Blondie – Plastic Letters

Hey, I have a demonstration copy here with typed paper the has a header "ARTIST DEVELOPMENT & PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT" with a description of the band? Think this is worth more? About a VG rating.

I have a columbia santa maria test pressing 1977 chrysalis records.

I’ve been to CBGB, I’ve seen Blondie there, I’ve seen Talking Heads there along with many other groups ... and let me assure your, if you ever dreamed that you missed something from never having made the scene, let me assure you that you didn’t. CBGB was hot, it was dirty, it was a smelly hole in the wall that may or may not have been hosed out each night, depending on how many people were ed out on the floors.

Plastic Letters by all rights seems to visually speak to the essence of the times, with a slick cover depicting disco kids gone wrong with the discovery of E, punk guitar chords and a disingenuous attitude. Though by all rights Plastic Letters reflects the same kids who will give disco one last dying breath and one last shot in the arm before they sort of sidestepped and walked the disco new wave line ... or perhaps snorted that line would be a more apt description. Blondie is one of those groups of which I’ve kept the first three albums and let the rest melt away. And year by year, even these albums hold less and less attention for me; like flipping through back issues of Star or The National Enquirer, it’s all vaguely attention holding while one’s standing in line at the check out counter, but man, there’s no way I want this stuff spread out across my kitchen table.

The release attempts to exploit this trashiness, and therein lies it’s faults. Plastic Letters would be fine if it were Warhol trash, but it’s the fact that Blondie attempts to be trashy, and at this they fail miserably. The first side of the release is pure manic and much too full of shocking pink high pitched wailing energy for my ears. Side two changes almost one hundred and eighty degrees, foreshadowing what’s to come on their next releases, with Deborah’s husky whispering suggestive voice promoted to a prominent place between the grooves.

Now there’s nothing wrong with incorporating aspects of the past, but when one attempts to go down that street it’s important to say something fresh and not just rehash the best aspects of The Ventures and the girl groups from the late 50’s and early 60’s in a melodramatic fashion. Listen, I’m not saying the release wasn’t fun, but I’ve sat at many a Woolworth lunch counter reading a dime store novel that seemed all too familiar to the one I’d taken from the rack the week before. To their credit, the music is in and of the moment, a snapshot or the day, but that aspect is what keeps the music of Blondie from ever becoming timeless ... relegating it to fade and yellow in the afternoon sun, like yesterdays newspaper resting in the back window of your car. And when they do finally get around to trying their hand at some rock n’ roll, even that’s all to familiar.

So perhaps I misspoke myself when I opened this review, perhaps it would have been better for you to have seen Blondie live, and had these records to spark some memories, rather than these albums being all that you would know of Bondie; and years later wondering what it was that you thought you ever heard here to begin with.

*** The Fun Facts: Being without a formal name for a bit, lightning stuck when a truck drivers catcalled "Hey, Blondie" to Harry as he drove past.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Hi, I can't submit releases as there have been too many issues with my collection so far. For instance I have Plastic Letters CHR 1166 with a green label which I can't find anywhere on the listings. This may I think be a Far East release (marketed there but possibly still manufactured in the UK?) as I think I bought it in HK in 78/79. Any suggestions or help?

Best Blondie album cover, and for me, for nostalgic reasons, best Blondie album. I think the first four albums, Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, and Eat to the Beat are terrific albums, though I favor the first two.

Their second and last outing produced by Richard Gottehrer. Other than the two hits, mainly forgettable, maybe worth an occasional listen.

my copy has the older green chrysalis labels and the 1B/1B matrices. According to http://blondiediscography.com/plastic.html this would be the first pressing, rather than the blue label mentioned here. I just always seem to mess up with adding variations to the database whenever I try