It’s a shame that Harry passes up the chance to dig deeper into her experiences of objectification and the nature of fame, but more disappointing is that we learn so little about her interior life, and how she really thinks and feels. Inevitably, Harry’s tales of her solo ventures and Blondie’s eventual reunion lack the atmosphere and excitement of the early years, and it’s with more than a little awkwardness that she shoehorns in details of her current day-to-day life to spice things up. You get the child, the teen , the wandering woman of her 20s trying to find purpose and the woman in her 30s that became the greatest female rock star ever.

It may be the case, as Harry notes, that this would be a better memoir if she'd kept a journal over the years. Of course, within a few years Blondie had become a veritable powerhouse of hit songs that topped the charts around the world. While on tour with Iggy Pop and David Bowie, the latter flashes his penis at Harry in the dressing room “as if I were the official cock checker or something”.There seem to be a few reviews on here that complained and initially put me off, I approached this book with trepidation to say the least but was pleasantly surprised, once I got over the books physical condition which frankly did not look new, the dust jacket arrived damaged, but that issue aside, the contents of this book is great. By the time I went there Patti Smith, the Ramones, the Talking Heads and Blondie had moved far away from this tiny stage.

Rather than it being a more obvious type of autobiography documenting her famous photogenic looks as there's more to her than just her pretty face of course! If you're fascinated by the 1970s New York party scene and someone who delights in celebrity cameos, it's certainly the book for you.A wild ride of fame, friendships, music, and drugs sure to appeal to Blondie fans and 1970s rock in general. I must admit that I was hoping to see if there was a photo of at least one of her birth parents as I've been curious about what her birth parents looked like, given that Debbie has such striking features, but there isn't a photo of her birth mother or anything, so it will remain a mystery.

Unfortunately, Debbie skimmed over some of the things I think people are most interested in knowing. She describes the albums and songwriting, but doesn’t spend much time talking about the other members of the band with the obvious exception of Chris Stein. The name Debbie Harry evokes many images: seminal rock-n-roll figure, complex songstress, incandescent front woman, actor and fashion icon. Excepting that one intensely personal and brave revelation, Debbie remained aloof for the most part. The CBGB’s alumni list is very impressive considering the overall size and squalor of both the bar and its neighborhood.

So, fans of Debbie Harry, those who will brook no criticism of her, maybe you’ll want to skip this review. There is certainly more that I want to know--more details about Parallel Lines and Eat to the Beat, Blondie's two best albums (in my opinion) from the Early Era; more details about the transition from Eat to the Beat to AutoAmerican, which seems drastic even now, although it was probably something completely normal in the evolution of the band; more of her thoughts on the reaction to KooKoo, which even now seems mixed, despite it being something of a quirky, musical milestone in pop history. There are a lot of descriptive scenes of New York in the 70's and name dropping of people of whom some I were familiar with but others that I had to look up.