Give the drummer some!

On Clem Burke

I remember where I met Clem Burke for the first time, but I don’t remember meeting him then, or knowing that he wasn’t just some guy named Clem but the drummer for Blondie. I would have remembered that because when I was in 4^th grade I had the Parallel Lines album and listened to it enough times that I still know the words to every song, and when I hear one, I still expect the next song to play in album order.

I remember a few details about the party where I met Clem, especially what shoes I wore. I was pregnant but not obviously so. My feet hadn’t started swelling yet and so I wore black spiked-heel Betsy Johnson shoes with pink soles and a rhinestone brooch on each shoe. I know I wore a dress but I can’t remember what it was. I felt fancy and appropriate for a rock n roll birthday party for Andy’s friend Elliot Easton, guitarist for The Cars.

Andy and I arrived at the party, got out of the car, opened the trunk to get Elliot’s gift out, and then as we started to cross the street to his house, the heel broke off my right shoe, just like Kathleen Turner’s character’s did in “Romancing the Stone,” and I thought it was a ridiculous plot point because that would never happen. But here I was, about to go into a fancy party with a broken shoe. I briefly considered breaking off the other heel, as Kathleen Turner’s character had, and wearing it as a flat, but I quickly learned that a heel-less high-heeled shoe is not as comfortable as the writer(s) of “Romancing the Stone” would have us believe, and that it would not be an option. We dug around in the car and managed to find a pair of well-used black flats of mine.

There were hideous, and didn’t match my outfit, and I no longer felt attractive and glamorous but like a bag lady who couldn’t afford proper footwear.

But Andy lied to me (it must have been a lie) and said they looked great, and eventually we went inside.

I met a lot of old friends of Andy’s that night. Everyone was so nice but there were too many new people to remember all the names. Besides the shoes, the only detail I remember is an object in the living room which caught my eye as soon as I walked in. I tried to be nonchalant and not hover over it, but eventually I got close enough to read it and take it in. I wanted to pick it up and hold it and have Andy take a photo of me with it, but I was too shy to ask.

It was a silver astronaut planting a flag on a small pedestal.

It was a real life MTV Music Video Aware statuette. And it wasn’t just any MTV Music Video Award.

It was the first ever MTV Music Award for Video of the Year: “You Might Think” by The Cars.

If you’re another Gen Xer, I think you can understand why I didn’t remember much else about the party.

(Clem on drums with the Hi-Seas)

A couple of weeks later, on my birthday, Andy and Tom Kenny performed at an Elvis birthday celebration at The Echo in Los Angeles. I like celebrating my birthday with Elvis so I was happy to attend the show. They were only doing one song, so I hung out with them for most of the evening until they went on.

Then I moved closer to the stage to get a better look.

There were a couple of guys standing in front of me. One of them looked familiar but I couldn’t place him.

As the band took the stage, the familiar guy said, “Is that Andy Paley?”

“Yeah,” said the other guy, “I think it is!”

“Did you ever see the Sidewinders?” the familiar guy asked, referencing one of Andy’s early bands. “I saw them when I was 16 years old and they were incredible.”

He continued talking about how great the Sidewinders were.

I kept listening, half focusing on Andy and Tom performing and half listening to the guys in front of me talk about my husband.

After Andy came back out into the audience, I pointed out the guy who’d been talking about the Sidewinders, and noted he looked familiar but I couldn’t figure out who he was.

“That’s Clem Burke,” he said. “You met him at Elliott’s party.”

Then, as an afterthought: “He’s the drummer for Blondie.”

(Andy and Clem)

Andy was unaware of my Blondie obsession at that point.

He didn’t know that years earlier, I’d been having drinks with a friend at the Cedar Tavern in New York, and I went to the bathroom, and as I walked across the room I realized that Debbie Harry was sitting at one of the booths and I literally went weak in the knees and almost fell over in front of her. I steadied myself enough to make it to the single stall bathroom without making a scene, and then just kept saying aloud to myself, over and over, “oh my god, that’s Debbie Harry!” Eventually I calmed down enough to pee and then I did some deep breathing to steady myself before I walked back to my table.

Andy and Clem weren’t close friends, but they knew each other for at least 50+ years.

After the Elvis show, we started seeing Clem around a lot. He was friends and neighbors with Tom Kenny and Jill Talley, and Clem and his wife Ellen were often at get-togethers at the Kenny house.

We also went to see Blondie almost every time they were in town. Andy’s friend and former Sidewinders bandmate Leigh Foxx was Blondie’s bass player for several years, and he would always put us on the list when they were playing in L.A.

Once Leigh invited us to a private show they were doing on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles. The backstage area was just an open space on the roof with a bar area, a few cocktail tables, and some trailers for dressing rooms. There were only a few other backstage guests, so it almost felt like just us and the band. Clem had his drum pad with him. He put it on top of a cocktail table and absent-mindedly drummed as he talked to us.

That’s how you become Clem Burke, I thought. You never stop drumming.

Debbie came over and talked to Andy and me for a while, just the three of us. Andy had known Debbie and Chris and Leigh for 50+ years too. Andy and Debbie talked about old times, and then Debbie got the signal and put her hand on my shoulder and said, “well, it’s time to go on,” and walked to the stage.

I thought I played it cool but I’m not sure I did. Debbie Harry touched me! How could I play it cool?

I wasn’t starstruck around Clem like I was around Debbie. I didn’t know him well but he was friendly and always seemed like a nice guy.

A few years after that gig, I invited Clem and his wife Ellen to my 50^th birthday party and was thrilled when they showed up. They gave me a t-shirt that said Bowie on it. (Elvis isn’t the only one who shares my birthday.)

Around the time Andy went into the hospital, I started hearing the Clem was sick too. So I wasn’t entirely surprised when I heard the news today, but it still hit harder than I expected.

Rest in peace, Clem. You were a good guy and an incredible drummer and you were in one of my favorite bands. I’m lucky I got to know you just a little bit.

(Clem at my 50th birthday party)