I’ve been a huge fan of Debbie Harry and BLONDIE ever since hearing their cool “Heart Of Glass” for the first time, and while I absolutely love ALL their albums, probably the one that I have the most sentimental attachment to is their 1978 release PLASTIC LETTERS.
Now, I’ll admit that a large part of how much I listened to that album had a LOT to do with how much I loved looking at that fantastic album cover. In fact, I had quite an obsession with it that started way back when I pickd up their single Call Me. On the back of that single’s picture sleeve, they had little pictures of Blondie’s catalog LPs and I remember squinting at the little B&W thumbnail of the album titled “Plastic Letters” and even as a lad of 13, remember thinking how frickin’ sexy Debbie looked sitting on that Police car, duked out in that tight, short leather dress and seductively holding her lush hair up to her face!
Back then I was merely a singles buyer, and it wasn’t until 1981’s awesome Greatest Hits package came out that I realized that BLONDIE was this AWESOME group that DEMANDED I check out every one of their previous releases and that meant purchasing all their ALBUMS!
When I began to pick up all of Blondie’s albums, naturally one of the first ones I got was Plastic Letters, and Oh my GOSH, if I thought Debbie looked fine in that black and white thumbnail, imagine the impact it had on me holding a 12 inch album cover of the picture, and all in vibrant COLOR! The sexy dress Debbie was wearing now had the added allure of being this HOT PINK number and the famous Debbie Harry locks now drenched in the blonde color of her namesake! HOLY TOLEDO!
Turning the LP over, I was hit with yet ANOTHER incredible pic of Debbie, this time showing off the gorgeous two-toned hair she was sporting at the time, dressed in a sexy black dress and flashing that demure smile…gads, it drove me crazy, I had SUCH a MEAN crush on her! To this day, this time period is my favorite as far as Debbie’s “looks” are concerned, and the Plastic Letters cover and back are STILL my favorite pictures of her, EVER!
So , yeah, I must admit that the cover had a LOT to do with how much I listened to that album, but even so, I still think this album stands out from the others: Whereas the first album had a real “50’s” retro sound to it, and albums Parallel Lines and Eat To The Beat were kind of like “mainstream” albums featuring hit songs you heard on the radio all the time, Plastic Letters is the only album that seems like a “Post-Punk/New Wave” record with a real “underground” sound to it.
Songs like "Fan Mail” are synthesizery poppy tunes that clearly sound like the forerunner of what groups like Missing Persons and Berlin would sound like a few years later, and yet, songs like “Cautious Lip” have all the tension and angst of a punk group (and you can’t beat that animalistic SCREAM at the end!)…and then there are the FUN songs! Tunes like “Kidnapper”, “Love At the Pier”, “I’m On E”, and “I Didn’t have the Nerve to Say No” are soooo fun and catchy, and it was a thrill to see (years later) a 1978 concert with Debbie singing there and struttin’ her stuff and sassily dancing around on stage!
For fans of the first album there are a couple of those “fifties” sounding songs here, too: “I’m Always Touched By Your Presence Dear” and “Denis” have the light-hearted touch a la Dusty Springfield, and the album is rounded out by a few VERY moody and picturesque numbers in “No Imagination”, and “Youth Nabbed As Sniper”, and the spookily X-Files sounding “Bermuda Triangle Blues”!
Blondie are still one of my favorite groups, and I still pick up everything they’ve done, including CDs and DVDs as well as their reunion efforts like No Exit and The Curse Of Blondie, and still look forward to whatever new projects they may have coming up!
