Under a Rock - Chris Stein

Of course, I've been a Blondie fan since I first picked up their debut album and dug their mixture of 60's girl groups and new wave/punk rock/what-have you. Well written tunes, 60's keys'n'guitars, and terrific vocals by the stunningly beautiful Debbie Harry. Amazingly, the ultra-geeky guitarist, Chris Stein, was Debbie's main squeeze at the time, and he was a big part of their sound so, of course, I was interested to hear his story when I found out that he had written an autobiography.

Chris grew up in the city of New York, so a very different environment that my suburban childhood a few years later. But, other than the landscape - which is interesting to read about - his younger years were not all that dissimilar than my semi-middle-class upbringing in Indiana.

Like most young kids, he had multiple distractions and interests and music was one of many and not necessarily the strongest one. That eventually changed and, as one of the biggest differences in our upbringings is the fact that he had places to go for teenagers to hang out and for teenage bands to play. He even claims (no reason to doubt him) to have played with at least one of the guys who later formed the Left Banke! 

He naturally fell into the big city's music scene, from the folkies to the rock'n'rollers, and managed to see incredible shows, sights and people. As so many did, he traveled to SF for the "Summer of Love" and spent several weeks simply bumming around (he must have had some money at this time although he does not mention how he really survived), before returning to the East Coast to pick up his habits of getting high and jamming.

There are lots of wild tales of the underground scene at the time and since it was still a fairly small gathering, it was inevitable that he would eventually meet Debbie, who was singing with the Stilettoes and, as it was a fairly loose group at the time, he was able to join in, as he was naturally attracted to her. They became an item and, of course, the band morphed slowly into Blondie.

Naturally, he mentions all of the other great, fun bands that were happening at the time and, again, since it was a small scene, most were friends and very supportive of each other. As the band coalesced and gained popularity, they recorded their single and first album and from there, things took off. Tours with Iggy Pop (joined by David Bowie) and shows with the likes of Tom Petty opening gave them experience along with the foundation of their fanbase. 

As they do, things move fast from then on and after "Heart of Glass" surprisingly breaks (it was, funnily enough, the third single chosen from the album), they are suddenly stars - with all of the baggage, expectations, workload and everything else that goes with it. Of course, Chris has plentyof tales to tell, from the insane to the mundane as they try to navigate their new-found fame.

Their rise’n’fall is fairly quick, really - a handful of years - but there are always various projects that keep them afloat along with countless reunions of various forms. Drugs were always prevalent and seemed to at least be partially to blame for Chris’n’Debbie’s split, although they stayed friends and work partners. But the fact that Chris seemed to be under the influence for most of his life makes some of the tales a little suspect, even while many are (mostly) believable considering the place’n’time. Horrifically, in the epilogue he mentions that his first born daughter died of an accidental overdose at the age of 19. Unfortunately, she did not learn from his mistakes.

Chris meanders a lot and, as I mentioned, kind of doesn’t distinguish between utterly mundane stories and truly fascinating ones. So, while the tale is interesting, Chris’ telling, while unique, of course, is not necessarily as compelling as the material. Fans should certainly check it out but look elsewhere for a more coherent band bio.