Your foot is firmly entrenched where a molar should be

Blondie - 'Just Go Away' (Parallel Lines - 1978)

The recording of Parallel Lines was no picnic, it was recorded at the Record Plant studios in New York City, and producer Mike Chapman told Sound on Sound in 2008 that;

The Blondies were tough in the studio, real tough. None of them liked each other, except Chris and Debbie, and there was so much animosity. They were really, really juvenile in their approach to life—a classic New York underground rock band—and they didn't give a f*ck about anything. They just wanted to have fun and didn't want to work too hard getting it".

The recording process featured a battle between Chapman’s perfection and the looser vibes of members like bassist Nigel Harrison, who eventually threw a synthesiser at the producer. Despite being booked to record the album for six months, around six weeks in, the sleeping band were woken at 6 am by Chapman and his engineer Peter Coleman leaving for Los Angeles with the tape tracks. Despite this, it was Chapman who convinced the band’s record label, Chrysalis, that the record was excellent and the singles would be big hits.

Blondie’s output from autumn 1979 to spring 1980 was remarkable when you step back and look at the number of great songs they produced in a little over a year. The singles that heralded and then supported the release of Parallel Lines in 1978, Eat To The Beat the following year and ‘Call Me’ from the soundtrack to American Gigolo in early 1980 include eight UK top ten singles and four #1s as well as two US #1s. Among these are all-time classics ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘Atomic’. So, it is not a slight to say that the closing track to Parallel Lines is not up at that level because very few songs of that era, from anyone, are.

Had ‘Just Go Away’ been put out by an unknown band as a single, rather than as a b-side to ‘One Way Or Another’ we might talk about it in the same way we do ‘Do Anything You Want To Do’ or ‘Cruel To Be Kind’ and other punk/new-wave one hit wonders¹, but we do have to say that, in the exalted company of the rest of the album, the song does sound a bit of a filler song even if it does have fans who feel it is underrated.

The song begins with squalling guitars and has lead singer Debbie Harry, the only songwriter credited, celebrating the end of a relationship. The singer is moving beyond the heartbreak. She doesn’t want to hear from you; she doesn’t even want to see your face anymore, there’s a hint of pain in there, but it seems to be overcome as the song continues. We are given no doubt by the time Harry is literally spelling D-O-O-R and O-U-T to us how she feels about wanting to stay friends. She’s frustrated, and there’s a feeling of hopelessness as the song isn’t called ‘Go Away’. It is called ‘Just Go Away’. Stop what you are doing and leave.

For me, the song’s best moment is the backing vocals. When the rest of Blondie comes in and gives us some real welly with their “Go aways!”, they sound like the band has been joined in the studio by the cast of The Muppets to give the song some oomph with the over-the-top bile thrown into this part of the song². Coupled with the record’s most New York delivery from Harry to blow off this big mouth, the song’s pros mainly come from the human voice and the fantastic re-writing of the phrase “putting your foot in your mouth.”

The song’s backing, especially in the instrumental section, is almost a precursor to many of the sounds that dominated the start of the following decade. It is somewhat let down by a reasonably slapdash exit from the song on the drums by Clem Burke.

Is this vintage Blondie? Probably not, but with quality on that record, we can forgive them this very slight stumble.

1. Pitchfork’s Scott Plagenhoef said as much in a 9.7 review of a 2008 reissue.

2. Another song from that era that has a similar vibe is the backing on Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids In America’, which has fully grown adult men shouting “We’re the kids” and convincing no one that they are.