BLONDIE: 45 years ago – “Parallel Lines” (part 2)
Tears are worth it – Part 2
In the first part, we talked about the choice of producer for Blondie’ s third studio album “Parallel Lines”: Mike Chapman. Today we are looking at the shooting situations. You missed part 1? No problem, you can read it here.
The synthesizer flies low
The recordings for “Parallel Lines” began in June 1978 at the Record Plant Studios in New York. Chapman was faced with a not insignificant challenge. The musical skills of guitarist Chris Stein, bassist Nigel Harrison, keyboardist Jimmy Destri and drummer Burke were in need of improvement. According to Mike Chapman, Stein was too drugged up to play the guitar properly, so the producer encouraged him to write songs instead. This also applied to Destri, whose songwriting talents were to be rated higher than his talent on the keyboards. Burke, on the other hand, obviously had difficulties keeping time. While Frank Infante received the seal of “excellent guitarist” from Chapman, bassist Harrison was so frustrated by the producer’s perfectionism that he threw a synthesizer at Chapman during a recording session.
“… also very moody.”
In an interview with Sound on Sound magazine in June 2008, Mike Chapman recalled the special circumstances surrounding his collaboration with Debbie Harry. The singer was used to recording her vocals in just one attempt from her previous albums. “Debbie is a great singer and a great vocal stylist, with a wonderfully recognizable voice. However, she is also very moody,” explained the producer. To get the best out of her, he had to take a different approach to what he was used to: “When I met Debbie, I learned how to take it a bit easier. The vocals I got out of her I really had to psych myself out, and when I listen to them now I remember those sessions very clearly. They were tough times, with lots of tears and disappearing into the bathroom for hours.”
Katrin Hemmerling
In the next part, we will summarize the album and then take a closer look at the individual tracks.
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Here in the store:
Amazon:
Or search for & find one of the stores supplied by your zip code:
You can listen to the album “Parallel Lines” here:
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