Issue No. 38 of Johnny Be Good features one of 45 songs from the book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John Pearson's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes). Each blog will spotlight a song from the book and a guest blogger’s color commentary. Click here to subscribe. Each issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting will highlight the latest blog.
The First Digital Reverb Machine!
Today’s guest blogger: “Production Guy”
Song: #38 of 45
Title: “Heart of Glass"
Musicians: Blondie
Released: January 1979
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest blogger prefers to remain anonymous. This is his fourth blog. (Read his commentaries on “You Really Got Me,” “White Rabbit,” and “Love's in Need of Love Today.”)
I APPRECIATED THIS:
I asked Pearson if I could (please, please, please…) write this color commentary also. His response: “OK, but make it short!” Here’s what I appreciated:
Michael Chapman, who produced the record, tells Marc Myers about the nitty-gritty of the production side. He goes deep (maybe even into the studio’s sub-basement!). Of all 45 chapters in Myers’ book, I think I enjoyed this one the most. It’s got it all:
• 24-track recorder
• Roland drum machine
• Falsetto vocal
• A disco/dance feel
• Two EMT 250s, the first digital reverb machine (look it up!)
• And a Minimoog!
Read more about the song in Marc Myers’ WSJ article, March 3, 2015, “How Blondie Created ‘Heart of Glass.’ Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein talk about ‘Heart of Glass.’” The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
Listen to “Heart of Glass,” by Blondie. Note: The original title was “Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song).” This is the 1975 version, which was remastered in 2001.
MY FAVORITE NOTES & QUOTES:
Record producer Michael Chapman tells Marc Myers, “We went into New York’s Record Plant in June 1978, but the sound I wanted turned out to be a Pandora’s box of nightmares. The first step was to get the tempo right. I had this Roland drum machine that I wanted to use in sync with Clem Burke’s drums. You hear the machine on the opening. To provide Clem with a track guide, I recorded the vocal in falsetto. After we had the kick drum pounding, I changed the arrangement so it would skip a beat along the way, to give it a dance feel. I had to get the Roland to skip the beat at the same time.” (Must-read: the whole interview with Chapman!)
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THIS SONG?
In January 1979, I was a senior in high school and while I wasn’t a big fan of disco (or John Travolta), I was intrigued by the various sounds that this new wave of electronic music produced. (Remember—I’m a production guy. Although I still can’t get the program team at my church to experiment with these phenomenal machines!)
Interesting factoid: the word "disco" comes from the Italian word “discotheque, which means "record collection" or "record library." (Altogether now, let’s jive on “Stayin’ Alive.”)
JOHNNY BE...GOOD, BETTER, OR BEST?
• GOOD: Chapman tells Marc Myers, “I cleared the studio so it was just Debbie in the middle of the room alone with her headset on and me in the control booth. She sang three or four takes. Her pitch was beautiful and expressive, so you hear every aspect of her personality. But after listening back, I thought we should overdub Debbie singing a background vocal in places.”
• BETTER: “To illustrate what I wanted, I came in early the next day and had my engineer, Peter Coleman, record me singing the background track. When Debbie arrived, I played it for her with her lead vocal. She thought it sounded great and wanted me to leave it. So I’m singing background on the record.”
• BEST: Debbie Harry tells Marc Myers: “I think many people connect with the sense of loss or sadness that’s underneath the song. They also connect with the melody’s descending scale, sort of an ‘Ahhh, yeah, oh well,’ like a musical sigh. A lot of people have things like that feeling in their lives.”
THIS ISSUE'S COMMENTARY BY “Production Guy”
PHOTO: Our guest blogger, aka “Production Guy,” gets a little carried away on this blog—and seems to favor machinery over music. He recommends you view this 6-minute video of “The World’s FIRST Digital Reverb: EMT 250.” (Really. He loves this stuff!)
TODAY’S GUEST BLOGGER, (aka “Production Guy”) serves part-time on the production team at his church—setting up for services (he labels his work, “lights, camera, action”). He’s not a professional musician but understands the production side—and absolutely loved the “inside-the-studio” look and feel of this chapter. He told us he writes these guest blogs incognito “because I love this book and, I guess, it’s a creative outlet for me—since they don’t let me ‘on stage’ during church services.”
NEXT UP: Song #39 of 45, “Another Brick in the Wall,” by Pink Floyd
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It all started in 2023, when John Pearson read and reviewed a "fun" book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, by Marc Myers. Read John's review here. Order from Amazon here. Listen to the book on Libro (9 hours, 34 minutes).
If you'd enjoy being one of 45 guest bloggers, along with John Ashmen, Dick Nelson, Suzy West, Dave Barton, Patsy Barton, Paul Palmer, Bill Butterworth, Jim West, Melinda Schmidt, Jason Pearson, Gary Rea, Callista Dawson, John Walling, Ed Barrett, Larry Beatty, Skye Matlock, Scott Anderson and others, read more here and contact John Pearson. Click here to subscribe to this blog and enjoy the toe-tapping musicians in each weekly blog post—reminding you of these iconic songs of yesteryear.