Book: Blondie: From Punk to the Present: A Pictorial History
Compiled by Allen Metz; Published by Musical Legacy Publication
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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Wow. Who thought there could be so much written about Blondie anyway? Blondie: From Punk To Present: A Pictorial History is as large as a freshman level biology textbook and twice as dense. Apparently Alan Metz dug deep into the archives of fan sites, magazines and newspapers to compile this massive tome of articles, record reviews and miscellany. Dubbed as "unauthorized" and "unofficial," this history is 514 pages of dense, encyclopedic information representing the first book about the band in two decades.

First and foremost, this would appear to be a Blondie fan's collection exclusively. That first impression however, would be only partially true. There is much more contained here than just Deborah Harry centric factoids. Metz has set up the book into sections, from the background of punk, through the band's successes, break-ups and ultimate reformation. The first section entitled "Background" is so teeming with facts and contemporary examination of the roots of New York punk that one cannot help but come away feeling like something of an expert. Especially well written are the "Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground" and "I Feel Like Some Misplaced Joan Of Arc" articles, which are less about the band and more about the scene that spawned them. Once these have been perused, the dirty boulevards and nightclub lives of Village denizens are as familiar as your own backyard. "Deborah Harry: The Solo Years" touches on the bleach blonde lead singer's progressions, from fronting the Jazz Passengers to her film roles to the moderately successful "Deaf, Dumb and Blonde." The book winds up with sections of discographies, critiques and retrospectives, the last of which attempt to place the band and more importantly Deborah Harry in the greater context of rock, punk and pop.

This is a lot of Deborah Harry to ingest in one sitting. Metz has been careful to include some really fine unedited articles, such as a banned piece for High Times, but he also includes poems and pictures penned by fans, rendering this something of a scrapbook. Some of the photographs - which comprise roughly one-fifth of the content - leave something to be desired, but suffice, perhaps due to the numbers in which they appear. Like any other collection of its size, Metz's work is hit or miss; mostly, hit.

Marked as the first in the Musical Legacy Series, Blondie: From Punk To Present marks what could be an exciting set of books for fans. Although there is no word on who might be featured next, one can only hope the sheer effort at comprehensiveness is duplicated.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz