Clem Burke, whose energetic, versatile drumming supplied the beat for the band Blondie because it churned out post-punk, disco and rock hits within the late Seventies and early ’80s — after which once more after the band re-formed in 1997 — died on Sunday. He was 70.
In a press release, the band stated the trigger was most cancers. It didn’t say the place he died.
Although Blondie is finest remembered for its charismatic lead singer, Debbie Harry, Mr. Burke’s relentless percussion was simply as essential to its success as some of the fashionable American rock teams of its period.
He might be heard tumbling forth with a fast disco beat within the intro to “Name Me” (1980), solely to change to a tropical lilt on the reggae-inflected “The Tide Is Excessive” (1980).
Like different post-punk bands that slid into the New Wave motion — the Automobiles, Devo — Blondie was generally known as a lot for its picture as for its substance. The band’s album covers and press images usually featured Ms. Harry, along with her angular face and wispy blonde hair, framed by her 4 male bandmates, often in black fits and thin ties.
Mr. Burke stood out along with his boyish cheeks and vertiginous mop of hair. However he and the band have been about greater than their sharp seems: In a single survey, Rolling Stone ranked him the 61st best drummer of all time.
“The American roots of rock ’n’ roll — Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochrane — that was the muse of what I beloved from an early age,” Mr. Burke instructed Mixdown journal final yr. “It simply spiraled from there.”
He performed on all 11 of Blondie’s studio albums — six recorded between 1976 and 1982, and the remainder after the band restarted in 1997.
The son of knowledgeable drummer, Mr. Burke was already well-known across the numerous music scenes of Decrease Manhattan when, in 1974, he answered a need advert in The Village Voice positioned by two musicians, Ms. Harry and the guitarist Chris Stein, on the lookout for a drummer for his or her new band, Blondie.
Mr. Burke confirmed up for an interview sporting the shirt part of a sailor go well with, a tribute to a glance as soon as sported by his idol, Keith Moon of the Who. The three bonded over their shared admiration for acts like David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Velvet Underground. They quickly added Gary Valentine on bass and Jimmy Destri on keyboards.
Inside a yr, the band was enjoying repeatedly at storied Manhattan venues like Max’s Kansas Metropolis and CBGB, a musical archipelago the place different bands within the punk, post-punk and New Wave actions discovered a house.
Blondie embraced all three genres, whereas breaking into the mainstream with radio- and dance-floor-friendly tracks like “Coronary heart of Glass” (1979) and “Rapture” (1980), each of which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts (as did “Name Me” and “The Tide Is Excessive”).
Thanks partly to Mr. Burke’s infectious beats, the songs managed to embody a style, and vary past it, as effectively: “Coronary heart of Glass” is each pop and disco, whereas “Rapture” borrowed closely from a brand new type, hip-hop, that was then taking form within the Bronx.
“Our information have been at all times everywhere,” he instructed The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2004. “I at all times admired bands that didn’t stick to 1 explicit type.”
Clement Anthony Bozewski was born on Nov. 24, 1954, in Bayonne, N.J. His father, Clement J. Bozewski, performed in golf equipment round northern New Jersey, and his mom, Antoinette (Terracciano) Bozewski, managed the house.
Clem discovered to drum from his father and performed in class bands rising up. By his late teenage years he was crossing the Hudson River into New York, the place he carried out in a wide range of rock bands earlier than assembly Ms. Harry and Mr. Stein.
He styled himself as one thing of a throwback to the rock-star drummers of the Sixties, like Ringo Starr, John Bonham and Mr. Moon, who have been generally known as a lot for his or her charisma onstage as for his or her virtuosity behind their kits.
Mr. Moon was his north star. Mr. Burke was simply going onstage in 1978 when he discovered that Mr. Moon had died, at 32; when the set was executed, he kicked his drums into the gang, shouting, “That’s for Keith Moon — the best drummer on the planet!”
After a marathon run of six albums in simply over six years, Blondie went on hiatus in 1982.
Over the following 15 years, Mr. Burke grew to become an A-list session drummer, working with artists like Mr. Bowie, Eurythmics, Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend.
He performed on traditional songs like “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll,” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and in 1987 he performed two reveals with the Ramones. Like the remainder of the band, he selected a stage identify: Elvis Ramone.
Mr. Burke additionally shaped or joined an extended collection of bands, together with Chequered Previous, the Worldwide Swingers and the Plimsouls.
Info on survivors was not instantly accessible.
After Blondie reunited, the band launched its seventh album, “No Exit,” in 1999. This time the band was extra closely recognized with Ms. Harry and Mr. Stein, and Mr. Valentine and Mr. Destri left after a number of years, however Mr. Burke stayed on by way of the newest album, “Pollinator” (2017).
“All people round me appeared to assume that changing into ‘a rock star’ was unobtainable, however I by no means felt that manner,” he instructed Trendy Drummer journal in 1985. “I felt that this was how I used to be going to have the ability to escape my working-class existence. I used to be on a quest to search out the proper lead singer. I at all times say that once I met Debbie, I type of discovered my Mick Jagger.”
