Rating: 
Summary: Ink the Flesh
Review: A labor of both love and lust, this hanging-on-the-telephone-book sized compilation feels like a fansite that somehow sneaked off the web and onto a printing press. An overemphasis on their 1999 comeback and fuzzy photos gets it docked a star, but it's hard to argue with such woozily wondrous excess, both the author's and the band's.
Rating: 
Summary: Blondie Heaven!
Review: A must! Go into the world of one of the greatset bands in pop history! I can't say in words how much of a Blondie fan I am! And when I saw this book here at amazon I got it as fast as I could. This tells everything about the band! It talks about each album, each struggle, and there big success! Blondie fans must own!
Rating:
Summary: Blondie Heaven!
Review: A must! Go into the world of one of the greatset bands in pop history! I can't say in words how much of a Blondie fan I am! And when I saw this book here at amazon I got it as fast as I could. This tells everything about the band! It talks about each album, each struggle, and there big success! Blondie fans must own!
Rating:
Summary: "The Blondie Bible"
Review: Allan Metz and a wonderful array of sources from all scenes and directions associated with New York's ultimate icon band of all time, "Blondie", create a detailed compilation of insight and imagery from the band's early emergence and impact to their re-emergence and continued success years later. Shockingly beautiful vocalist Debbie Harry is not the sole focus of this project and the fact that "Blondie is a Band" is reinforced continually. What is refreshing about this book as compared to other writings is that the viewpoint of the band's influence and effect on culture is widened. All-inclusive insight from fans to promoters to photographers. Adding color photographs and a hardcover would have made it perfect. "From Punk to the Present", though is absolutely THE official "Blondie Bible".
Rating:
Summary: A decade-spanning, informed and informative chronology
Review: Compiled by Allan Metz and enhanced with a Foreword and other essays by Victor Bockris, Blondie, From Punk To The Present: A Pictorial History is an amazing, 512-page chronicle of the band Blondie and its lead singer Deborah Harry, who is a fascinating woman and a genuine pop-culture musical icon. Packed with black-and-white photographs from a wide range of professional and amateur photographers, as well as brief but informative essays highlighting Blondie's New York City career, Blondie, From Punk To The Present is a vividly written, decade-spanning, informed and informative chronology of a uniquely talented band and singer -- and a "must" for their legions of fans.
Rating:
Summary: An overdue Christmas present for Blondie fans
Review: Full disclosure: I have an article reprinted here ("Blondie: Once More Into The Bleach," DISCoveries, 9/99). That said, I'm pleased at how this project turned out. I read it in two subzero vacation days here, and couldn't put it down once.From Punk To Present works well as a photo essay, scene history, and critical overview (including the band's triumphant '99 comeback). This is a Christmas present for the Blondie/Deborah Harry fan - and long overdue. The best selections put Blondie in context of its often-turbulent times. Kudos here to Robert Betts's interviews with longtime scene photographer Roberta Bayley (whose nonchalance wins points for charm ); Victor Bockris (whose censored High Times interview elicits some candid admissions about Harry's struggles with drugs); Francois Wintein, for his freewheeling interview with drummer Clem Burke (a great subject, as I can attest); and original bassist Gary Valentine. Being a collector type myself, I also appreciated the forays into less-obvious terrain, including Harry's work with the Jazz Passengers ("Private Lesson: Debbie Does Jazz"), and the reunited band's bid for radio acceptance ("No Exit In Sight: The Rebirth Of Blondie" -- which reminds us of the skewed promotional logic that prevails in the music business. For anyone writing off Harry's '80s and '90s solo work as chopped liver, Daniel Porter provides a thoughtful, balanced assessment. I would have liked tighter editing of the academic pieces, and interweaving of photos into the lengthier selections, just to give the reader's eyes a break. (Of course, printing budgets play a role in these decisions, so that's hardly a knock.) That said, this book's sprawling nature is part of its charm; it's not aimed at the attention-span-starved armchair quarterback, but the bug-eyed fan who owns those "New Zealand"-only disco mixes. There's nothing like a fan's book for fans; now let's see an updated version to accompany the new Blondie album!
Rating:
Summary: Kudos to Alan Metz
Review: I just love the book about the band I love. Thank you Alan Metz for your time and talent in putting this treasure together. Owning this wonderful book on the Blondie group answers every question and thought that I had about them and didn't know before. I feel so more knowledged about their past and present lives, where they've been, how they got there and where they're going next. I personally don't need all the fancy pictures to describe this fascinating group, a book is to read and
that's exactly what Alan Metz has given us. As a Blondie fan and avid reader, this is a MUST read book to be respected and passed down to future Blondies.
Rating:
Summary: It's As Big As A Phonebook!
Review: If nothing else, this new volume will have to go down in history as the biggest Blondie book ever. At over 500 pages, it's HUGE, which would please any fan. And fans are what "Blondie From Punk To Present" is all about. It's clearly put together by and for people who are gaga for Blondie/Debbie Harry, and has the feeling of a giant fanzine more than anything else. Definitely the focus is on the present reunion (probably because recent pix were easier to come by--especially free ones-- than vintage), and I did find myself wishing that there was more from the band's early days. As a "pictorial history", it's very text heavy--Metz let just about everyone have their say (including myself), and while the voices are diverse, I think I would have preferred more pix and less talk. But it's nice just to have something new on the band, and clearly this project was a labor of love.
Rating:
Summary: It's As Big As A Phonebook!
Review: If nothing else, this new volume will have to go down in history as the biggest Blondie book ever. At over 500 pages, it's HUGE, which would please any fan. And fans are what "Blondie From Punk To Present" is all about. It's clearly put together by and for people who are gaga for Blondie/Debbie Harry, and has the feeling of a giant fanzine more than anything else. Definitely the focus is on the present reunion (probably because recent pix were easier to come by--especially free ones-- than vintage), and I did find myself wishing that there was more from the band's early days. As a "pictorial history", it's very text heavy--Metz let just about everyone have their say (including myself), and while the voices are diverse, I think I would have preferred more pix and less talk. But it's nice just to have something new on the band, and clearly this project was a labor of love.
Rating:
Summary: Blondie,From Punk to Present
Review: If you are a Blondie fan or just someone who wants to know all about the band that started it all this is the book for you.Excellent!...
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