I picked up a copy of this 12" single by Blondie a few weeks back while raking around the bowels of one of my favourite vinyl places in Glasgow. Even though I've a copy of the actual single on a Greatest Hits CD, it's the sort of thing I do a lot of nowadays - get a hold of the original vinyl with a view to shoving a post about it up here.The thing was, it's been quite a long while since I last listened to (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear. I remember quite liking it when it was released back in mid-1978, but I wasn't as fond of it as the previous single Denis. In later times, I would fall big time for the charms of all the songs on the band's 1979 LP Parallel Lines, and so it would be fair to say that IATBYPD is a song that I've largely forgotten about.
Now perhaps it was the sense of placing it on the turntable and slipping the needle into the groove, or perhaps it was just the fact I was hearing it in isolation away from all the other songs on the Greatest Hits CD. But I reckon that this is in fact one of their most endearing and timeless songs. A genuinely great bit of pop music with a great lyric.
It hadn't struck me until I was putting this piece together that this was Blondie's first bona-fide UK hit single of their own - Denis had been a cover version. It also hit me that it was a single written by someone who was no longer in the band by the time it became a hit......
IATBYPD was the work of Gary Valentine, a founder member of the band in 1975 but who had left in 1977 prior to them ever getting round to recording the song. There can't be too many instances in pop history of a band enjoying success on the fruits of a former member.
mp3 : Blondie - (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
The single was a#10 hit in the UK, and indeed performed better in the charts than Picture This, the lead-off single from the afore-mentioned Parallel Lines, which stalled at #12.
Here's yer b-sides which were the work of existing band members:-
mp3 : Blondie - Poets Problem
mp3 : Blondie - Detroit 442
And here's a live performance of the single from The Old Grey Whistle Test:-
They weren't the greatest live act in the world.....but then again no-one had a lead singer quite like Debbie Harry.
14 comments:
The spoken 'It's really not cheating' is one of those great moments in pop, like the bit in Franz Ferdinand's 'Take me Out' when it actually slows down.
Great band -and fun live, even now...
First four albums on vinyl that I owned were blondie's first four. And the second album is actually my favourite, although the first side of the fourth is one of those perfect first sides,
Weird. Played this half an hour ago, before I popped in here. Was it just by chance, could it be kismet?
Now there you go: Clare Grogan or Debbie Harry? I always dreamt of Debbie back then .... and the music was ace as well!
Oh boys.
Debbie adorned our lives. She sat astride our wonderment.
The age difference - and yet that wide-eyed innocent and peppermints allure - the breathlessness and that slight inability to roll her r's. (That's 'r's chaps).
However, there was just a hint, a suggestion, that she was in need of a good wash. The black bin bag dress probably didn't help. And yet I suspect that all this added to her allure.
Perhaps if that 'finest hour' had included her in the shower with me - instead of just watching, then the fragrance issue would have been sponged away?
I never reaal got Blondie. When you think of act's like Talking Heads & Television that came out of the whole CBGB's thing, they were much better imho
As Harry Hill might say Phwooar!
I remember picking up the 7" version of the vinyl in a small record shop in Perth many years ago as I was passing through. The primary attraction was Poets Problem which wasn't on any of their LPs (at that point)
Thanks JC!! You just took me back to being 15 and cutting school to hang out on the Lower East Side attempting to find as much trouble as I could. Halcyon days indeed!!
She was responsible for the first stirrings in my nether regions and the music was brilliant into the bargain
Re: "There can't be too many instances in pop history of a band enjoying success on the fruits of a former member." You're correct, of course, but that got me thinking about what exceptions there were. Undoubtedly the biggest example is the Gin Blossoms: Guitarist Doug Hopkins was fired from the band during the making of their album New Miserable Experience, due to his drinking problems and general uncooperativeness. The album went on to be a breakthrough success for the band, largely on the strength of Hopkins' compositions "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You". (I'm talking about American success; I'm not sure how it fared on your side of the pond.)
Another example is The Hollies scoring one of their biggest worldwide hits with "Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)". Allan Clarke actually recorded that for a solo album; when the group found out he was making a solo album, they asserted ownership of his recordings (which were made during Hollies sessions) and, when he refused to promise not to make a solo album, fired him. "Long Cool Woman" became a smash--Terry Sylvester sang the song on TV appearances and tours, but it was Clarke on the record. Clarke ended up returning to the band the following year.
Can anyone think of others?
"They weren't the greatest live act in the world"? - I have to disagree.
Clem Burke is probably the greatest living drummer in the world and Debbie Harry still has the power to captivate an audience (at 65!) as witnessed on their UK tour this year.
'Now there you go: Clare Grogan or Debbie Harry?'
No contest. Give me the homegrwon talent anyday....
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