Blondie were a part of my growing up. If I had to be honest, I guess I’d have to say Debbie Harry was a part of my growing up, but you know what I mean. When they first appeared on Top of the Pops, you couldn’t miss them, and at the heart of the band with Debbie was Chris Stein.
This memoir from Chris follows Debbie’s of two or three years ago, which was excellent, so Chris has a lot to live up to. He starts by recounting his childhood and adolescence, his growing interest in music, and introduction to drugs. These two things will form the core of his life for many years to come, though photography will be important as well.
The book is stuffed full of interesting facts, interesting events and fascinating people. Unfortunately, the style makes reading it very hard work indeed. There is no flow to the writing. It’s as if the entire book is a list of bullet points, with the bullets removed just before someone hit ‘publish’.
This happened, then this happened, then I met X, then I met Y, then I met Z. I found I could only read a chapter or two at a time, before my head hurt. There seems to be a cast of thousands, many of whom we only meet once, and never hear of again. But there is no indication who is important and who isn’t (apart from the obvious, such as Warhol, Bowie, Iggy, etc.), so you try and remember all these names when there is no need.
Some of the best passages are the little vignettes; random or obscure meetings which give a flavour of Chris’s life, or New York in the 60s and 70s. Things which are unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but seem to tell us more about him than the major events, where he often leaves you wanting more.
He tells us little about his music in any depth, though we do hear a lot about equipment and instruments, and his influences come through gradually as the book progresses. The same goes for his relationship with Debbie Harry. It covers a large part of the book, but there is no depth to his descriptions, and their break up is dealt with in less than a paragraph.
His life of drugs, on the other hand, is covered extensively, and although it gives many bittersweet moments, as well as some funny stories, it does become somewhat repetitive. There are only so many times I wanted to hear about his nighttime street crawls to buy whatever he was into at that time.
Probably the highlight of the book is his description of New York in the 60s and 70s, when the city was a broken place. The underground scene thrived in the disused warehouses and grubby streets, and Chris and Debbie were a part of the artistic boom of the time.
He has certainly had immense struggles with drugs, and other health problems, which he doesn’t shy away from, and the ending of the book has a late emotional hit which floors you. But overall, the book is missing something. It’s missing any contact with what we might call his soul, or inner self. It covers his life, tells us much of what he did and when. But it tells us little about the man inside.
This is a review of the Corsair 2024 hardback edition.
