Post-Punk Monk

Owwww. This hurts right after yesterday’s post, but we’ve just lost the great Clem Burke; drummer for Blondie. The 70 year old drumming legend was taken down by cancer following a life dedicated to Rock and Roll drumming that saw him making numerous hookups with a wide variety of musicians all clamoring for that special sauce that only he could spread on their rockburgers.

Like everyone, I first heard him in Blondie. I heard “Heart Of Glass” on an out of town radio station [local Orlando stations were too conservative to play even what would become a huge worldwide hit first] and was attracted to the eerie vibe. But I didn’t bite just yet. My first real “crossing the Rubicon” moment came the next year when their followup album to “Parallel Lines” dropped in the fall on 1979. I was immediately thunderstruck by the energy and vibes of “Eat To The Beat” as his drumming throughout was [rightfully] given star status in the mix.

The vigor and verve of his drumming on “Dreaming” alone was a masterclass in propelling the already storming tempo of the song along with fills calculated to give us the physical rush implicit in the court and spark of the song’s lyric narrative. I’ve gone on for days about the splendor of this album. Suffice to say that I often play the intro to the magnificent “Union City Blue” on loop for an hour or more to hear the thrilling dialogue between those awe inspiring drums and the deeptwang guitar of Chris Stein.

After that album became an obsession at the start of 11th grade, I set about completing the Blondie discography with copies of “Blondie” and “Parallel Lines” coming into the collection. I must not have been able to find a used copy of “Plastic Letters” at the time. Blondie had the top selling single of 1980 when “Call Me” stayed number one for what seemed like weeks.

It was the amazing linkup between Blondie and Giorgio Moroder, the Mad Scientist of Disco™. When I saw Moroder give a panel discussion at Moogfest 2014 he remarked that he got in a tug of war between himself and Clem Burke. Burke had wanted fills every four bars and Moroder thought that was excessive. Eventually Moroder compromised and they settled on fills every eight bars. I’d still be interested in how much more percussively berserk that already propulsive classic would be if Burke had his way!

When “Autoamerican” appeared in 1980, I was on it quickly, but the skull-splitting diversity of the album was a but much for high school me. I was cool to the album. But by 1982 things got downright frosty as “The Hunter” showed that the world-conquering band were sort of flying apart with nary a top twenty hit following three consecutive number ones. Their final tour ended before it was finished. But Burke had already landed on his feet as he had many admirers who would be overjoyed to have his skill pushing their music forward.

The first Eurythmics album, “In The Garden” was a cult item before their Pop breakthrough but what a cult item it was! As a fan of their precursor band The Tourists, I had been on pins and needles waiting for any Eurythmics records in 1981 but it looked like no one was bothering to import them to The States. It took until fall of 1982 until I finally found a Eurythmics import of their Summer 1981 debut single, “Never Gonna Cry Again.”

This time Clem was part of a mix that combined crystalline British Art Rock, New Wave, and Krautrock with Conny Plank producing and members of Can and DAF guesting on the highly unique album. Not surprisingly, he drummed for Iggy Pop on the “Zombie Birdhouse” album that was released on Chris Stein’s “Animal Records” label in 1982. He found a berth in a supergroup of sorts with Nigel Harrison of Blondie, along with Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Tpny Sales and Michael DesBarres singing but the Chequered Past album had zero appeal to me with the involvement of DesBarres. Who never appealed to me.

Burke next linked up with Pete Townshend for his “White City” album. Which made some sense as there was probably a hint of Keith Moon in his approach and that was the last Townshend project that I got in the Record Cell.

Eurythmics came calling once more as he got involved in probably their most Blondie-like album, “Revenge.” This was a good phase for Burke with a world tour circling the globe to put his drums in as many ears possible. This was the one tour when Eurythmics would be passing through Florida and my neck of the woods, but after Dave Stewart broke his leg, the tour was cancelled and my ticket got refunded. I never got the chance to see Burke play and it looks like this had been my one shot.

When that tour ended, Burke memorably filled in for a suddenly absent Ritchie Ramone in the Forest Hills Four for two 1987 gigs before saner heads prevailed and Burke continued on his way. I’m sure the notion of him wearing the percussive straitjacket necessary for the music of Ramones ran counter to every fiber in his being. I hold Burke in the highest esteem but he was not built to be a Ramone!

Another Burke project that stuck with me was the Adult Net album from Brix Smith. I’d enjoyed the singles she released while doing double duty in The Fall as they were as Pop as The Fall were Anti-Pop. Once they got signed for an album, Burke was their timekeeper in a project that sat somewhere on the spectrum between Blondie and The Bangles. He got a long-term sting as the drummer for The Romantics, which certainly made sense on paper. Much moreso than with Ramones.

In 1997, the mothership came calling and Blondie reformed in a tighter 4-person-core lineup that absolutely had Burke on the drum stool. Along with Jimmy Destri and the Stein/Harry nexus. The first fruits were the excellent “Maria” single [the band’s 6th UK number one] and the “No Exit” album. It was on tours for the “No Exit” album that Burke’s life to a fascinating left turn.

Professor Marcus Smith had been a teenage Blondie fan but when he caught a 1998 Lyceum concert by Blondie, he was pursuing his PhD in Exercise Physiology at the University of Chichester and saw in Burke’s explosive performance a potentially deep thread of inquiry ripe for analysis. Calls were made and Burke was more than eager to help out in this scientific study of the physical demands of the act of drumming. First the made a study sample of a single concert at Glastonbury and then they recorded data on an entire would tour.

Never before had scientists studied exactly the processes that underlay the enormous physicality of playing drums for almost two hours. Eight year later they published their papers and established and announced the Clem Burke Drumming Project which took those findings as the bedrock for a continued study of the science and medical benefits of drumming. Burke was awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees by the Universities of Glouster [2011] and Chichester [2022]. Burke maintained a connection with the project that bore his name as it grew in scope and ambition for over two decades.

And now he’s gone, but he leaves in his wake a classic body of work in the canon of New Wave with the Blondie classics he set the pace for. With tributaries in the maps of many other bands as varied as Ramones or Eurythmics. And finally, his collaboration opened up the science of drumming in ways that had not been touch upon before in ways that future generations will benefit from. There is reputed to be a new Blondie album still happening and we’re hopeful that Clem’s parts have already been fully recorded for when it finally manifests. But with Chris Stein no longer able to tour, the amount of originator Blondie DNA on the stage is now down to Deborah Harry alone. Over 50 years to the contrary, we can now say that Blondie is no longer a group as we send condolences to Burke’s family, friends, and bandmates in their time of loss.

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