About this item
A MULTILAYERED MEMOIR FROM A MULTIFACETED ARTISTAs a musician, an actor, a muse, an icon, the breadth of Debbie Harry's impact on our culture has been matched by her almost Sphinx-like reticence about her inner life. Through it all - while being acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, prized by a galaxy of leading photographers and fashion designers, beloved by legions of fans for her relentless, high-octane performances, selling 50 million albums or being painted by Andy Warhol - Debbie Harry has infused her perennial Blondie persona with a heady mix of raw sexuality and sophisticated punk cool. In Face It, Debbie Harry invites us into the complexity of who she is and how her life and career have played out over the last seven decades. Upending the standard music memoir, with a cutting-edge style keeping with the distinctive qualities of her multi-disciplined artistry, Face It includes a thoughtful introduction by Chris Stein, rare personal photos, original illustrations, fan artwork installations and more.Peppered with colorful characters, Face It features everyone from bands Blondie came up with on the 1970s music scene - The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie - to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marina Abramovi and H.R. Giger of Alien fame. It explores her successful acting career (she has starred in over 30 film roles including David Cronenberg's Videodrome and John Waters' Hairspray) , her weekends with William S. Burroughs and her attempted abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy. Ranging from the hardscrabble grit and grime of the early New York City years to times of glorious commercial success, interrupted by a plunge into heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie's break up as a band, an amazing solo career and then a stunning return with Blondie, this is a cinematic story of an artist who has always set her own path. Inspirational, entertaining, shocking, humorous and eye-opening, Face It is a memoir as dynamic as its subject.
About the Author
The name Debbie Harry evokes many images: seminal rock-n-roll figure, complex songstress, incandescent front woman, actor and fashion icon. As a vibrant global force and a shaper of pop culture, Debbie's chart-topping success, fearless spirit and rare longevity led to an induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame for Blondie in 2006. With more than 50 million albums sold worldwide and acclaimed solo projects, Debbie has also engaged in a successful acting career with over 30 film and television roles to her credit (including Videodrome, Hairspray, and Heavy to name a few) . She has become and still remains a true national treasure, one whose influence continues to impact the worlds of music, fashion and art. With Blondie, undeniably one of the most trailblazing and influential bands of our time, she and co-founder Chris Stein brought the worlds of rock, punk, disco and Reggae together with "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me" and broke ground by combining hip-hop and pop on "Rapture." As a solo artist, Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards co-produced her first release Koo Koo in 1981 and she continued to defy expectations with such genre-busting efforts as "French Kissing in the U.S.A.," "Rush Rush," "Rain," and "The Jam Was Moving." Best known as the face of Blondie, Debbie has also had a long running collaboration with the critically acclaimed American jazz group, The Jazz Passengers, stalwarts of New York's free-jazz scene. Her spectacular voice drips with a sophisticated elegance rarely heard in pop music and she continues to infuse her work with an exquisite artistic sensibility. From an irreverent Lower East Side punk goddess to a bona fide international ambassador of New York cool, Debbie Harry will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us.
