I have to say, when the email popped up in my inbox telling me this memoir was going to hit the shelves, I was shocked.
Debbie Harry is an unlikely memoirist. There's no doubt she's got one hell of a story to tell - from the grit of the downtown loft scene and the rise of Blondie to bankruptcy and addiction - there's no shortage of gripping material. However, Harry has always carried this sense of mystery about her - a reluctance, even, to allow us to fill in those blanks. In fact, this was illustrated perfectly during an interview where she told writer, Legs McNeil, "Supposed to be questions about fucking punk, man," in response to being asked about her backstory. Who knows what drove her to pull back the curtain and pen Face It, but my god, I'm happy she did.
In Face It, Blondie's frontwoman, Debbie Harry, now 74, chronicles her rise to fame through a high-speed timeline of musings and happenings that not only offers up a captivating portrait of 1970s New York, but an intoxicating, candid look at the life of an icon.
Blondie emerged in a chaotic 1970s New York - a time when the city was plagued with crime and bankruptcy, and those bold enough would occupy the Lower East Side where dreams could be acquired on the cheap. Harry was a big player in this bohemium scene and had the resume to show for it -working various stints as a model, a secretary at the BBC’s New York office, a waitress and a Playboy bunny. And let's not forget being the muse for the late Andy Warhol.
Debbie Harry has always been ahead of her time. I already knew this. But Face It magnified it in a whole new way. Before Lady Gaga stepped out in that head-turning meat dress, Harry had curated a dress made entirely of razor blades more than 3 decades earlier. There's no doubt that she paved the way for so many. And this is not a fact she ignores. As the book title shows, Harry is well-aware of the power of her image - even more so the role it had in the success of Blondie.“How could I know then that this face would help make Blondie into a highly recognisable rock band?”
I think some die-hard fans would have been longing for some kind of confessional - but that simply isn't Harry's style. In that sense, I think Face It may have not been everything that some had hoped for. However, personally, this wasn't an issue for me. I appreciated being able to get that long-awaited glimpse into her backstory - but she certainly doesn't give it all up. And it's not ours to take.
It seems this air of mystery was a very intentional move. On the final page, Harry notes: “I still have so much more to tell but being such a private person, I might not tell everything … It’s always best to leave the audience wanting more.” She's someone who has been stared at so much that it seems only fair that she would hold some things back. She tells us as much of her life story as she wants and when she's fed up - she simply stops - a nod to that same straight-talking attitude as the woman who hails love a "pain in the ass" on "Heart of Glass".
It's a similar matter-of-factness as when she recalls her experiences with drugs: “It was so delicious and delightful … For those times when I wanted to blank out parts of my life or when I was dealing with some depression, there was nothing better than heroin. Nothing”, she notes.
Face It is a clumsy, matter-of-fact, candid and often humorous account of the vivid life of Debbie Harry - peppered with rock 'n' roll tales, colourful characters, a wealth of photographs and anecdotes mapping childhood right through to present day.
While I may have been predisposed to like this book, it still managed to captivate me - commanding me to read in one sitting. Face It is Debbie Harry through and through - remaining as mysterious as ever, even in her memoir.
4 stars
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