Clem Burke, drummer for Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame band Blondie for his or her whole 50-year existence, has died at age 70.
The band stated in an announcement that Burke died “following a personal battle with most cancers.”
“Clem was not only a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie,” the band stated. “His expertise, power, and keenness for music have been unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable.”
“His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock strong work ethic touched everybody who had the privilege of realizing him,” they added.
Blondie was shaped in 1974 by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein after they’d met and performed in an earlier New York Metropolis group, the Stilletos.
Burke, born Clement Bozewski in Bayonne, N.J., was the fiftieth drummer they auditioned, in accordance with Harry in her 2019 memoir Face It.
“He appeared good and he might play,” she wrote.
Band catalyst
Each Harry and Stein, in his 2024 memoir Below a Rock, credited Burke for encouraging the pair to maintain pushing ahead at the same time as they struggled to search out gigs and with lineup adjustments. Burke helped recruit his pal to the band, Gary Valentine, after unique bassist Fred Smith departed for the band Tv.
“I assumed there was undoubtedly one thing there, with the songs, and naturally, Debbie’s charisma and expertise was apparent to me,” Burke instructed Mojo journal for a 2022 function on the band.
The band gained a repute in a fertile Manhattan membership scene within the mid-Seventies and launched a self-titled debut album on an unbiased album earlier than being signed by Chrysalis Data. In contrast to different bands within the scene, Blondie weren’t beholden to solely guitar-based rock, incorporating a spread of types into their music.
Parallel Traces, their third album, would break the band worldwide. Harry’s wry vocals and the pulsating dance rhythms of Coronary heart of Glass, launched in January 1979, despatched the music to the highest of the Billboard singles charts, whereas One Approach or One other from the identical album was a high 40 hit in each the U.S. and Canada.
The beat for Coronary heart of Glass had been provided by a Roland drum machine.
“It was threatening, I suppose, at first, however I’ve by no means actually discovered myself within the state of affairs the place a drum machine was going to take over,” he stated in 2022 in an interview with music streaming web site Tidal.
Three Blondie albums in as a few years adopted, a whirlwind interval during which Harry turned a mode icon and the band scored No. 1 Billboard hits with Name Me, The Tide Is Excessive, and Rapture. The band paid tribute to Black artists with the latter two alternatives — The Tide Is Excessive was a canopy of a Sixties rocksteady favorite from Jamaica’s the Paragons, whereas Rapture featured one of many first raps heard in a pop hit, with Harry paying tribute within the lyrics to hip-hop pioneers Fab Freddy and Grandmaster Flash.
24:59Chris Stein: Blondie, his relationship with Debbie Harry & the ugly aspect of rock ‘n’ roll
Because the co-founder and guitarist of the band Blondie, Chris Stein helped outline the sound of American new wave music. However skilled success got here with critical private trade-offs. In his new memoir, “Below a Rock,” he shares unvarnished tales about what it was actually wish to be a rockstar within the ‘70s and ‘80s. Chris joins visitor host Talia Schlanger to mirror on that point in his life, from his romance and partnership with Debbie Harry to the sober realization that there’s nothing glamorous about intercourse, medication and rock ‘n’ roll.
Lengthy checklist of out of doors credit
By 1982 the band was burned out and Stein and Harry ware additionally navigating their very own relationship as a pair, hampered by Stein’s heroin use, he later wrote. They finally break up up however remained mates, whereas professionally Harry recorded 4 solo albums and in addition acted in a variety of a movies over a 15-year band hiatus.
After the band break up, Burke first teamed with Intercourse Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and singer/actor Michael Des Barres in Chequered Previous, a bunch that recorded one album. He would go on to play periods or gigs for artists such because the Eurythmics, Bob Dylan, Bob Geldof, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop and Pete Townshend.
“He would play with anybody as a result of he liked to play,” Des Barres stated in a web-based publish on Monday, crediting Burke for enhancing the music of each act he collaborated with.
Burke was again on the drum stool for Blondie for 1999’s No Exit, the primary of 5 albums within the band’s second act, by means of to the 2017 launch Pollinator.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 2006.
Along with praising his household and bandmates on the evening of induction, Burke thanked “John, Paul, George and Ringo for exhibiting me the best way.” Like Ringo Starr of the Beatles, Burke was left-handed however performed a package constructed for right-handed gamers.
(1/2) In Memoriam: Clem Burke of 2006 Inductees Blondie was a flexible and distinctive drummer who performed precisely what every music required – and, when known as for, let free with blistering punk rock power. His vary allowed the band to seamlessly transfer from the disco-infused pic.twitter.com/Th5BdYcEG4
Burke was additionally the drummer for the Empty Hearts, which launched albums in 2014 and 2020. The band was comprised of gamers who first discovered success with the Vehicles, the Romantics, the Small Faces and the Chesterfield Kings.
Johnny Marr, Dave Davies of the Kinks and Nancy Sinatra — one other artist Burke collaborated with — have been amongst these paying tribute to the drummer in social media posts on Monday.
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