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Blondie ‘Parallel Lines’ the finest punk/pop album ever?

Whatever the punk credibility of PL, Blondie did start out as a CBGBs punk band. It could even be argued that they coined the name Punk as a musical genre, as Chris Stein was running a home made music pamphlet called Punk as early as 1973, before he met Debbie Harry.
 
I’d give ‘best pop/punk album’ to the the first Pretenders LP. The scope of the writing has much greater reach. Things like Private Life, Kid and Tattooed Love Boys were way beyond anything Blondie could summon, whether on Parallel Lines or elsewhere. It’s odd how it has disappeared from view.
 
^ A truly brilliant album. An instant favourite of mine. A great influence on David Byrne, notably. A twist on the Velvet Underground. Punk and anti-punk at once, in that driving beats and dark guitars meet Richman's naive, optimistic, and sincere persona that celebrates life and decries self indulgence.
 
This takes me back... loved their debut and Plastic Letters. I was so excited with my purchase of Parallel Lines, rushed home to play it... and was horrified! I think for fans of the first two albums it was a step too far. Teenagers took their music very seriously back then:). Mind you, I still feel sorry for the early Adam and the Ants fans, those poor punks must have trashed their whole wardrobes overnight when they heard Stand and Deliver :D
 
A great pop album, marking their transistion from punk to pure pop (for the most part) and a real shock to the system for this then teenager. IMHO also marks the beginning of the end, the band have never been the same since...
 
simmey said:
A great pop album, marking their transistion from punk to pure pop (for the most part) and a real shock to the system for this then teenager. IMHO also marks the beginning of the end, the band have never been the same since...
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Well nothing has been the same since, you, me, everybody and everything. :)
 
My quiet contention would be that there were no truly punk bands from the USA. Sure, many adopted the trappings. Americans know a bandwagon when they see one. Blonde were pretty mainstream, Talking Heads and Devo were far too clever and sophisticated. Everyone else were careerist and not committed to the punk ideology. Sweeping statement, I know, but it's early and I can't think of any exceptions to the above.

Parallel Lines is a decent pop record.
 
claire.fox said:
Some folk don't know that the 1976-issued "Modern Lovers" LP languished unreleased and in limbo for 4 years -- It had been recorded between 1971-72 and was the product of another era entirely and to my ears has a lot more of a connection to the whole Nuggets rock subgenre than fitting in the continuum that would lead to punk/new wave but there is no clear cutoff point.
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Well ahem, some of us have long known when the "Modern Lovers" LP was recorded.

I don't understand your assertion. The Modern Lovers LP has practically nothing in common with the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Van Morrison, what have you derivatives that predominate on the Nuggets sets (the first one, anyway, don't know the second one), and just about everything to do with the Velvet Underground. The proof is in the listening and the documentation: it's well known that Richman was almost wholly influenced by the VU at that time. How can that not make the Modern Lovers an obvious and crucial step on the way to mid-70s punk and New Wave?
 
claire.fox said:
I've only listened to its only a half dozen times for my PhD Thesis to be honest (usually with the same grimace I've reserved for Pere Ubu) as I don't think its that good an album (and I'm getting to the point where I haven't the patience for stuff that merely exists for the benefit of others recommendations).The album has fairly scant specific modal references to the Velvets (which could easily have been anything else around at the time) and while I see the comments and zeitgeist have latched onto a few references to VU, the connections as they relate to the music are tenuous at best. It predates the US new wave by a considerable time and more importantly location which is why its difficult to place it in a section marked punk when it was recorded 1971-72 and more crucially when it was written and rehearsed around 1968-1969 -- that gestation period put it in the proto-punk/deconstructed rock that underpinned the new wave.

That members of the Modern Lovers also joined The Cars and Talking Heads (also not-very punk offshoots) really makes me feel confident in my thinking that the Modern Lovers were not really in the same headspace as the later Punk bands. The evidence really does not point to them being anything other than a band proximally in the region of an empty space about to be filled, but not filling it.

My justification for kicking it back to be more a reaction to the Nuggets era rather than a progenitor of the punk era is, even taking into consideration its age, it does not sound like a very forward-looking album and definitely not in the light of punk/no-wave. The plaudits it gets are beyond me as it's no harbinger of a new movement, it was just a band that existed at a halcyon era (the correct use of the word halcyon, BTW, a moment of stillness, calm) where it could be pigeonholed into anything. JR's later hit "Roadrunner" is about as "punk" as TRB singing "2-4-6-8 Mortorway" or Blondie singing Disco.

That's my thoughts on it. Feel free to argue or disregard or whatever. I've not a lot of time for anything Jonathan Richman has to say or offer (or the Cars or Pere Ubu or that whole branch of American music).
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lol. I did wonder if you were taking the piss!
 
neildalton said:
I’d give ‘best pop/punk album’ to the the first Pretenders LP. The scope of the writing has much greater reach. Things like Private Life, Kid and Tattooed Love Boys were way beyond anything Blondie could summon, whether on Parallel Lines or elsewhere. It’s odd how it has disappeared from view.
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The Man always tries to deny Hereford's role in the birth of Punk.
 
MarkW said:
My quiet contention would be that there were no truly punk bands from the USA. Sure, many adopted the trappings. Americans know a bandwagon when they see one. Blonde were pretty mainstream, Talking Heads and Devo were far too clever and sophisticated. Everyone else were careerist and not committed to the punk ideology. Sweeping statement, I know, but it's early and I can't think of any exceptions to the above.

Parallel Lines is a decent pop record.
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MC 5 did lay claim to one of the first punk bands though. True or not..........these things are always fun to discuss and go over.
 
I don't understand the question. Is the OP asking if it is either..

'The finest Punk album ever'
'The finest Pop album ever'
or
'The finest 'Pop/Punk' album ever'.

Eh?

I'd venture that the answer to 1 and 2 is No

To 3. I don't know. It's a decent enough album. I think I've played it once, but I'd far sooner listen to almost anything else in my collection.

Mull
 
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