“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.”
By Harvey Kubernik Copyright 2025
“The drummer is the engine room.” — Drummer Art Blakey to Cypress Hill drummer/percussionist Eric “Bobo” Correa.
Clement Anthony Bozewski was born in Bayonne, N.J., on November 24, 1954. Before the ‘70s started, he was playing drums with New Jersey cover bands. During 1974 he joined Blondie.
I first met Clem on Blondie’s first U.S. tour when they debuted at the Whisky A Go Go nightclub in Hollywood during 1977. We went out and saw another band at Madame Wong’s in China Town after the show as I recall. Burke was/is as vital to Blondie’s sound as Charlie Watts is to the Rolling Stones. The New Jersey born, New York raised Burke was a neighbor of mine locally, and is a true and passionate fan of music. A real student of rock ‘n’ roll and an active record collector.
In 2023 I interviewed Clem for a documentary on Gold Star recording studio, and over the years I interviewed him for numerous articles and books.
Clem was one of the nicest people I ever encountered. He was always the first person to email me when I had a new book out.
This decade I spent Thanksgiving with Clem and his wife Ellen at their home in Southern California.
Q: The Beatles
A: They were the natural progression from the roots of the music. The early recordings spread the gospel of Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Motown to a new generation of rockers. They are and always will be my muse. I’ll listen to a few songs before a show and get a rush of emotions. They had the best drummer in rock ’n’ roll that really made the recordings creative.
As I sit here in my office listening to the Beatles’ album Revolver on my laptop while holding the vinyl in my hand. Yes, it occurs to me that just by looking at the cover art you already knew the LP would be different, and it was! As much as Rubber Soul influenced everyone from Brian Wilson to the Byrds and on, Revolver was the real experimental leap forward for the Beatles. Here is where they really began singing about things other than love and girls. Songs like ‘Taxman,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ and yes ‘Yellow Submarine’ were taking their inspiration from a very different place. Both lyrically and musically they were provocative, and who exactly was ‘Dr. Robert?’
“Having Ringo play along to a tape loop for ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was extremely inventive and unheard of at the time, not to forget the use of horns and strings and sound collage as well. This is the Beatles pop art album, from the multimedia cover to the eclectic points of reference in the sound and lyrics it is in my opinion the sound of things about to change not only in music but in the world as we knew it.
Q: We just caught a Neil Young concert.
A: As a teenager I saw the Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert debut when they opened for Deep Purple in New York at the Felt Forum.
“Seats in the back but I sat on the edge of the stage in the front. Two shows. I totally remember Neil coming out on stage in a fringe jacket carrying the white Falcon Gretsch guitar, the side burns and the great big head of black hair. It was definitely a rock star image, for sure. Something a little different. We’re in New York and he’s coming out of the west coast. He played the songs from his second album. The sound of the garage drums, Neil’s voice his folk singer stance, coupled with the extended guitar solos and the obvious minimalism in the way they played well.
“It was like weaving what Keith Richards talks about. It was, and still is, a dynamic rock show. They play loud and aggressive. There is an attitude or arrogance in a way in this pairing that kind of stands out. It’s powerful. The initial band interactions between Neil and Danny Whitten. It carries on.
“Afterwards, Total Environment and The Sweet Willie Jam Band, my high school rock bands in New Jersey, played ‘Down By The River.’
“The whole sound of Oasis, to my mind, I would go as far to say, besides the Beatles, it’s kind of based on Neil Young & Crazy Horse. I mean, the guitars are really loud, the bass playing and the drumming isn’t very minimal.
“I saw Oasis in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock and for an encore they did ‘He Hey My My.’ Fuckin’ brilliant. I particularly really rate Noel Gallagher as a writer, performer, guitar player and singer. And it was just phenomenal when they came out. With Noel singing it. Not Liam. Aside from Neil’s songwriting and solo career, CSN&Y, you hear his tremendous influence on rock bands. The sound of Crazy Horse, the guitar playing has a big influence on contemporary rock music. Pearl Jam, Oasis. Neil kind of goes on both sides of the street: He’s a phenomenal folk singer and a phenomenal rocker.
“You’ve got to put in your 10,000 hours for success. I did a lot of stuff to get to wherever I wound up being, and it wasn’t that every other person I knew was willing to do what I’ve did. But talent and luck are definitely involved. You really got to put in the time like any profession. Neil has had a good relationship and respect from his record company, with Warner/Reprise. And, that’s definitely not to be overlooked as far as the key to success. I’ve always been a little envious of his management relationship. Very important. Neil as a modern-day Troubadour just resonates with me and a lot of people. He’s in the top dozen greats of the whole rock era. No question about it.
