"Rature"

Today in Rock History...

1981 - The group Blondie, featuring Debbie Harry, received a gold record for the tune, "Rapture". At the time, the pop-rock hit was perched at the top of the pop music charts. Blondie had eight charted hits. Four of them were million sellers, beginning with their first release, "Heart of Glass" in 1979. Four of the eight hits were number one on the charts, as well. -440.com

Some Interesting Facts About The Song~

This was the first #1 hit song with a rap. Artists like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow had been rapping since the mid-'70s, and The Sugarhill Gang had the first Top-40 hit earlier in 1980 with "Rapper's Delight," but until this, rap had never been incorporated into a hit Pop song. Debbie Harry did the rap, and it was really ridiculous, with lyrics about the "Man from Mars eating cars," but the novelty helped the song become a hit. Harry says that a lot of rappers told her it was the first rap song they ever heard, since rap wasn't on the radio then.

Until this came out, rappers always used existing songs as the basis for the music they would rap over. They usually took Disco or Soul records and looped the beats to extend the breaks. Debbie Harry's rap in this was nothing special, but it was the first rap in a song that had its own original music.

In certain Christian theology, The Rapture is an event where believers are transported to heaven while others must endure the beginning of the end times on Earth. The lyrics of this song are a bit apocalyptic, as the "Man from Mars" starts destroying the planet with his insatiable appetite. The word "Rapture" is also a play on the rap aspect of the song.

As the age of Disco ended, so did Blondie's success. This was their last US hit until 1999, when they had a comeback song called "Maria." They did have another UK hit in 1982 called "Island Of Lost Souls."

If you listen carefully to the lyrics, you might hear something naughty. Shortly before the rap, there is a line that sounds a lot like "Finger F--king." Most lyric sheets list this line as "Finger Popping."

Hip-Hop promoter and former host of Yo! MTV Raps Fab 5 Freddie is in the video and is mentioned in the song. He was part of the early rap scene and is credited with helping bring it into the mainstream. Blondie originally met Fab Five Freddy and his crew at a club. They all became friends, and one day Freddy jokingly suggested that Debbie Harry should write a song about them. She did and the result was the rap that is the second half of the song. She sent it to Freddy, he and his crew loved it and she ended up recording it.

The video for this features a cameo appearance by New York artist/Andy Warhol disciple Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose life was portrayed in the 1996 film Basquiat.

The lyrics, "Flash is fast, flash is cool" are a reference to pioneering Hip-Hop DJ Grandmaster Flash. -Songfacts.com

Lyrics~

Toe to toe

Dancing very slow

Barely breathing

Almost comatose

Wall to wall

People hypnotized

And they're stepping lightly

Hang each night in Rapture

Back to back

Sacrailiac

Spinless movement

And a wild attack

Face to face

Sadly solitude

And it's finger popping

Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture

Fab Five Freddie told me everybody's high

DJ's spinnin' are savin' my mind

Flash is fast, Flash is cool

Francois sez fas, Flashe' no do

And you don't stop, sure shot

Go out to the parking lot

And you get in your car and you drive real far

And you drive all night and then you see a light

And it comes right down and lands on the ground

And out comes a man from Mars

And you try to run but he's got a gun

And he shoots you dead and he eats your head

And then you're in the man from Mars

You go out at night, eatin' cars

You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too

Mercurys and Subarus

And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars

Then, when there's no more cars

You go out at night and eat up bars where the people meet

Face to face, dance cheek to cheek

One to one, man to man

Dance toe to toe

Don't move to slow, 'cause the man from Mars

Is through with cars, he's eatin' bars

Yeah, wall to wall, door to door, hall to hall

He's gonna eat 'em all

Rapture, be pure

Take a tour, through the sewer

Don't strain your brain, paint a train

You'll be singin' in the rain

I said don't stop, do punk rock

Man to man, body muscular

Sismic decibel by the jugular

Wall to wall, tea time technology and a digital ladder

No sign of bad luck in rapture

Well now you see what you wanna be

Just have your party on TV

'Cause the man from Mars won't eat up bars when the TV's on

And now he's gone back up to space

Where he won't have a hassle with the human race

And you hip-hop, and you don't stop

Just blast off, sure shot

'Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars

And now he only eats guitars, get up!