Blondie Releasing First-Ever Box Set: ‘Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982’

billboard.com

By Gil Kaufman

8th June 2022

Legendary New York rockers Blondie will release their first-ever box set on August 26, the power-packed Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982. The 124-track collection will feature 36 previously unissued recordings as well as a two volumes of liner notes, track-by-track commentary from band members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison and Gary Valentine, a 120-page illustrated discography, dozens of previously unpublished photos and essays from producers Mike Chapman, Richard Gottehrer and Ken Shipley.

According to a release announcing the career-spanning set, the tracks are all remastered from the original analog tapes and it will come in a variety of formats, including a super-deluxe 10-LP collector’s edition, a deluxe 4LP vinyl version and deluxe 8-CD and 3-CD editions.

“It really is a treat to see how far we have come when I listen to these early attempts to capture our ideas on relatively primitive equipment,” singer Harry said in a statement. “Fortunately the essence of being in a band in the early 70’s held some of the anti-social, counter culture energies of the groups that were the influencers of the 60’s. I am excited about this special collection. When I listen to these old tracks, it puts me there like I am a time traveler. As bad as it was sometimes, it was also equally as good. No regrets. More music.”

The first archive box set in the band’s 50-year history, the collection will cover their first 6 studio albums recorded for Chrysalis — Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican and The Hunter — which contain such indelible classics as “Heart Of Glass,” “Atomic,” “Tide Is High,” “Sunday Girl,” “Rapture,” and “Call Me.”

All 6 have been expanded to include more than 4 dozen demos, including recordings of the group’s first-ever studio session, as well as alternate versions and studio outtakes that create a nearly complete chronicle of the band’s studio work prior to their 1982 hiatus.

“I am hopeful that this project will provide a glimpse into the ‘process’ and some of the journey that the songs took from idea to final form,” said guitarist Stein in a statement. “Some of this stuff is like early sketches; the old tape machines are like primitive notebooks. The trickiest thing for me was always about getting the melodies out of my head into reality and the changes that would happen along the way.”

According to a release announcing the set, for nearly two decades, the bulk of Blondies audio and video archive resided in Stein’s barn outside Woodstock, New York, which contained, “100 reel-to-reel tapes, half a dozen cassettes, a few storage tubs crammed with records, bits of promotional flotsam, flyers, a stray Warhol print, and mirrored dressing room signage from four sold-out January 1980 nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. All of it lay in wait through twenty humid summers, twenty frigid winters.”

Click here for more details and check out a run-down of the Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition and a previously unreleased recording of “Moonlight Drive” below.

The studio albums:

Blondie

Side A
1. X Offender
2. Little Girl Lies
3. In The Flesh
4. Look Good In Blue
5. In The Sun
6. A Shark In Jets Clothing

Side B
1. Man Overboard
2. Rip Her To Shreds
3. Rifle Range
4. Kung Fu Girl
5. The Attack Of The Giant Ants

Plastic Letters

Side A
1. Fan Mail
2. Denis
3. Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)
4. Youth Nabbed As Sniper
5. Contact In Red Square
6. (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
7. I’m On E

Side B
1. I Didn’t Have The Nerve To Say No
2. Love At The Pier
3. No Imagination
4. Kidnapper
5. Detroit 442
6. Cautious Lip

Parallel Lines

Side A
1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away And Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6. I Know But I Don’t Know

Side B
1. 11:59
2. Will Anything Happen
3. Sunday Girl
4. Heart Of Glass
5. I’m Gonna Love You Too
6. Just Go Away

Eat To The Beat

Side A
1. Dreaming
2. The Hardest Part
3. Union City Blue
4. Shayla
5. Eat To The Beat
6. Accidents Never Happen

Side B
1. Die Young Stay Pretty
2. Slow Motion
3. Atomic
4. Sound-A-Sleep
5. Victor
6. Living In The Real World

Autoamerican

Side A
1. Europa
2. Live It Up
3. Here’s Looking At You
4. The Tide Is High
5. Angels On The Balcony
6. Go Through It

Side B
1. Do The Dark
2. Rapture
3. Faces
4. T-Birds
5. Walk Like Me
6. Follow Me

The Hunter

Side A
1. Orchid Club
2. Island Of Lost Souls
3. Dragonfly
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. The Beast

Side B
1. War Child
2. Little Caesar
3. Danceway
4. (Can I) Find The Right Words (To Say)
5. English Boys
6. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game

BONUS TRACKS

7″ 45 rpm

1. Moonlight Drive
2. Mr. Sightseer

10″ LP Out-takes & rarities (‘Out In The Streets’)

Side A (1974 Session)
1. Out In The Streets (1974)
2. The Disco Song
3. Sexy Ida

Side B (Betrock Demo)
1. Platinum Blonde
2. The Thin Line
3. Puerto Rico
4. Once I Had A Love (1975)
5. Out In The Streets (1975)

LP 1 Out-takes & rarities (‘Plaza Sound’)

Side A
1. X Offender (Intro)
2. X Offender (Private Stock Single)
3. In The Sun (Private Stock Single)
4. Little Girl Lies (Private Stock Mix)
5. In The Flesh (Extended Intro)
6. A Shark In Jets Clothing (Take 2)
7. Kung Fu Girls (Take 8)
8. Scenery

Side B
1. Denis (Terry Ellis Mix)
2. Bermuda Triangle Blues – Flight 45 (Take 1)
3. I Didn’t Have The Nerve To Say No (Take 1)
4. I’m On E (Take 2)
5. Kidnapper (Take 2)
6. Detroit 442 (Take 2)
7. Poets Problem

LP 2 Out-takes & rarities (‘Parallel Beats’)

Side A
1. Once I Had A Love (Mike Chapman Demo)
2. Sunday Girl (French Version)
3. I’ll Never Break Away From This Heart Of Mine (Pretty Baby)
4. Hanging On The Telephone (Mike Chapman Demo)
5. Will Anything Happen (Instrumental)
6. Underground Girl

Side B
1. Call Me
2. Spaghetti Song (Atomic Part 2)
3. Die Young Stay Pretty (Take 1)
4. Union City Blue (Instrumental)
5. Llámame

LP 3 Out-takes & rarities (‘Coca Cola’)

Side A
1. I Love You Honey, Give Me A Beer (Go Through It)
2. Live It Up (Giorgio Moroder Demo)
3. Angels on the Balcony (Giorgio Moroder Demo)
4. Tide Is High (Demo)
5. Susie & Jeffrey

Side B
1. Rapture (Disco Version)
2. Autoamerican Ad
3. Yuletide Throwdown

LP 4 Out-takes & rarities (‘Home Tapes’)

Side A
1. Nameless (Home Tape)
2. Sunday Girl (Home Tape)
3. Theme From Topkapi (Home Tape)
4. The Hardest Part (Home Tape)
5. Ring of Fire (Home Tape)

Side B
1. War Child (Chris Stein Mix)
2. Call Me (Chris Stein Mix)
3. Heart of Glass (Chris Stein Mix)

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/blondie-first-box-set-against-the-odds-details-1235084025/