Blondie’s Chris Stein talks to Richard Boch about his recently released memoir and upcoming exhibition of photographs at Soho Grand’s new Gallery space.

The camera and the guitar, the heart of glass and the toy robots, the spaceships, the cocaine, the weed and chasing the dragon—and that’s before we even get to Debbie Harry. It’s certainly all there in Chris Stein’s new memoir, Under a Rock.

I recently talked with the Blondie co-founder, songwriter and photographer about his upcoming exhibition, his recently released memoir, Under a Rock, and the selection and collection of images that are all part of the event happening at The Gallery at SoHo Grand Hotel. Digging deep, Stein is looking forward and then glancing back to both his outer-borough childhood and those later years Downtown. There’s the pre-Blondie era of The Stilettos through the glory days of Punk when Blondie made its mark with a playlist that would become the soundtrack for a new and next generation of music fans. Photos of Debbie Harry in the NYC Subway and at Coney Island mix it up with Stein’s love of Bowie, Warhol and all things Ramone—whether it’s Joey Ramone or songs like “I Wanna Be Sedated,” there’s a lot of rich detail that’s both unraveled and raveled in what became the full story of Under a Rock.

Chris Stein was born and grew up in Brooklyn, when Brooklyn was still considered bridge and tunnel, somewhere far away and way out there. My own Brooklyn beginnings allow me to relate and time travel from Ridgewood and Bushwick to growing up on Long Island to my first apartment on Bleecker Street in the heart of Greenwich Village. The eventual 1976 Punk heyday and the exploding inevitable at the Bowery clubhouse CBGB was just a few blocks away—and a true awakening. It was where I first encountered Chris, guitar in hand and his camera close by. From there it became a whirlwind—Blondie’s memorable 1977 late night-early morning Bowery version of the Rolling Stones version of “Little Red Rooster”—or the band at Wollman Rink, Central Park, July 1979, when Blondie truly burst onto the international stage with the album Parallel Lines and hits like “Heart of Glass,” “One Way or Another” and “Hanging on the Telephone.” They played classic covers as well, including the T-Rex monster single “Bang a Gong” and Iggy Pop’s “Funtime.” As expected, the crowd went wild.

Chris Stein Videotaping with Frank Infante and Tony James. Photography by Chris Stein courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery

Chris always loved the history of it all—from ’60s FM radio to the shag hair and platform-shoed Glam Rock madness of the early ’70s. Somehow, he managed to have songs in his head and a camera at the ready when he first connected with Debbie Harry in 1973. It was a match that was met and finally made along a decaying stretch of the Bowery in what was New York City’s shambolic Lower East Side—in other words, it was heaven.

Getting together with Chris and asking him about taking photos of friends, acquaintances and whatever or whoever found a way into his line of sight, seems that it was both right-place-right-time and the photographer’s eye that presented us with this great reward. The images and words—what’s happening at The Gallery at SoHo Grand, together with the vivid details of Stein’s memoir, Under a Rock—offer a genuine opportunity to experience and appreciate the vision and creativity that became a uniquely fascinating New York Story. 

Richard Boch: Hi Chris. Last time we spoke you were showing some beautiful large format images of Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol and Iggy Pop, among others. This time around the selection of images is broad and includes the likes of Kinks legend Ray Davies, wild-man music writer Lester Bangs and Jean-Michel Basquiat. There’s even a wall of color photos with a shot of Debbie’s re-enactment of cooking up a storm and nearly setting the kitchen on fire. In a sense, they all speak to a specific time and place—late ’70s and early ’80s Downtown New York City. It surely was a scene and we were all, in our own different ways, part of it. Other than the wider range of photos what makes this new show at The Gallery at The SoHo Grand different and how does it relate to your memoir, Under a Rock? 

Chris Stein: Well, sometimes I don’t even know given all that’s going on [with the books, and the photos and this particular show], and in a way, I’m just a player in the whole thing. It’s all part of a larger piece or bigger picture so it all relates—it all connects. Morrison Hotel handles my work so I’m just left to OK what they pick for this show. Until I get to the gallery, I’m not sure what all the chosen images are. I haven’t yet heard if there will be anything else [ephemera or objects from Stein’s personal collection] in the show but I think they’ll be putting books, and copies of Under a Rock, in some of the rooms at the hotel.

