dressing room, black shirt, black tie, long black cape,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: his eyes somewhere behind a pair of aviators, and his
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: soul somewhere behind a crucifix on a chain around his neck.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Not that you'd find a soul if you went looking.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Debbie was more than a little surprised to see that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: in the flesh pin stuck to his shirt, close to
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: his heart. He was a huge fan obsessed. He took
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: one look at Joey, Johnny and the rest of the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Ramones and told him to scram. He was there for Blondie.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: He was there for Debbie. He stared at her thigh
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: high leather boots. The two goons at his side were
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: not so impressed. They had one job. No one gets out,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: no one comes in, especially not those talks from Queen's.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: But it was getting late, the whiskey was closing down,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: so Phil invited the group back to his place. Debbie
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: was tired, she didn't really feel like it. The others insisted,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: this is Phil Spector we're talking about. He's interested in us,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in Blondie, the guy who worked with the Beatles wants
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to produce us. So they went up a winding road
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: into the shallow hills above Sunset Boulevard, to the lavish
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: mansion of one of the most successful record producers of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: all time, who met them at the front door with
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a bottle of Menischevitz in one hand and a Colt
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: forty five in the other. The time to back out
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of this little Meut and Greet had long passed. Debbie
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Harry and the others walked nervously inside. The door latched
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: shut behind them. Phil Spector didn't give a shit that
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: it was beyond late at this point, the wee wee
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: hours of the morning. Debbie Harry and Blondie were going
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to hang out with him until the sun came out.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: He had his two goons on it. Just like at
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the whiskey. No one gets out, no one comes in.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: They weren't guessed. They were prisoners, trapped, and Debbie Harry
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: didn't like being trapped, Not in her boyfriend's apartment, not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in the VW Beadle, and certainly not in the mansion
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: of the world's most infamous hit maker. It may have
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: taken a minute for the boys in the group to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: realize it, but that's what was happening right now. Shit
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: had gone sideways. But shit always had a way of
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: going sideways, Like when they were kicked out of their
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: New York loft apartment in rehearsal space just days into
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: recording their first album, or when another apartment of theirs
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: burned down while they were on tour, or when Fred Smith,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: their original bass player, blindsided them all when he announced
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: he was leaving. He crossed that line from pop to art,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: left Blondie for television. Fred's replacement, Gary Valentine, crossed his
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: own mind from teenager to adult and found himself in
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: a world of trouble. Managed to knock up his girlfriend
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: when both of them were underage, but as soon as
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Gary turned eighteen, the girl's mother, hell bent to hold
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: him accountable, reported him for statutory rate. He hid out
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: in Debbie's apartment. Jersey cops hot on his tail, Trouble
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: had a way of finding Gary. He and Clem, Blondie's drummer,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: were pinched by the NYPD for a little weed two
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: days in lock up, including one night in the Tombs,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: New York's notorious detention center. Ditto for Michael Sticka, Blondie's roadie,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: who did his own time at Riker's. Arrested for stabbing
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the dead Boys Johnny Blitz and nearly making him a
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: dead boy for real, Sticka maintained his innocence didn't matter.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Everything went sideways all the same on a moment's notice,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: no less. The only difference with this Phil Spector situation
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: was that Debbie saw coming up in the Whiskey's dressing room,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: acting like a control freak and dressed like a real freak.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: At the front doors of his home, the revolver in
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: his hand as long as the cape around his shoulders,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and now inside this glorified meat locker overlooking Hollywood, Phil
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Spector put those hands on a piano and began to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: play the opening chords to Be My Baby, a song
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: originally sung by his now ex wife Ronnie Specter, but
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Phil was no singer. He asked Debbie to sit next
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to him on the bench and take the lead. Debbie
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: was thinking of the forty five and I don't mean
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the Ronette single. I'm talking about the actual revolver, a
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: loaded revolver. Phil Spector wasn't asking, he was telling, So
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Debbie took a seat and she sang a few bars.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Phil kept playing and kept egging her on for more.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Debbie wanted to save her voice for tomorrow's show, she
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: was so tired. But Phil wasn't done performing, hosting, fucking around.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Whatever this was. Phil was being Phil, which included looking
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: at Debbie's thy high boots again. This time, though he
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: did more than look. He took the long barrel of
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the cold forty five and slid it between the leather
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and her skin. Another dude doing what dudes do, running
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: this business, trying to run her. Phil looked her in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the eyes, smiled and said, bang bang. It was another violation,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: another decision made against her will and without her permission.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: She didn't give a shit. If Phil Spector was this
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: great and powerful producer, so what if he could turn
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Blondie into the Beatles. Fuck this guy. He just dragged
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: them back into the past, which is not where they
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: were going. Blondie was all about the new. They weren't
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: afraid of it, and they weren't afraid of Phil Spector.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: What they were afraid of was going backwards, becoming some
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: throwback novelty. So they moved forward, which began with Debbie,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Harry and the boys standing up and walking right out
