"We wanted to enjoy what we were doing and we had business things we had to straighten out and personnel problems and it sort of took a little time to do it"
About this Quote
Debbie Harry’s sentence has the offhand honesty of someone who’s spent years being mythologized and is quietly tired of the myth. The first clause - “We wanted to enjoy what we were doing” - sounds like a simple creative vow, but it’s also a boundary. In a music industry that sells urgency (the next record, the next tour, the next version of you), “enjoy” becomes a low-key act of defiance: a refusal to let the machine set the emotional terms.
Then she drops the real ballast: “business things,” “personnel problems.” The language is deliberately plain, almost dull, and that’s the point. Pop culture loves drama with sharp edges - feuds, breakups, heroin narratives, genius tantrums. Harry offers paperwork and HR. It’s a reminder that bands aren’t just lightning bolts; they’re small companies with friendships, power dynamics, lawyers, and fragile logistics. By keeping it unspecific, she protects people and preserves the band’s internal story from becoming tabloid property.
“Sort of took a little time” is classic minimization, the soft-spoken way artists describe periods that fans experience as ruptures. It reads like someone smoothing over bruises: yes, it was messy; no, you don’t get the lurid version. Coming from the frontwoman of Blondie - a group that had to navigate fame, gendered scrutiny, and the difference between being celebrated and being managed - the quote’s intent is control. Not just over schedules, but over narrative: creativity first, complications acknowledged, spectacle denied.
Then she drops the real ballast: “business things,” “personnel problems.” The language is deliberately plain, almost dull, and that’s the point. Pop culture loves drama with sharp edges - feuds, breakups, heroin narratives, genius tantrums. Harry offers paperwork and HR. It’s a reminder that bands aren’t just lightning bolts; they’re small companies with friendships, power dynamics, lawyers, and fragile logistics. By keeping it unspecific, she protects people and preserves the band’s internal story from becoming tabloid property.
“Sort of took a little time” is classic minimization, the soft-spoken way artists describe periods that fans experience as ruptures. It reads like someone smoothing over bruises: yes, it was messy; no, you don’t get the lurid version. Coming from the frontwoman of Blondie - a group that had to navigate fame, gendered scrutiny, and the difference between being celebrated and being managed - the quote’s intent is control. Not just over schedules, but over narrative: creativity first, complications acknowledged, spectacle denied.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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