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The fantastical videos for two of the tracks on the album, 'Backfired' and 'Now I Know you Know,' featured Giger himself piercing an Egyptian sarcophagus and a newly brunette Harry reimagined as a xenomorphic Giger creature. One of my fave music acts is Debbie Harry/Blondie and I really love Debbie's solo album Koo Koo which Giger also was involved with visually, so this book was a must for me with a load of rare and previously unseen photos and background story of Debbie's look while making this great album. Her spectacular voice drips with a sophisticated elegance rarely heard in pop music and she continues to infuse her work with an exquisite artistic sensibility. The book begins with pictures from the trio’s first meeting in New York – the Alien exhibition and socialising afterwards.
In contrast, some of the most striking are the colourful, outdoor photos of Debbie nonchalantly hanging out in the neighbourhood while looking a bit like the robot woman in Metropolis. His “biomechanik” artwork, sculptures, and storage drawers are wall-to-wall, his book collection haphazardly stacked on shelves and in the bathtub, (real) skulls are tucked into nooks and crannies, a set of doors inside the modest front door is covered with paintings of his trademark human-alien hybrid characters, and an Academy Award is filed between dusty objects on another shelf. Yet, the outcome was absolutely glorious; the cover art sees Harry’s face pierced by several spikes whilst retaining her striking beauty. The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Debbie Harry picked up on the personal interpretation theme when asked to describe the album, explaining, “the words simply mean what they say.The “Backfired” clip opened with Giger, dressed in ancient Egyptian garb, piercing a sarcophagus with swords. In 1981, Harry released KooKoo, the first of many solo albums, and also embarked on her acting career.
The Against the Odds 1974 – 1982 collection will contain three dozen previously unreleased recordings. With photographs and words by Chris Stein, Harry's long-term collaborator, artefacts and sketches from the Giger archive, and an introduction by Debbie Harry, this is an essential behind-the-scenes insight into the processes of an incredible creative partnership. Harry’s once sunshine-esque look is far gone, replaced by a genuinely gothic, almost horrifying aesthetic. You can read her Louder than War reviews at her author profile, and her archive music journalism on Substack. Harry and her partner/bandmate, Chris Stein, had met Giger in 1980 at a show in New York of his paintings.
Harry quickly became a punk icon in the New York new wave scene of the 1970s; her bleach-blonde hair and exuberant sense of fashion set her apart from her contemporaries, and even Andy Warhol got in on the act, taking several now-classic photographs of the legendary singer. And Chris Stein provides a new look at it from the perspective of two Americans living with Giger there for a few weeks in 1980. Fine art prints are editioned unless otherwise clearly indicated and come hand signed and/or embossed by the photographer or their Estate. Shortly after, he discovered the airbrush and, along with it, his own unique freehand painting style, leading to the creation of many of his most well known works, the surrealistic Biomechanical dreamscapes, which formed the cornerstone of his fame.
That comes across clearly in Debbie Harry’s memoir Face It, as does her admiration for Chris Stein’s parallel career as a photographer. With all the grit, grime and glory recounted in intimate detail, FACE IT recreated the downtown scene of 1970s New York City, where Blondie played alongside The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Swiss artist HR Giger (1940-2014) is most famous for his creation of the space monster in Ridley Scott's 1979 horror sci-fi film Alien, which earned him an Oscar. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.By 1964 he was producing his first artworks, mostly ink drawings and oil paintings, resulting in his first solo exhibition in 1966, followed by the publication and world-wide distribution of his first poster edition in 1969. It’s all there on film: Warhol, Debbie Harry, the cast, the city – and its his documentary of the Big Apple throughout the 70s and 80s that remains just as looming a character in his photographic archive. Recently,” he added, “I’ve been trying acupuncture, hence the needles as well as the ‘punk’ with the word acupuncture. R. Giger and to see Chris’ photographic record of KooKoo finally published,” Harry said in a statement. And he shares previously unpublished images of such iconic figures of the era as Debbie Harry, his musical partner in Blondie; Andy Warhol; Iggy Pop; David Bowie; and the Ramones.
Science fiction and ancient Egyptian cultures are extremely important for me, and I follow eastern spiritual and health practices, including acupuncture, so I’m geeking out hugging the book to my face. From an irreverent Lower East Side punk goddess to a bona fide international ambassador of New York cool, Debbie Harry will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us.
R Giger's contribution to Debbie Harry's first solo project and possibly her most ambitious of the five albums she has recorded. For Debbie and Chris Stein’s musical collaborators on the project were Nile Rodgers And Bernard Edwards, at that time pop’s sharpest razors in the producers’ box. Of all the poster-image icons of the 20th Century, perhaps few are as recognisable as Blondie’s Debbie Harry. As such, perhaps it was a strange and conflicting choice to select Giger for the promotional material design. Giger had been the set designer on the film, creating a series of erotic and symbolic images that were at once both terrifying and strangely beautiful.
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