Debbie Harry with Frying Pan, 1977. Photography by Chris Stein courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery

So going back to the beginning—growing up in Brooklyn was certainly a good start to the story, but let’s consider for a moment, the late 1970s and early ’80s as a period centerpiece of not just your life but of the revolution in music that was happening on the Bowery as well as in London, LA and San Francisco. The connection you had to other bands, filmmakers and photographers, writers and artists, it was both incestuous and a bit of six degrees of separation. Tell me your thoughts on those connections, how they influenced you, and how you might have inspired others.

Everyone who was around early on at CB’s [CBGB] that I got familiar with was the connection and became part of a peer group. In the very early days, it was only the people who were creating who were around—there wasn’t much of an audience as such. Nothing really opened up to the masses until like 1975 or maybe 1976 and that’s when people started showing up who weren’t part of the immediate entourage or family. Summer of ’76 everyone started getting more attention, wider attention—the New York newspapers started paying attention too. Before that, maybe only the Village Voice or The Soho Weekly News was writing about anything but that was limited. As far as taking photos, I was doing that all along, capturing whatever was happening.

Let’s talk about some of the images from the show at SoHo Grand and how they line up with your memoir Under a Rock. From the previously mentioned Brooklyn beginnings to the right-here-right-now, that’s what bookends the wild times between 1977’s “X Offender” and “Rip Her to Shreds” all the way through the 1980 mega hits, “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture”—a song that you wrote and the first number-one single to feature a Rap vocal by anyone, no less Debbie Harry. Was that merely a chapter or is it what became a sort of thru-line to the story? 

It was an evolution. Could we have produced songs like those (“Rapture” and “The Tide is High”) earlier? Probably not as we learned a lot by recording those later songs (including the songs on Parallel Lines) with producer Mike Chapman. It was all new stuff that we weren’t used to at the time. But that whole period really was an evolution. Everything was.

Left: Jean-Michel Basquiat The “Rapture” Video; Right: Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop. Photography by Chris Stein courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery

You’ve published several collections of your photographs—2014’s Negative: Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk, 2018’s Point of View and 2021’s H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis commemorating the visual concept for Koo Koo, Debbie’s 1981 solo album. You were very busy, to say the least, and all three titles offer up a personal vision along with the history of where you’d been and where things were headed during the first wave of Punk, Blondie and beyond. What prompted you to turn to memoir? Have you been writing or keeping diaries all along?

Yeah, I had some (diaries and notes) but mostly from later like the 1980s and ’90s. I also enjoyed doing the captioning for the images in the books you just mentioned and some of the captions were quite extensive. The photographs also helped my memory of things. Some of the events during that period were memorable too because they were so odd—and then some of the stuff from the 1960s and ’70s just stayed with me because so much of it was so alien to the mainstream. And then there were all the usual players from those days—James Brown, Joni Mitchel, the Stones and Jefferson Airplane. I’ve always been a Hendrix guy too—and when we’re young we absorb so much. I see it in young people today and I see it in my daughter, how she just picks things up. It’s all so cerebral, it affects everything and I just had a lot of these weird stories I wanted to tell.

Now comes Under a Rock, the book you mentioned to me nearly two years ago when it was still a work in progress. The scope, as we discussed earlier in our conversation, is certainly more the full story, and what you choose to cover is really your life rather than a slice of it. You’re taking us on a trip that weaves in, out, before and after Blondie— no stone or rock unturned. How did it feel putting it all down, and what was the experience like of knowing you told your version of everything?

Well, I wanted to get it out there while I still had plenty of brain cells left and maybe a small percentage of the stuff is already out there in the public anyway. Under a Rock brings it together with a lot of the untold stories, so yes, I’m glad to have gotten it all down. Now it’s all in the same place. You know, like I said, I had a lot of weird stories to tell.

Thanks Chris, and see you at The Gallery at Soho Grand Hotel.

Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry. Photography by Chris Stein courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery 

***

Under a Rock

An Exhibition of Photographs by Chris Stein

The Gallery at Soho Grand Hotel

In Partnership with Morrison Hotel Gallery

On view Friday 20th September, 12pm – 6pm, and every Thursday – Sunday thereafter 

*** 

Under a Rock

A Memoir by Chris Stein

Introduction by Debbie Harry

St. Martin’s Press

June 2024

INTERVIEW Richard Boch

PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Stein courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery 

Richard Boch writes GrandLife’s New York Stories column and is the author of The Mudd Club, a memoir recounting his time as doorman at the legendary New York nightspot, which doubled as a clubhouse for the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Debbie Harry and Talking Heads among others. To hear about Richard’s favorite New York spots for art, books, drinks, and more, read his Locals interview—here.