Clem Burke, the longtime drummer for Blondie who played a key role in the New Wave movement and appeared on albums by Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, and Bob Dylan, died Sunday at the age of 70.
“It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer,” the band wrote in a statement. “Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”
Burke joined the group in 1975 and appeared on all of their albums, including their 1976 self-titled debut and landmark albums Parallel Lines (1978) and Eat to the Beat (1979). “Clem showed up, and he was a real star,” Deborah Harry told Chicago Tribune in 2016. “He could play, and you could tell that it was his life.” Rolling Stone ranked the Hall of Fame inductee among the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time in 2016. “Burke’s combo of crisp backbeat and kinetic, Keith Moon-influenced bluster helped set Blondie apart from the pack,” the magazine wrote. “With Burke behind the kit, Blondie put everything from disco grooves and reggae to hip-hop beats into the group’s smash hits.”
Although Burke never received a songwriting credit on Blondie’s fame-making Eighties albums, his adaptability made him a crucial member of the band. On early singles like “X Offender” and “Rip Her to Shreds,” he was able to play Phil Spector-tinted girl-group drums, and when the band went disco with hits “Heart of Glass” and “Call Me,” he tapped into his love of Motorik Krautrock for a uniquely propulsive four-on-the-floor beat. He similarly excelled with playing calypso (“The Tide Is High”), hip-hop (“Rapture”), and reggaeton (2014’s “Sugar on the Side”). He earned his first songwriting credit on “Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room,” a sultry single on the band’s 1999 comeback album, No Exit, that the group frequently performed around the time, as well as that album’s Divine.”
Clement Anthony Bozewski was born November 24, 1954, the son of a drummer father in Bayonne, New Jersey. As a teen, he performed in numerous cover bands before moving to New York, where members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein recruited him for their new band.
Burke told Tidal in 2022 that “Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Al Jackson Jr. from Booker T. [& the MG’s]” were his favorite drummers. He expounded about some of them, and how they related to his work in Blondie, in a 2017 Please Kill Me interview. “Keith Moon was a big inspiration for me as Ringo was, and they were both rock star drummers, they were not the drummer in the back,” he said. “There was no jealousy over Debbie’s position, other than I wanted to be famous, too, and when you’re young and you’re trying to be famous you kind of have a gunslinger attitude. You have to endure a lot of rejection and you have to endure a lot of adversity in order to be that successful. It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be able to deal with rejection. Of course, we would joke that we were the best opening band and no one really got what we were trying to do.”
In the period between Blondie’s final album of their first run, 1982’s The Hunter, and Blondie’s 1998 reunion, Burke became an in-demand session drummer. The group credited him in a social media post as a self-described “rock & roll survivalist” and listed the many bands he worked with. In addition to Pop, for whom Blondie opened in the Seventies, he worked with Eurythmics, Ramones (famously, for two days), Bob Geldof, Joan Jett, the Romantics, Dramarama, Colors, and the Go-Go’s, among others.
Burke and Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison also formed the band Chequered Past with ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones in the early Eighties, and released a self-titled album in 1984. Burke joined the Romantics in the early Nineties. “His influence and contributions have spanned decades and genres, leaving an indelible mark on every project he was a part of,” Blondie wrote in a statement.
“I like to play music, so I don’t really look at [doing sessions] as work, especially when I do things with my friends and my little side projects that I have with various bands,” Burke told Tidal in 2022. “With drumming, you kind of have to keep doing it. You don’t really wanna lose your chops. You wanna be prepared to play when you have to play. So it works both ways. I help people out by playing with them, and they help me to keep my abilities together.”
Despite decades as a revered rock star, Burke remained humble in recent years. “My idea of success was… I used to buy all my records in Woolworth’s cut-out bins,” Burke told Please Kill Me. “My version of success was winding up in the cut-out bin.”
This story is developing
