A Punk Rock Memoir: Face It by Debbie Harry

By Michael Hooper

Debbie Harry's autobiography Face It is a fascinating read through the 1960s and 1970s New York City. This woman was at the right time in the right place to perform music with people at CBGB's the famous punk rock alternative rock hangout in New York. Blondie achieved fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s, selling millions of albums, with hits like Heart of Glass, Call Me, Rapture and The Tide Is High.

Blondie performed alongside the Ramones, Television, the Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

She worked as a waitress at Max's Kansas City and served as a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Club. It was hard work, harder than at Max's, and the clients were mainly businessmen, suits, she wrote.

"You got treated well but really it was just another job and not as much fun as the last one," she wrote.

Her book is an odyssey of her life and memories. She says she wishes she would have kept a diary or a journal and then she would have remembered more.

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, co-founders of Blondie, were lovers and partners for 14 years. He took a lot of photographs of Debbie. He made her feel confident and sexy. Sometimes these photo sessions would lead to passionate loving making. He later moved on and married and had two children, but he and Debbie continued working together. They put out a new album and toured the world.

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein were friends with Andy Warhol. Andy painted a picture of her. Andy took some photos and showed some to her. She picked the one she liked. And he made it. She still has the original.

Nevertheless her memories are very vivid from her fascination with the television set as a child, watching cartoons and wrestling. She met Andre the Giant. 

Her sense of fashion is legendary. Designers created many outfits for Blondie. She wore a striking double edge razor blade dress that hugged her body yet all these razor blades have been softened to prevent injury.

Debbie Harry says, "I was playing at the idea of being a very feminine woman while fronting a male rock band in a highly macho game. I was saying things in the songs that female singers really didn't say back then. I wasn't submissive or begging him to come back, I was kicking his ass, kicking him out, kicking my own ass too. My Blondie character was an inflatable doll but with a dark provocative and aggressive style I was playing it up yet I was very serious."

There are some really dark and hard things like when she and Chris got attacked and she was raped, or when they quit the band in the '80s while Chris was sick. But hey the two are still alive today and they've seen a lot and done a lot.

I find that amazing because they were drug users for a long time. She discusses their drug use in the book. Heroin was a popular choice. Chris Stein would grow cannabis on their deck at the apartment in New York City.

She just loves NYC. She dreamed of living and working in NYC when she was a teenager. She was adopted, she discusses this in the book. Her childhood seemed middle class, her parents did well but were not among the wealthy.

Her childhood included Girl Scouts, ballet. She changed schools, met new friends and began dyeing her hair blond. She wanted to be platinum blond like Marilyn Monroe.

The fan art in this book is great. I love the photo of these women artists:

Debbie Harry has engaged with some brilliant artists over the years. I'm fond of Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde and Siouxie Sioux. Very powerful artistic women!

In conclusion, Debbie Harry's book is a wild ride through the 1960s, 70s, 80s and beyond. She has lived an extraordinary life. She worked with some great musicians over the years. She also performed in multiple movies.

Blondie is a class act.