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Blondie, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Andy Warhol & more rendered in gorgeous knitwear


Blondie ‘Rapture’ sweater by Mary Adams.
 
I think it’s safe to say that for many people Lou Reed’s 1972 album Transformer was a life changing kind of record.Transformer was very much influenced by Reed’s life changing relationship with Andy Warhol. Warhol even directly inspired one of Transformer‘s best numbers, “Vicious.” According to Reed Andy had requested that he pen a tune about a “vicious” kind of person. When Reed asked Warhol to clarify his request, Andy responded by saying “Oh, you know, like I hit you with a flower.” Reed wrote Andy’s response down verbatim and the lyric “You hit me with a flower” would become part of the song.

When it comes to the influence that Transformer had on Mary Adams, the wildly talented clothing designer and sweater maker whose work is featured in this post, we can look to the iconic cover of the album that features an out-of-focus photograph of Reed taken by Mick Rock. One of the first sweaters Adams ever made was based on Rock’s photograph and her obsession with Reed would lead her to create an entire line of high-end knitwear inspired by the pioneering musician. In fact Adams’ company Small Town Girl took its name from lyrics to a song found on Reed’s much vilified collaboration with Metallica, 2011’s Lulu, “Brandenburg Gate.” Adams got her start working as a seamstress and costume designer for The Royal Canadian Ballet and Opera as well was what was likely another influential experience for her—a dreamy souding gig as the “wardrobe mistress” for the original Rocky Horror Show stage production in Australia in 1975. When she wasn’t busy doing that, she was regularly selling her sweaters at the popular outdoor Paddington Market in Sydney.

Many of Adams’ designs feature pop art images, some of which are derived from famous works by Andy Warhol who is also nicely represented on much of Adams’ knitwear. Other notable wooly famous faces include Reed’s wife Laurie Anderson, Transformer‘s producer David Bowie, Liza Minnelli, the recently departed Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith. I’m not exactly going out on a limb here by describing Adams’ work as exquisite. She and her collaborators hand loom each sweater using pure Australian wool and then each piece is finished by Adams by hand. So it’s not hard to understand why her wearable works of art will run you anywhere from $45 for a head scarf to $470 for a Blondie “Eat to the Beat”-themed sweater which you can see below. If after checking out the images in this post you are filled with a strong desire to have one of your own, more information on how to do that is available on Adams’ Small Town Girl website.
 

‘Lou Reed’ sweater coat.
 

David Bowie ‘Ziggy Stardust’ sweater.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.16.2016
01:58 pm
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Hear Debbie Harry perform a voodoo rite: ‘Invocation to Papa Legba’
07.10.2015
08:35 am
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It looks like Vodun had more devotees in the CBGB set than I would have guessed, because I would have guessed zero. Yet Talking Heads paid tribute to “Papa Legba” in their True Stories, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie recorded this “Invocation to Papa Legba” for a 1989 compilation on Giorno Poetry Systems. It’s just Harry’s voice with Stein’s approximation of Haitian drumming, and it sounds fantastic—maybe a distant, merrier cousin of Peter Hammill’s “A Motorbike in Afrika.”
 

 
I eagerly await learning about Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s researches into Vodun when Bight of the Twin comes out, because I am ham ignorant about this religion. Papa Legba is, I take it, the gatekeeper of the spirit world, and all attempts to communicate with the loa begin with prayers and offerings to him. Maybe, if you play this loud and often enough, he’ll pay you a visit tonight.
 

 
via Zero Equals Two

Posted by Oliver Hall
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07.10.2015
08:35 am
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Debbie Harry: The Hippie Years
05.18.2015
11:48 am
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In the June 1977 issue of High Times, interviewer Neal Barlowe asked Chris Stein and Deborah Harry about earlier musical experiences, and the following exchange occurred:
 

Neal: Were you in bands before?
Chris: Debbie recorded an album for Capitol with a baroque folkie rock band in ‘68. It was called the Wind in the Willows.
Neal: Easy listening?
Debbie: Depressing listening.

 
Seldom has an eyeroll so successfully been conveyed indirectly via typewritten prose.

And Debbie, don’t be so hard on yourself! In 1977 you were probably right to scornful of some hippy-dippy stuff you were involved with just 9 years earlier. But now from the vantage point of 47 years after the fact (!) the album seems perfectly harmless and fun. You’re right, though, it wasn’t great.

The band was named after the classic book by Kenneth Grahame. The fifth track of the album is called “There Is But One Truth Daddy” and is a reading from Grahame’s book set to music. The fourth track is a cover of Roger Miller’s “My Uncle Used to Love Me but She Died.”
 

 
According to this website ... it gets the dates all wrong but what it’s probably saying is that Wind in the Willows played Café Au Go Go with the Nazz on Sept. 13-14, 1968. The YouTube page linked below refers to an album release party at Café Au Go Go and has the date as Sept. 11—whatever the details, clearly something of the sort happened at that venue that week.

You can buy the album here.
 

 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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05.18.2015
11:48 am
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Happy birthday Debbie Harry
07.01.2011
02:13 pm
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Happy birthday to punk goddess Deborah Harry.

Here’s a recently unearthed clip of Blondie being interviewed on Australian TV show Nightmoves in 1978. The band offers a concise mini-history of the term “new wave.”
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.01.2011
02:13 pm
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Iggy Pop & Deborah Harry singing Cole Porter, 1990
10.14.2010
11:30 pm
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image
 
Iggy and Debbie singing Cole Porter’s “Well,Did You Evah!’.
 
Iggy: so… have you ever been out to L.A. lately?
Debbie: well no, not recently.
Iggy: well, I went there and had a rent-a-car and all…
Debbie: oh, really?
Iggy: yeah and I got invited to Pia’s house… Pia Zadora’s house…
Debbie: really? oh.
Iggy: yeah.
Debbie: was it nice?
Iggy: well, I didnt… I didnt go!
Debbie: oh! hehe.
Iggy: it woulda been swell though!
Debbie: shoulda gone!
Iggy: it woulda been elegant!

 

 
Via The World’s Best Ever

Posted by Marc Campbell
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10.14.2010
11:30 pm
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