Clem Burke's stories of Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop and more
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Clem Burke is a drummer. Not just the drummer with Blondie, the band he’s been with since 1975, enjoying hit singles and albums by the score. Burke loves to play, with side projects such as Chequered Past, Romantics, International Swingers and Empty Hearts, and as sideman with such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Pete Townshend and Joan Jett.
Consequently, he’s made an awful lot of friends and met an awful lot of people along the way. So sitting down for a chat with the artist formerly known as Elvis Ramone as he prepares to mount the stage with Lust For Life – the Katie Puckrik-fronted Iggy tribute that also features his long-time chum and sparring partner Glen Matlock - about the countless paths he’s crossed, best be prepared for a veritable deluge of clanging name-drops.
“Lemmy used to hang out with us in the early days of Blondie,” he begins, “I don’t know if we were using him for a connection, but he was quite friendly. We’d go down to [Piccadilly nightclub] Planets, where he and Phil Lynott used to hang out. Lemmy was always on the fruit machine. Later when he moved to LA he did exactly the same thing at the Rainbow.”
Sky Saxon
“You don’t wanna let him know where you live. We did an album together called King Of Garage Rock. He was living in a sort of commune, a ramshackle house in East Hollywood where people were sleeping on the roof, there were drugs strewn everywhere and dogs running around. But he was a nice guy.
“I love meeting Hollywood people from back in the day. Don Randi, who was the keyboard player with [top sessioneers] the Wrecking Crew, is a friend, and Jay Sebring [celebrity hairdresser and ex-boyfriend of Sharon Tate, murdered by the Manson Family in 1969] used to cut his hair. So it’s pretty weird watching Once Upon A Time In Hollywood with Don.”
Nancy Sinatra
“One of the best things about touring with Nancy was you could check into the hotel and say: 'I’m with the Sinatra party', and it’s like saying you’re with the king. The Sinatra family are like American royalty. I did quite a few interesting gigs with her. From Maxwell’s, which is basically the back room of a pub in Hoboken, where she duetted with Jon Spencer, to an arena in Vienna celebrating Elvis Presley - because Nancy made the movie Speedway with him - where I got to meet Ron Tutt [Elvis’s Vegas drummer] and DJ Fontana [Elvis’s original drummer].
"When we stayed at The Athenaeum on Green Park, Phil Spector, who had taken over the entire top floor, invited us to lunch. You’d come across a lot of interesting people with Nancy.”
Steve Jones
“He’s a complicated young man, but always seems to get a leg up. No pun intended. Steve used to come to my loft in New York, jonesing, needing money for drugs. We’d become friends over here in London when I was working with Michael Des Barres. [Blondie producer] Mike Chapman had produced a solo album with Michael, and Nigel Harrison from Blondie used to be in Silverhead with him.
"Anyway, we put a band together for Michael, and as Steve was hanging around we were trying to get Steve to do it with us too. That was Chequered Past. But Steve, who was still on drugs, just wanted to doss around in the apartment. In the end, Nigel and I put him on a plane, took him to LA, and he’s been there ever since. Steve’s a great guitar player, he’s got his own sound. But yeah, he really is a very complicated young man.”
Pete Townshend
“I came into Pete’s orbit through [Sex Pistols producer] Chris Thomas. I think he’d just gotten sober and wanted to get in the studio and play. Me and the bass player, Phil Chen, recorded with Pete for a couple of weeks and had a tremendous time. Rather than tapping into my inner Keith Moon, I was trying to play more precisely, more like Kenney Jones. I was actually surprised how much Pete would reminisce about Keith.
“While we were in the studio, Pete was sent tickets to the premier of Give My Regards To Broad Street, the Paul McCartney film, in Leicester Square, but said: ‘I don’t think I want to go. Would you guys want to go?’ So me and Phil went, with Pete’s tickets. When we got there we were seated next to Eric Clapton, and then, right before the movie starts – and it’s not a good movie – who comes and sits right behind us? Paul and Linda. They were expecting Pete Townshend, so they placed him among the rock royalty, but they got me and Phil. So that was quite a night. \
"I loved working with Pete. A real gentleman. I wish we could’ve done more, because for me it was a dream come true.”
Bob Dylan
“Bob communicated through his music, but we did go to dinner quite a few times. One of the first things that Bob asked me was: 'What happened to Blondie?' I was working with Dave Stewart at that time, and he was like: 'You guys were this big thing. What happened?' I was sitting in the back of a Mercedes between him and Dave Stewart, going to dinner, and I said: ‘One word: drugs.’ And he got it. I had a great time playing with him. I thought we were recording the next Blonde On Blonde. We recorded a lot of stuff. I’ve still got a cassette tape of all the tracks.
