H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis: Creating the Visual Concept for KooKoo

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The New York Times notes "POINT OF VIEW: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene is a fascinating document, not only of the punk scene of the early and middle 1970s but more generally of New York City in its years of chaos, decay and creative energy. The artwork for Harry's 1981 debut solo KooKoo album cover was deemed so frightening it was originally banned on the London Underground. Harry continued to appear in independent films throughout the 2000s, including Deuces Wild (2002), My Life Without Me (2003) and Elegy (2008). Harry commissioned Giger a couple of years after he achieved international fame for designing the phantasmagoric “xenomorph” in the movie Alien for the cover art of her 1981 solo debut, KooKoo .

And he shares previously unpublished images of such iconic figures of the era as Debbie Harry, his musical partner in Blondie; Andy Warhol; Iggy Pop; David Bowie; and the Ramones. Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for partner Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin.

Perhaps Harry and her team wanted to cash in on the popularity of Giger following the success of Alien.

I also had a magazine with a very evocative picture of a snowy street, and I looked at it all the time. R. Giger, best known for his biomechanical creature and set design for seminal 1979 sci-fi-horror film Alien, encountered Debbie Harry, the punk icon and lead singer of globally successful New Wave band Blondie, the results were sublime.Debbie’s chart-topping success, fearless spirit and rare longevity - including more than 50 million albums sold worldwide and acclaimed solo projects - have cemented her as a vibrant global force and a shaper of pop culture.

Via a Chyrsalis press release Giger declared that the cover meant whatever the viewer wanted it to mean. The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Nile Rodgers, raised in New York’s Greenwich Village, was once a member of New World Rising, one of the first bands to play Max’s Kansas City, the New York club that had kick-started The Stilletos, a band that had included Chris Stein and Debbie Harry. From an irreverent Lower East Side punk goddess to a bona fide international ambassador of New York cool, Debbie Harry will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us.However, Giger was a fan of jazz rather than pop music, so he didn’t know much about Blondie, Harry, or their sonic output. Yet if the album art was one thing, then the music videos were when Giger and Harry went full-blown expressive. Fine art prints are editioned unless otherwise clearly indicated and come hand signed and/or embossed by the photographer or their Estate. In contrast, some of the most striking are the colourful, outdoor photos of Debbie nonchalantly hanging out in the neighbourhood while looking a bit like the robot woman in Metropolis. This shock picture of Blondie star Debbie Harry has been banned from Britain’s high streets,” continued the Mirror, “The picture - which is also on the cover of Debbie’s first solo album, Koo Koo - has upset Britain’s advertising bosses.