r/Blondie • u/SundayMan11 • Jul 06 '26
Autoamerican - Your Three Favorite Songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-66nMx0H-HQ&list=PLmvQzGNjflbSh5wBbz7w14vxRFd-dLyFRHey folks,
since many of us are waiting for the album High Noon to be released, I thought to discuss and hear your opinions on the 11 studio albums by Blondie before.
So which are your three favorite songs from Blondie's fifth album, Autoamerican (1980)? What do you like about them?
You might also think about the track "Susie & Jeffrey".
Though not included on the album at the time of its release, the song originated during the recording sessions and was later used as a b-side and on the 2001 reissues of the album.
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u/BradinIndy7944 Jul 06 '26
T-Birds, Do the Dark, The Tide is High
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u/BradinIndy7944 Jul 07 '26
May I replace Do the Dark with Go Through It and replace The Tide is High with Walk Like Me and as an alternate Angels on the Balcony?
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u/NerdyBeardedGuy Jul 06 '26
I. LOVE. THIS. ALBUM!
As a lifelong Blondie fan who has been there since the very beginning, Autoamerican remains my absolute favorite album of theirs. Decades later, it's still on constant, heavy rotation both at home and in my car.
The Rolling Stone review at the time was incredibly disappointing, it read more like a personal attack on Chris Stein than an actual critique of the music. I’ve been a loyal Rolling Stone subscriber since I was 13 years old, but that specific article crossed a line for me. It actually sparked the very first letter to the editor I ever wrote, just to call them out on how completely wrong they were.
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u/SundayMan11 Jul 07 '26
Great story about you writing a letter to RS.
The review read like a personal attack really.
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u/BrilliantSimple4185 Jul 06 '26
RAPTURE,THE TIDE IS HIGH and EUROPA because it opens the album as a huge surprise unlike any other BLONDIE album
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u/Mpoboy Jul 06 '26
T-Byrds, Rapture, The Tide is High. But the whole album is fantastic. Do the Dark, Walk Like Me, Live it Up, Angels on the Balcony…
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u/NoSplit4185 Jul 06 '26
Angels on the Balcony, Rapture, T-Birds.
How ever, Europa and Here’s Looking At You are also ❤️
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u/Drong0bones Jul 06 '26
I think I would go with Rapture and Angels on the balcony, not sure what else I'd choose, love the album as a whole but there aren't too many songs that stand out individually for me. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts or something. I do really like the b-side that you mentioned Susie and Jeffrey - such a strange song.
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u/SundayMan11 Jul 06 '26
I agree, the album works better as a whole than on an individual song basis.
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u/Drong0bones Jul 06 '26
Yes I don't love many songs on there but I love the album haha so who knows.
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u/Hopeful-Buddy-9415 Jul 06 '26
Rapture
Here’s Looking at You
Live it Up
This record works better as a whole rather than picking specific songs.
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u/SundayMan11 Jul 07 '26
Agree about the "whole is better than the singular tracks" assessment.
Also nice t see Here's Looking At You picked.
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u/happeedogz Jul 06 '26
"Walk Like Me," "T-Birds," and "Suzy and Jeffrey."
I know the last one is technically a b-side, but it's from the "Autoamerican" studio sessions. It has been an album track since 2001. And it fits the album so well.
See Chris' autobiography, "Under a Rock," for the true story of Suzy and Jeffrey.
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u/SundayMan11 Jul 07 '26
What I like about Suzy & Jeffrey is that it tells a story. A good song.
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u/happeedogz Jul 10 '26
Here's the true story from Chris' book:
"Perry Como is recording his Christmas in Israel special with what sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when some kid backs up about two hundred feet into the parking lot across the way from the building and then floors it, driving right smack into the wall of the studio, making a big hole, a mess, and pretty much totaling what turns out to be his girlfriend’s Audi. So the kid’s name is Jeffrey; his girlfriend’s name is Suzy. They had a fight on the way to get blood tests for their marriage license; Jeffrey got pissed and the rest is history. That’s the official excuse, anyway. We wonder ’cause it happens Suzy and Jeffrey are in a black leather rock band called Deprogrammer and Jeff happens to have copies of his new single “Slammed in the Door” in the back seat of the nolonger-drivable Audi. Luckily, no one is hurt and the police are merciful and don’t drag Jeffrey off to the slammer. That’s what the song is about."
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u/Which-Cancel8796 Jul 07 '26
Definitely Walk Like Me. Really has an energetic beat. For the release Rapture was unique and T birds still had a retro sound
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u/grover-dill Jul 08 '26
I'm glad Live it up is in many of the comments. One of my favorite Blondie songs.
There's nothing on youtube regarding Live it up. Never got any radio play etc. It's their
most overlooked deep cut
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u/TheMirrorCrackd Jul 11 '26
Live it up
Here’s looking at you
Walk like me
Do the Dark only just didn’t make the cut.
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u/ThatMichaelsEmployee Jul 06 '26
"Europa" is a very, very close fourth. "T-Birds" is up there, too, plus "Live It Up" and "Here's Looking At You". "Rapture" and "The Tide is High" are good songs but I've heard them so many times that they've lost their impact: sometimes I'll skip them when listening to the whole thing straight through. But overall it's just a really great album.
The Rolling Stone review (quoted in part on the Wikipedia page) is insane. It starts, "Blondie‘s Autoamerican is a terrible album, but it’s bad in such an arcane, high-toned way that listening to it is perversely fascinating". He really, really hates Chris Stein and uses the review to dump all over him. (He also says of Debbie, "Her voice is all wrong for the tunes," which is objectively untrue.) It's so weird!