Under a Rock

March 18, 2024
Blondie guitarist Stein (Point of View) chronicles in this knockabout personal history the colorful scenesters, grueling gigs, and desperate scrounging for drugs that have marked his musical career. Among other episodes, he recalls a Brooklyn boyhood in the 1950s and ’60s ; coming-of-age as a hippie; his musical and romantic linkup with Blondie front-woman Debbie Harry in the early 1970s; the band’s breakthrough with such hits as 1979’s “Heart of Glass”; and the exhausting tours, creative tensions, and escalating drug use that partly led to the band’s 1982 breakup. The last chapters slow down to cover Blondie’s return to touring after a 17-year hiatus along with Stein’s marriage and family life. The atmospheric narrative immerses readers in gonzo celebrity cameos (“Phil came to the door... performatively drunk and doing a W.C. Fields voice”), grungy punk tableaux, and rock star excesses, though Stein keeps a clear eye on the consequences of such a lifestyle. In the book’s heartbreaking epilogue, he discusses his teenage daughter’s death from a heroin overdose in 2023 (“I thought that I presented my own drug experiences in a negative light to our kids... I’m wracked with guilt that any discussions might have been misconstrued”). The result is a candid if somewhat chaotic account of life in the spotlight.

December 6, 2024

Blondie cofounder, songwriter, and guitarist Stein (Point of View) offers a breezy and star-studded romp through his eventful life. The heart of the memoir is spent in the era of New York when the CBGB music club became the center of the American punk rock movement. CBGB is where Stein performed and partied with genre-defining punk and New Wave acts, such as Television, Lou Reed, the New York Dolls, and Iggy Pop, as well as other icons like Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The last quarter of the memoir shifts from a raucous tone to a touching description of Stein's marriage, family, and triumph over substance-use disorder. The brisk, anecdotal structure of the book is well suited to audio. The bulk of the 10-hour run time is performed by seasoned narrator Dennis Boutsikaris, whose professional polish is sometimes at odds with the gritty narrative. Stein himself narrates the final moments, and his world-weary rasp cements the narrative as he describes his daughter's drug overdose. The audio is rounded out with a foreword written and narrated by Blondie lead vocalist Debbie Harry and a short remembrance written and narrated by editor and writer Romy Ashby. VERDICT A must-listen for fans of Blondie, music history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the vibrant cultural landscape of the late 20th century.--Mark Swails

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