An Ode to Debbie Harry

Gillian Reagan — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:58:13 -0400

God, we love Debbie Harry—iconic, sensual, intelligent, fashionable. She's still relevant decades after she became the queen of the CBGB punk scene. Last week she released her new album, Necessary Evil, and recently approved Kirsten Dunst to play her in a Michel Gondry-directed biopic. We're not sure about that decision just yet, but we trust Harry's judgment. Even at 62, she is still the coolest chick in town and we're jealous that The New York Times' Melena Ryzik got to sit down with her at the Chelsea Piers:

In slim black pants and a sleeveless Dresden Dolls T-shirt (she performed with that punk cabaret duo on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour this summer), accessorized with red bra straps, a gold skull pendant, black wraparound sunglasses and her much-blonded hair, Ms. Harry still looks sexy-punk.

(Ugh, we love it!)

And legions of downtown girls imitate her Blondie-era style, from the shaggy dyed hair and red lips to the vampy shredded dresses. "Those bitches!" she joked. But she follows her progeny, counting M.I.A., Lily Allen and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs among her current favorites.

"She just never stopped being cool," said another descendant, Johanna Fateman of the post-riot-grrrl band Le Tigre.

Ms. Harry demurred. "It's hard for me to think that Blondie was so completely original," she said. "I don't really think that I'm an icon. I think an icon is a statue, something that's frozen, you know. I don't feel like that." And she added, "I don't really love walking down memory lane."

But we will because we love her and this video of a Blondie performance at CBGB's in 1977 is classic. Who else can pull off patchwork pants?

Observer » An Ode to Debbie Harry

An Ode to Debbie Harry