In honor of their current concert tour (with Debbie Harry still performing at 72!!), The Vinyl of the Day is ‘Eat To The Beat’ by Blondie, 1979. One of the soundtrack albums of my mis-spent youth, it’s the fourth album by Blondie following their breakout success ‘Parallel Lines’, and I t continued their movement from their original punk/post-punk sound into a glossier, more pop/new wave rock direction. ‘Eat To The Beat’ does showcase Blondie’s ability to cover different genres of music from punk to reggae, and has some really excellent cuts that went on to be all-time Blondie classics (’Atomic’, ‘Union City Blue’ and especially ‘Dreaming’ which I personally think is their best song), but the varying styles do more to highlight the weaknesses in Debbie Harry’s voice, instead of playing to her strengths. Still this is a very fun album to play loud, and it’s an interesting ‘bridge’ from 'Parallel Lines' to 'AutoAmerican’, as the band continued to experiment with different sounds and styles - and altogether ‘Eat To The Beat’ was a major accomplishment in busting Blondie through as an international sensation.
'Eat To The Beat' also featured Blondie’s first video album produced along with it, featuring a music video for each of the album’s twelve songs! It was the first such project in rock music, and makes the record even more important in rock history.
From Wikipedia;
Eat to the Beat is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Blondie. It was certified Platinum in the United States, where it spent a year on the Billboard album chart. Although it peaked at No.17, it was one of Billboard’s top 10 albums of 1980. It also reached No.1 on the United Kingdom album chart in October 1979 and was certified Platinum by the BPI.
Eat to the Beat was digitally remastered and reissued by EMI in 1994, and EMI-Capitol in 2001, with four bonus tracks and candid sleeve notes by Mike Chapman:
“They wanted to try anything. And I was right there with them. We also had a title for the album at a very early point, so we had a concept of sorts: Eat to the Beat. I tried to have Debbie explain exactly what it meant to her, but in her normal fashion she simply confused me and I was forced to give it my own interpretation… . [Drugs] found their way to the studio and presented us with yet another obstacle. The more drugs, the more fights. It was becoming a real mess… . The music was good but the group was showing signs of wear and tear. The meetings, the drugs, the partying and the arguments had beaten us all up, and it was hard to have a positive attitude when the project was finally finished… . Was this the record that the public was waiting for, or was it just the waste of seven sick minds? I had never experienced this kind of emotional rollercoaster before, and I have never forgotten the sounds, smells and tastes that came with it. I guess that was what they meant: Eat to the Beat.”
AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann
Just as Blondie's second album, Plastic Letters, was a pale imitation of their self-titled debut, Eat to the Beat, their fourth album, was a secondhand version of their breakthrough third album, Parallel Lines: one step forward, half a step back. There was an attempt, on such songs as "The Hardest Part" and "Atomic," to recreate the rock/disco fusion of the group's one major U.S. hit, "Heart of Glass," without similar success, and, elsewhere, the band just tried to cover too many stylistic bases. "Die Young Stay Pretty," for example, dipped into an island sound complete with modified reggae beat (a foreshadowing of the upcoming hit "The Tide Is High"), and "Sound-a-Sleep" was a lullaby that dragged too much to be a good change of pace. The British, who had long since been converted, made Eat to the Beat another chart-topper, with three major hits, including a number one ranking for "Atomic" and almost the same success for "Dreaming," but in the U.S., which still saw Blondie as a slightly comic one-hit wonder, the album was greeted for what it was -- slick corporate rock without the tangy flavor that had made Parallel Lines such ear candy.
Here’s the video for ‘Dreaming’ from their video album for the record — check out my boy Clem going total Wild Man on drums! IIRC, the extras were recruited with flyers in local NY and NJ clubs, and most of them had no idea who Blondie was yet and they were all very drunk and/or high. If you look real hard you can actually catch a VERY quick glimpse of me doing photography for the band during the video — I’m the punk guy with bleached white hair looking super uncomfortable being in among all those New Jersey greaser kids.