Under a Rock

March 18, 2024
Blondie guitarist Stein (Point of View) chronicles in this knockabout personal history the colorful scenesters, grueling gigs, and desperate scrounging for drugs that have marked his musical career. Among other episodes, he recalls a Brooklyn boyhood in the 1950s and ’60s ; coming-of-age as a hippie; his musical and romantic linkup with Blondie front-woman Debbie Harry in the early 1970s; the band’s breakthrough with such hits as 1979’s “Heart of Glass”; and the exhausting tours, creative tensions, and escalating drug use that partly led to the band’s 1982 breakup. The last chapters slow down to cover Blondie’s return to touring after a 17-year hiatus along with Stein’s marriage and family life. The atmospheric narrative immerses readers in gonzo celebrity cameos (“Phil came to the door... performatively drunk and doing a W.C. Fields voice”), grungy punk tableaux, and rock star excesses, though Stein keeps a clear eye on the consequences of such a lifestyle. In the book’s heartbreaking epilogue, he discusses his teenage daughter’s death from a heroin overdose in 2023 (“I thought that I presented my own drug experiences in a negative light to our kids... I’m wracked with guilt that any discussions might have been misconstrued”). The result is a candid if somewhat chaotic account of life in the spotlight.

April 1, 2024

Blondie guitarist Stein, now 74 years old, begins his engaging memoir with his childhood in New York City. He details his middle-class upbringing in a left-wing family, his school days, his fascination with photography, and the phase that led to his hospitalization due to hallucinogens. He recounts his meeting singer Deborah Harry, the early days of Blondie at the NYC performance space CBGB, and the late-1970s New York punk scene. In the last half of the book, he chronicles the mainstream success of Blondie with the 1978 disco-influenced album Parallel Lines (which contained the song "Heart of Glass"), their increasingly funky pop on the 1980 single "Call Me," and the group's 1980 Autoamerican album (featuring "The Tide Is High"). The book ends with a description of Stein's substance-use disorder, the end of his romantic relationship with Harry, his sobriety and family life, and the band's ongoing tours and recordings. It also relates engaging stories about such notables as William S. Burroughs, David Bowie, H.R. Giger, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. VERDICT Written in an off-the-cuff style, this memoir offers a descriptive, highly impressionistic account of the author's role in Blondie and his life in New York City. Will engage general readers.--Dr. Dave Szatmary

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2024
A memoir by the Blondie co-founder and guitarist. Founded in 1974 by Debbie Harry and Stein, Blondie was a leading light of the American new wave music scene. In this no-holds-barred memoir, Stein (b. 1950) shares his memories, from his childhood in Brooklyn to his present life, including his early musical and artistic interests, how he and Harry met, the formation and rise of Blondie, his breakup with Harry, his struggles with substance abuse, and details regarding his wife, Barbara, his children, and his enduring friendship with Harry. With a stream-of-consciousness writing style and a talent for storytelling, the author recounts with intriguing specificity the trajectory his life has taken, replete with wild, sometimes unbelievable stories of crazed fans, exhausting gigs, a "disrespectful and borderline abusive" manager, and the many excesses of fame. Among the many notable celebrities that make an appearance are Jimi Hendrix, Tony Sirico, Boz Scaggs, David Bowie, and Andy Warhol. A common theme through much of the narrative is the ever-presence of drugs and alcohol. As Stein contends in the epilogue, "Going into writing all this I hadn't considered writing about so much addiction and death, but it was unavoidable." He goes on to candidly discuss his feelings about his daughter's recent death from an accidental overdose. Acknowledging his "glamorization of addiction" throughout the text, Stein sorrowfully states, "I thought that I presented my own drug experiences in a negative light to our kids, but I'm wracked with guilt that any discussions might have been misconstrued." The book features a foreword by Harry, in which she describes her feelings and memories regarding her friendship with Stein and being a part of Blondie. "Chris has written a many-layered view with his tireless memory," she notes. A fascinating yet cautionary account regarding the hazards of rock 'n' roll and celebrity.

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May 1, 2024
Chris Stein, the guitarist in the pioneering new wave band Blondie, grew up in 1950s Brooklyn, the son of Communist parents. By the time he was a teenager, he and his friends were going into Manhattan, especially Greenwich Village. Stein recalls the burgeoning 1960s New York rock scene when "the kids" were everywhere and everything seemed new and exciting. In September 1973, the word on the street was that a "girl group" called the Stilettos were performing in a neighborhood bar. Their lead singer, Debbie Harry, was still living in New Jersey and working at a hair salon. "I was crazy about Debbie," Stein acknowledges. He recalls the early years of the band that would become Blondie, which had its share of harrowing moments--Harry was raped at knifepoint in the apartment she shared with Stein--but of special interest are Stein's memories of the band's early performances at places like CBGB. Drugs feature prominently with sometimes sad consequences; Stein's memoir concludes on a subdued note: his 19-year-old daughter died in an accidental overdose. With a foreword by Harry, author of Face It (2019).

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