In The Flesh With Blondie, The Ramones & The Dead Boys Live At CBGB’S In Rare 1978 Documentary, Blitzkreig Bop

In The Flesh With Blondie, The Ramones & The Dead Boys Live At CBGB’S In Rare 1978 Documentary, Blitzkreig Bop

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This is cool but a bit of mystery. A 50 minute long documentary from 1978 on the New York punk scene, it features copious great live footage from Blondie, the Ramones and the Dead Boys, as well as great interview segments with band members and affiliates like Danny Fields, Hilly Kristal, and Blondie manager Peter Leeds who briefly mentions Blondie’s success in Australia. That, and the fact that it mentions the Ramones already having three albums out, dates this as fairly late in the scheme of things, even though the vibe it puts across is that it’s very new and just developing. There’s also some hilarious and pretentious discussion with some of the preeminent American rock critics of the times, including Robert Christgau and John Rockwell, who offer some fairly highbrow analysis which is nicely contrasted with more down to earth assessments from Joey and Dee Dee like  “It’s real and raw and there’s no crap involved”.   

If you’re a fan of this stuff you’re gonna want to see it. Quality here is a bit rough but the footage is eye-popping stuff. We can’t find much info online as to where it’s actually from, or current availability other than on Youtube. Discog’s lists a Japanese laser disc and a bootleg VHS copy, but we know a DVD exists because we’ve owned one a good 10-15 years ago. 

And if you do like this sort of stuff, don’t forget to check out our “Shake Some Action: Punk& New Wave Classics from the ‘70s & early ‘80s” playlist on Spotify.

-DL

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