Q: Over the last quarter of a century your group Blondie have had songs in TV commercials and over a dozen tunes placed in feature length movies; “Call Me” was the title song of “American Gigolo,” “Atomic” was in this year’s “Bend It Like Beckham,” and last decade was covered by Sleeper in “Trainspotting.” “The Last American Virgin” showcased “In The Flesh,” while “One Way Or Another” was put into “Little Darlings.” Blondie music has been integral in “Gia,” an HBO film, while I know your “Rapture” has also been heard on screen as well You even dance in the music video Blondie did for “Rapture.” And “Rapture” in 2004 was in an episode of Fox’s “Nip/Tuck” TV series.
What are your feelings about the relationship between music and film, and the usage of your recording and publishing catalogue?
A: A lot of our songs are lush and the imagery is basically cinematic. We’ve always been influenced by film and obviously Andy Warhol. And the visual arts have always been an influence on us. I mean, in our song, “Fade Away and Radiate” Debbie (Harry) sings “My dream is on the screen.” Our song “Platinum Blonde,” the only movie I believe that was in has been Amos Poe’s “The Blank Generation.”
Q: I know when you recorded with Blondie, especially the early years, you never knew some of these songs would have a life independent of the album they were initially recorded for. I was at the Whisky A Go Go when Blondie was being filmed for a few days by John Cassavetes.
A: But Blondie appealed to screenwriters and film directors. And Debbie has been cast in many movies. Again, in “Platinum Blonde” she sings about Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlowe, Marlena Dietrich, and that’s a very early Blondie song. And don’t forget, one of our biggest influences was composer Nina Rota. We were put in the “New Wave” category, but we knew the term from French movies from the 1950s. Our music gets licensed through Chrysalis Publishing. We share, and they actually do control the licensing. We did have a meeting coincidently last December about them requesting or asking too much money for certain films. We told them to ease up on that because there were certain films we wanted to be involved with. For example, for the 2003 documentary on (DJ) Rodney Bingenheimer, we asked them to give a break on “Dreaming” that’s on the soundtrack. We had a song in “Gia.” A lot of the music was representative of a certain time and place although it seem to have transcended that. Particularly when you are doing period movies. Like I knew the real Gia. She was a friend of mine. First hand. The whole thing is kinda like a dream sequence really when you start seeing the stuff on TV and the big screen. Films about people that you know.
One of my favorite uses of our music was in the film “Muriel’s Wedding.” A soundtrack that is exclusively ABBA songs and two Blondie songs. ABBA is one of my all-time favorite groups and hearing our music with them was fabulous. As I was saying before, the whole Andy Warhol philosophy within the band, obviously he was not adverse to commercial use of his art. Turning the common place into iconic significance is a really brilliant thing and I think maybe there’s a bit of that in Blondie as far as his influence.
Q: “Call Me” was the opening track title for the movie “American Gigolo.”
A: That was the only song that was actually written for a film. (Producer) Giorgio Moroder originally approached us to do one of his songs that he’d completely written called “Man Machine.” It was a basic boogie more stripped-down song, and then Debbie wrote the lyrics to “Call Me” which was more from a woman’s perspective. The recording process with Giorgio Moroder was a little different, and he was a bit more particular how the track would go down and how it was recorded. And so, in that respect I played a little differently because I was working with a different producer, and I try and work with the producer, not against the producer. So, I did probably play a little differently on that. The weird thing about “Call Me” was that we did it and I forgot about it, and went on tour for six months and came back. I remember getting picked up at the airport and the radio got turned on and there was this song that came on and sounded kind of familiar, and wasn’t really sure, and it was “Call Me.” That was like a real one-off experience. In the studio for one day recording that track. Richard Gere came down to the studio when we were recording it and that was cool. He’s a good guy. He was doing the play “Bent” on stage at the time. It’s amazing how many actors are musicians, and he’s one of them.
Q: What are your feelings about music videos in general?
A: It took me a long time to latch on to conceptual music videos. I like lip-synching. I like the Monkees. I like all that kind of stuff. Many bands lip synched on “Ed Sullivan.”
