Welcome back to a new episode of Musical Disclosure. This week is dedicated to one of the most influential bands of the 70s rock scene: Blondie.

 

The backdrop for the birth of the band is New York City, where in October 1973, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein met for the first time in a venue in the Lower East Side. The future leader of the group was performing with a cabaret trio, The Stilettoes, to which Stein decided to join as a guitarist. Accompanied by Billy O'Connor on drums and Fred Smith on bass, Angel and The Snake were born, later renamed Blondie due to the singer's blonde hair. However, in 1975, the young Clem Burke took over from O'Connor, bringing along bassist Gary Valentine. The only missing piece to complete the Blondie lineup was Jimmi Destri, a talented keyboardist whose Farfisa organ would help define the band's sound. "Blondie," the eponymous debut album, was released in 1976 by Private Stock Records. The single chosen to launch the album was "X-Offender," whose original title, "Sex Offender," was considered too explicit to be broadcasted by American radio stations. With a sound reminiscent of 60s girl groups, Blondie tells the story of a prostitute trying to seduce the policeman who has just arrested her. The subsequent songs on the album follow the same path of irony and irreverence, mixing beat music, surf rock, and punk. However, it was with "In The Flesh," a sixties homage to The Shangri-Las, that Blondie achieved their first international success: the album "Blondie" entered the Australian top 20. Among the most successful tracks on the album are "Rip Her to Shreds" and "Kung Fu Girls," which showcase the band's more punk side, as well as "Man Overboard," with its Latin rhythms, or the wild "The Attack of Giant Ants," inspired by the 50s science fiction movie "Them!" The lyrics of the songs are almost always humorous and provocative, sometimes with explicit sexual references, as in the opening single or the ironic "Look Good in Blue."
 

Today, we invite you to listen to "X Offender," the song with which Blondie made their debut in the music world on June 17, 1976.