In honor of Debbie Harry’s 68th birthday today, we bring you some very early clips of Blondie at CBGB. Above, the band plays “A Girl Should Know Better” in 1975, an unreleased track that’s got all the garage rock, girl-group sound the band rode in on before going new wave in the 80s. Guitarist Chris Stein looks and sounds like Johnny Thunders and Harry performs the almost-wholesome, semi-vacant sexuality of her Playboy bunny past. While this track didn’t make it onto their first album, 1976’s Blondie, it’s a fun little number all the same.
Down below watch the band play “Rip Her to Shreds” in 1977, looking a little less trash-rock but still sounding harder than they would in later, slicker years. For more vintage Harry moments, pop on over to Dangerous Minds to see her arm wrestle Andy Kaufman, recount a run-in with Ted Bundy, and introduce Americans to the pogo dance on Glenn O’Brien’s local New York show TV Party.
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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Washington, DC. Follow him at @jdmagness
Debbie opened my 83 years old to the spectacular music
Of the 70’s.
I still love Taylor Swift, Joni Mitchell, and even Lady GA GA!,
Now Debbie Harry exposed me to a new, old beat and I love IT,
THANK YOU DEBBIE AND OPEN CULTURE FOR A GREAT
NEW EXPERIENCE .
Sy
Blondie was the first concert I went to back in maybe 1981. David Johansen opened. Providence Civic Center. Awww yeah.