Performing in front of the camera as a pop musician I thought was cool. That kind of stands to reason that a lot of the aesthetics that are involved in the whole Blondie set up are sort of out of the box of what the norm of maybe what punk rock was supposed to be. It had a lot to do with our commercial success. Because we never really shunned commercial success, we kind of embraced it and we kind of embraced the whole Warhollian aesthetic of art as commerce. And especially in England and in Europe we were more active in music videos and TV music shows where our music was on the screen.
We were sorta bailing out when MTV first hit. If anything, it was probably one of the worst business moves we ever made as the band was fragmenting right with the advent of MTV. Had we been there…MTV came to us early on. The bands in their ads. “I want my MTV” and all that. I thought live performance where you weren’t lip synching would be the best medium for video, capturing a specific live performance. Like “The Last Waltz.” Or “Dont Look Back.” Something that preserved an honest performance, as opposed to a story boarded thing.
We did our first couple of videos directed by rock photographer Bob Gruen, who took John Lennon’s passport visa shot. We were also on quite a bit the chart show in England “Tops Of The Pops.” At that particular time they refused to use video. It shows you how much times have changed. They wanted you in the studio, and you were actually supposed to re-record your track in a studio in Great Britian. We had several “pretend” recording sessions for “Tops Of The Pops” where an actual member of the British Musicians Union would be sitting there in the control room, and we’d be in the studio pretending to record the song, when in fact we were using the multi-track of the actual song. One of the most embarrassing things was a song “Denis” a number one song from our second album. It’s all out of time, and when you isolate the tracks it’s very obviously out of time, for instance, the handclaps and the foot stomps that were on it. So we were out in the studio going, “We gotta get that right.” But in fact it was the hit record we were pretending to be re-recording but everything was out of time on the hit. So that was an embarrassing situation.
Q: What about songs in television commercials. You and the band don’t seem to be so righteous and afraid of the corporate tie in when lending your music to overt commercials for products.
A: We’ve licensed “Atomic” to Pepsi, “One Way Or Another” for Mazda, and an irony of all ironies, the I.R.S, various members of the band have had serious tax problems over the years, the I.R.S. was licensed “One Way Or Another” which has the line “We’re gonna get you.” (laughs). From our point of view we’ve never had the big meeting about songs for commercials. It’s kinda like pop art. Having the Ramones’ song “Blitzkrieg Bop” in the Mobil commercial I think is tremendous. They come to us. There is a “pitching geek” within the whole approach to the band to consider songs for placement. We’re not Bruce Springsteen…I respect that…We don’t have the kind of money he has. Our management did demographic research about all of that stuff to pitch everything. It’s amazing how much of our stuff has been utilized in films.
Q: And Blondie has appeared in movies. Like “Roadie” where you perform a version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” that June Carter Cash co-wrote with Merle Kilgore.
A: That was definitely in my opinion way ahead of its time doing “Ring Of Fire.” The tune wasn’t in the script it came from the band. Debbie has always come up with some interesting ideas for covers: “Denis,” “The Tide Is High.”
Q: Blondie has been widely documented and filmed over the decades, and a recent subject of the infamous VH-1 “Behind The Music” series. I have some real issues with that program. I watched it back to back with the BBC documentary on your band and it was like two different sets of people were being chronicled. Too many bummers and sad moments in “Behind The Music.” The romantic break ups, the drug problems, money trips, the pending terminal illness, legal and management problems. You know, “Don’t do blow, monitor your dough” lessons. Predictable story lines. What about the music?
I did an interview with Patti Smith last year, and we talked a bit about “Behind The Music” ‘cause I get calls from them for archive and research, and I’ve stopped helping them. Patti has always balked at participating in the series and told me, “I don’t have any sob stories for those guys” I want to see music shows about music, not heroin or rehab. The de-construction of rock and roll bands in tales veering away from the actual music and songs. But I also know it is a tremendous promotional vehicle, and I’ve heard the bands are really involved in producing the show, hence some cool early home movie footage and childhood photos. And naturally some involvement in editorial control. But reality TV and tabloid mentality has filtered through VH-1 and some MTV programming that has very little to do with the music. Look, I also know, the viewers don’t want on their TV screen an examination of the chord structure of your composition “Rip Her To Shreds.”
A: Well, the “Behind The Music” was a double-edged sword for us but it was very much needed as promotional tool to highlight the resurgence of the band. We had the “Behind The Music” thing in the pipeline as far as knowing we’d be able to use that to promote the “No Exit” record.
Q: Is it true the band have creative control and are very active in materials included in the show?
