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 Nineteen Seventies and early ’80s — after which once more after the band re-formed in 1997 — died on Sunday. He was 70.
In an announcement, the band mentioned 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 necessary to its success as one of the fashionable American rock teams of its period.
He will 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 often called a lot for its picture as for its substance. The band’s album covers and press images usually featured Ms. Harry, together with her angular face and wispy blonde hair, framed by her 4 male bandmates, normally in black fits and thin ties.
Mr. Burke stood out together with his boyish cheeks and vertiginous mop of hair. However he and the band have been about greater than their sharp appears: In a single survey, Rolling Stone ranked him the 61st biggest drummer of all time.
“The American roots of rock ’n’ roll — Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochrane — that was the inspiration of what I cherished from an early age,” Mr. Burke informed Mixdown journal final 12 months. “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 an expert drummer, Mr. Burke was already well-known across the varied 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, in search of a drummer for his or her new band, Blondie.
Mr. Burke confirmed up for an interview sporting the shirt element of a sailor swimsuit, 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 12 months, the band was enjoying commonly 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 properly: “Coronary heart of Glass” is each pop and disco, whereas “Rapture” borrowed closely from a brand new model, hip-hop, that was then taking form within the Bronx.
“Our data have been all the time in all places,” he informed The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2004. “I all the time admired bands that didn’t stick to 1 explicit model.”
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 realized to drum from his father and performed at school bands rising up. By his late teenage years he was crossing the Hudson River into New York, the place he carried out in quite a lot 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 often called 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 realized that Mr. Moon had died, at 32; when the set was completed, he kicked his drums into the gang, shouting, “That’s for Keith Moon — the best drummer on the earth!”
After a marathon run of six albums in simply over six years, Blondie went on hiatus in 1982.
Over the subsequent 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 basic 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 title: Elvis Ramone.
Mr. Burke additionally fashioned or joined a protracted collection of bands, together with Chequered Previous, the Worldwide Swingers and the Plimsouls.
Data 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 just a few years, however Mr. Burke stayed on by way of the latest album, “Pollinator” (2017).
“Everyone round me appeared to assume that changing into ‘a rock star’ was unobtainable, however I by no means felt that approach,” he informed 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 seek out the proper lead singer. I all the time say that once I met Debbie, I type of discovered my Mick Jagger.”