“Bob was just amazing. It’s no surprise that those people are what they are. I don’t really subscribe to ‘everybody is the same’, because they’re not. There’s a reason that Robert De Niro is Robert De Niro. He’s not like the plumber down the road, he’s fucking Robert De Niro. I mean everybody’s human, but Dylan…”
Johnny Ramone
“Bastard. I mean, I knew those guys right from the beginning. I was friends with Joey, but can’t say I was friends with Johnny, even though it was probably his idea to get me in. I was asked to join The Ramones about four different times, right when Tommy first left and all the other times when they went through all the other drummers. When I finally said yes, I told them I didn’t want to do it permanently.
"I did think maybe, but Johnny? His politics? He’d be in the front of the van listening to the baseball, I’m relegated to the next row, then there’s Joey and Dee Dee in the back. So if I’m talking to Johnny, I’m not talking to Joey and if I’m talking to Joey, I’m not talking to Johnny.
“He used the guitar as a means to an end, and I don’t think he particularly cared for it. He refused to rehearse, so I’d spend a lot of time going through stuff on my own. They’re all dead now, which is terribly sad. But being in the Ramones was not a happy place to be.”
Debbie Harry
“My big sister, essentially. Playing with Blondie is like going on vacation. She is just as talented as Bowie, Lou Reed, whoever we want to put in that category. I wouldn’t say she’s as talented as McCartney, because The Beatles are beyond. But Bowie… Debbie and Chris [Stein, Blondie guitarist] are both innovators, and you don’t have to be the most brilliant musician in order to innovate. They’re beatniks too. They always were. Our neighbours were Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.
"Early CBGB was all beatniks; there were no mohawks or CBGB T-shirts, it was more like a cabaret. There were tables and chairs, little candles burning and the Ramones playing. There wasn’t a moshpit, it was more like the Theatre Of The Absurd. But Debbie’s great. We’ve had a lot of good times together over the years, and obviously a big part of my success has to do with Debbie Harry, and I have to thank her very much for all of that.”
Jerry Nolan
"I used to hang out eating hot dogs with Jerry Nolan at Nathan’s all-night place on the corner of 6th Avenue and 8th Street, and he’d give me advice, because I guess he figured he was kind of seasoned, and his playing was a major inspiration to me, major.
“He was definitely the first person to have short hair on the New York post-glam scene. I remember times when he still played with the Dolls and he had the quiff, which was pretty amazing, because everybody else still had what they call in the States shag haircuts, like feather cuts. So Jerry was an inspiration to us all.
“He was friends with [legendary jazz drummer] Gene Krupa, actually, they’d smoke a joint together. He befriended Gene Krupa in the same way I befriended [Wrecking Crew drummers] Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine.”
Patti Smith
“I was a massive fan and auditioned for her band. I brought her and Lenny Kaye to our rehearsal studio and we were smoking hash and jamming. Gary Valentine was with me and he had sunglasses on, and Patti said: ‘What do you play, sunglasses?’
“When she asked me who my favourite drummer was – even though he never really was my favourite drummer – I said John Bonham, and I think that might’ve been the wrong answer. The drummer that she got, Jay Dee Daugherty, is a friend, and he’s great. So Patti Smith was an early role model, and I really, really wanted to play some music with her.
"Anyway, it didn’t happen, and probably for the better the way things worked out – Blondie were a pretty big success. And while it’s the Patti Smith Group, when you get into the business side of it I’m not too sure how it played out for the other members of the band.”
Iggy Pop
“What can I say? Blondie’s first national tour of the States was with Iggy, with David Bowie on keyboards. The night before the start of the tour we did a gig at Max’s Kansas City, got straight in an RV, drove to Montreal overnight, went to the venue, and were all crashed out in a funky dressing room backstage when the door opened and in walked Bowie and Iggy. They couldn’t have been nicer.
"Iggy and I both had Anello And Davide Beatle boots on, which I’d got on my first trip to the UK in ’75. I later toured as part of Iggy’s band for six weeks promoting the Party album in ’81 and he was basically out of his mind. There was no food allowed backstage, only drugs and booze. It was ‘no blow, no show’, and his only mandate was: ‘Play as loud and as fast as possible.’”