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: of Phil Spector's house January nineteen eighty nine. She couldn't
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: stop looking at the face of the man on the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: front page of the newspaper. She was mesmerized. She knew
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that face from somewhere, but where. Just look at him,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: good looking, cleaning shaven, short hair with a bit of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: a wavy curl to it, persistent motherfucker. Suddenly, Debbie Harry
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: was transported years into the past, back to nineteen seventy two,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to Avenue C and those god awful platform heels tearing
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: up her feet, that white VW beetle, circling back over
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and over, the smell coming from inside that thing, not
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: bo but something rotting, something evil, something to be afraid of.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And that face, it was etched into her memory. She
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: couldn't forget it, the face of the man who gave
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: her a ride in that beetle, with no window crank,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: no door handle, no easy way out. And there he
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: was now on the front page of this newspaper, A
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: man who took the lives of at least thirty women,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: women who were lured, kidnapped, sexually abused, mutilated, brutally murdered,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: women just like Debbie Harry, A man who said few
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: words to her, but said to the police when he
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: was arrested in nineteen seventy eight, I'm the most cold
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: blooded son of a bitch you'll ever meet. Debbie Harry
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was not, for the first time in her life, in
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: shock the man who had given her that ride all
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: those years ago, a ride she barely escaped from with
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: her life. That man was ted Bundy and today. On
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: January twenty fourth, nineteen eighty nine, Ted Bundy was dead
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: courtesy of the State of Florida, who sent two thousand
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: volts of electricity surging through his body. It had been
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: a long time coming. One year after he was first arrested.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Back in nineteen seventy nine, Bundy was found guilty of
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: killing two Florida State co eds. It was July Donna
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Summer's Hot Stuff was the number one song in America,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: a funky slugh the studio fifty four soul from disco's
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Dancing Queen. Three months earlier, in April, another song held
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the number one spot, sung by another Dancing Queen, The
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Boweryes Dancing Queen herself, an unlikely disco avatar. Heart of
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Glass was Blondie's first number one hit. The song sounded
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: unlike anything the group had released up to that time.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Debbie's Heavenly dreamlike vocal wrote a roll in copy rhythm
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: drum machine sample, proudly bridging the gap between New York
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: punk rock and punk. Sworn enemy at the time in
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the late seventies, you didn't cross the party lines of
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: punk and disco, just like you didn't cross that invisible
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: line dividing art and pop and CBGB. You could only
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: be one into the diehards. At places like CBGB in Maxis,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Kansas City, there was a clear choice. Punk was honest,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Punk was authentic. Disco was commercial and soulless, pure evil.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Disco was something to be afraid of. As early as
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, the Knives were out. The very first
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: issue of Punk Magazine, a small publication that documented the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: New York scene, featured a brief editorial that doubled as
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: a kind of mission statement. This editorial red, in part,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: death to disco shit, Long live rock, kill yourself, jump
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: off a fucking cliff, drive nails into your head, become
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a robot, and join the staff at Disneyland. Oh d anything.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Just don't listen to disco shit. Unlike the editorial board
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: at Punk Magazine, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and the rest
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of the guys in Blondie weren't afraid of disco shit,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: just like they weren't afraid of the New. It was
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: like Andy taught them this new could take many forms.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Punk disco a hybrid of the two. Even Heart of
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Glass was that hybrid. It got people dancing. It put
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Blondie on the map. It was a harbinger of more
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: music to come, like Call Me and the Tide Is High,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: both number one singles in nineteen eighty and Wrap, a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one number one that fused New Way disco
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and hip hop, and which also became the first hip
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: hop video to be played on MTV. All of this
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: resulted in a huge backlash from the so called real punks.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Do you think Blondie cared? Not in the least. Chris
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Steine took it all in stride. He saw Blondie's choices
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: as an act of defiance that was fully in step
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: with the punk rock ethos. It made us punk in
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the face of punk, he said, and he was right. Or, perhaps,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: as Debbie Harry would see it, Blondie became fear in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the face of fear, danger in a world, in a
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: business built on danger. Survivors of a scene that would
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: have rather seen them in disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan in
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: episode can be found on the show notes page at
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: right now by going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Members can listen to every episode of disgracelan ad free,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: weekly unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections, and early access
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com slash membership
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: for details, rate and review the show, and follow us
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod and on
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod, rock a
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: roll up, Henn all Right discos, What did you think
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: of this blondie episode here in Disgrace sand I want
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to know. Do you think Debbie Harry's account of what
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: happened with Ted Bundy is in fact true? Give us
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a call, let us know six one seven, nine oh
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: six sixty sixty three eight voicemail and text at disgracelam pod.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: On the socials coming Up next in Disgraceland, our new
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: episode on smashing Pumpkins, don't