Under a Rock: A Memoir

by Chris Stein, Debbie Harry (Introduction)

Overview

Foreword by Debbie Harry

"A Downtown Memory" by Romy Ashby

Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie’s look. Chris Stein—her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend—was its architect and defined its sound. “Parallel Lines”, their third album, catapulted to #1, sold 20 million copies, and launched singles like “Heart of Glass”, "Hangin' On the Telephone," and “One Way or Another”, providing the beat when Bianca Jagger and Halston danced at Studio 54 and the soundtrack to every 1970’s punk-soundtracked romance.

Chris Stein knows how to tell a story. Under A Rock is his nothing-spared autobiography. It's about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune.

Famous names march through these pages—Warhol, Bowie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more–but you can get famous names anywhere. What you can’t get anywhere else is a plunge into the moments that made a giant 1980's artistic sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250286727
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/11/2024
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	97,596
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

CHRIS STEIN is the co-founder, songwriter and guitarist of the iconic band Blondie. Chris’ photographs have been featured in galleries and press around the world, and published in Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk (Rizzoli). Beyond his era-defining music with Blondie, he has collaborated with a host of artists over the years, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, William Burroughs, Devo, Glenn O’Brien, and Shepard Fairey. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

03/18/2024

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. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"[An] atmospheric narrative." - Publishers Weekly

"With a stream-of-consciousness writing style and a talent for storytelling, the author recounts with intriguing specificity the trajectory his life has taken...fascinating." - Kirkus starred review

"[E]ngaging...Written in an off-the-cuff style, this memoir offers a descriptive, highly impressionistic account of the author’s role in Blondie and his life in New York City. Will engage general readers." - Library Journal

"It’s that rare thing: a music autobiography that leaves you wanting more, not less." - The Guardian

From the Publisher

04/01/2024

Blondie guitarist Stein, now 74 years old, begins his engaging memoir with his childhood in New York City. He details his middle-class upbringing in a left-wing family, his school days, his fascination with photography, and the phase that led to his hospitalization due to hallucinogens. He recounts his meeting singer Deborah Harry, the early days of Blondie at the NYC performance space CBGB, and the late-1970s New York punk scene. In the last half of the book, he chronicles the mainstream success of Blondie with the 1978 disco-influenced album Parallel Lines (which contained the song "Heart of Glass"), their increasingly funky pop on the 1980 single "Call Me," and the group's 1980 Autoamerican album (featuring "The Tide Is High"). The book ends with a description of Stein's substance-use disorder, the end of his romantic relationship with Harry, his sobriety and family life, and the band's ongoing tours and recordings. It also relates engaging stories about such notables as William S. Burroughs, David Bowie, H.R. Giger, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. VERDICT Written in an off-the-cuff style, this memoir offers a descriptive, highly impressionistic account of the author's role in Blondie and his life in New York City. Will engage general readers.—Dr. Dave Szatmary

Library Journal

★ 2024-03-15
A memoir by the Blondie co-founder and guitarist.

Founded in 1974 by Debbie Harry and Stein, Blondie was a leading light of the American new wave music scene. In this no-holds-barred memoir, Stein (b. 1950) shares his memories, from his childhood in Brooklyn to his present life, including his early musical and artistic interests, how he and Harry met, the formation and rise of Blondie, his breakup with Harry, his struggles with substance abuse, and details regarding his wife, Barbara, his children, and his enduring friendship with Harry. With a stream-of-consciousness writing style and a talent for storytelling, the author recounts with intriguing specificity the trajectory his life has taken, replete with wild, sometimes unbelievable stories of crazed fans, exhausting gigs, a “disrespectful and borderline abusive” manager, and the many excesses of fame. Among the many notable celebrities that make an appearance are Jimi Hendrix, Tony Sirico, Boz Scaggs, David Bowie, and Andy Warhol. A common theme through much of the narrative is the ever-presence of drugs and alcohol. As Stein contends in the epilogue, “Going into writing all this I hadn’t considered writing about so much addiction and death, but it was unavoidable.” He goes on to candidly discuss his feelings about his daughter’s recent death from an accidental overdose. Acknowledging his “glamorization of addiction” throughout the text, Stein sorrowfully states, “I thought that I presented my own drug experiences in a negative light to our kids, but I’m wracked with guilt that any discussions might have been misconstrued.” The book features a foreword by Harry, in which she describes her feelings and memories regarding her friendship with Stein and being a part of Blondie. “Chris has written a many-layered view with his tireless memory,” she notes.

A fascinating yet cautionary account regarding the hazards of rock ’n’ roll and celebrity.

Kirkus Reviews