A: You get to see it and make suggestions and edit, and if there is something you don’t like you work with them. Chris (Stein) is usually at odds with most people he needs to work with to begin with. (laughs). Yea, there was definite control by the band, and an obvious “sob story” involved being Chris’ illness. But there’s a certain misnomer that we’ve been completely ripped off which is not true to the extent that gets portrayed by some people. It has more to do with people not really being particularly responsible with their money. With the “Behind The Music” there was some reticence by some people in the band to expose things but at the same time we knew we needed “Behind The Music” to promote the new album and the resurgence of the band. But the contrast of that and the BBC “Omnibus” TV program came from a much more place of respect for the band and not for Blondie as looking for the angle that is involved with the heart-wrenching sob story. I don’t think the BBC were really out for that. I mean the BBC show begins with images of Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Khruschev. ‘Omnibus’ is their version of our A&E “Biography.” They are not looking for scandal but human history.
To really answer your question, about scandals in music documentaries, and portions of “Behind The Music,” I know both of us would like more archive film footage and rare photos in the program, and no I don’t want to know more about the scandals behind the music, which is why it’s called that. I think it kinda dilutes the persona of the band and feeds the cliché of do you really want to meet your heroes and be disappointed. But I think you are exposed to that and Blondie were as guilty as anyone who was publicity seeking at that point.
Q: Why does Blondie work well in the visual medium?
A: There’s a younger fan base discovering us and one of the main attributes is that Debbie has a really huge head. That’s almost rule number one for being a TV or movie star, ya know. There’s that whole thing of “I thought they’d be much taller than that.” It’s not the height, but the dimensions of the head, Debbie has probably one of the biggest heads in the business and I don’t mean that factiously. She does. The band just has a charisma in general and a lot of that is attributed to Debbie as well.
Q: What are the music documentaries and rock movies that delivered and really impressed you?
A: I like the ABBA documentary. Bob Dylan’s “Dont Look Back,” with Dylan being himself. The whole cinema verite concept. You kind of got the feeling you were a fly on the wall and Pennebaker had access. I really liked Madonna’s “Truth or Dare” She went for it and very parallel to “Dont Look Back.” And there was a lot of black and white and only the music concert scenes were in color. It was very much a road picture. Madonna let us into her world as much as she wanted to but was very aware of the camera. The things with her dad. I remember enjoying it at the time but not something I could quote verbatim.
“The Last Waltz” was great. I went to see a screening of it at The New School when it first came out and Martin) Scorsese and Robbie Robertson spoke at it. That is getting back to what I thought music videos should be. There you have great performances captured for prosperity. You have a moment in time that should have been captured. All those artists together in one place. Levon Helm blew my mind. I liked “Bangla Desh” but no behind the scenes stuff at all just about performance.
There’s a lot of movies that capture the mood of what it is like to be in a rock band or what it’s like to be on the road. “Still Crazy.” You know what movie really captured it, and I hate to say it, “Rock Star.” I think it was very out of vogue when it was made and I think the music was the least enjoyable aspect in it. Also, the film was released right next to 9/11. “Boogie Nights” come on! The guy who directed it, Paul Thomas Anderson then did “Magnolia,” one of the greatest films last decade. Fabulous soundtrack. The music was integral, and the use of Super Tramp in that movie made me re-think that band. I mean I like those Super Tramp songs now. Profound philosophical songs that carried the movie with the original Amie Mann songs in the soundtrack. And I really like John Brion’s scores. I dig Anderson’s “Hard 8,” and the opening is sorta like an homage to “Goodfellas.”
Scorsese is the original music in film guy as far as putting songs in movies. “Be My Baby” opening “Mean Streets.” See, that’s the thing. He took music almost out of context to what’s going on. Here’s a movie about the mob and “Be My Baby” is playing…I like when Scorsese does a wall to all thing with music packed in his films. I like the juxtaposition when a song in the film has nothing to do with what is going on the screen in my opinion. I kinda enjoy that. But I guess what he’s doing is trying to capture an era. But lyrically…You see somebody getting their head bashed and hearing Cream’s “Tales Of Brave Ulysses” and it’s kinda wild.
Q: What are some of the soundtracks you own?
A: “Super Fly” by Curtis Mayfield. Amazing soundtrack and amazing record.
“Privilege” is a great movie and a great soundtrack. Paul Jones in the movie and the songs Mike Leander arranged for it. “Free Me” and “I’ve Been A Bad, Bad, Bad Boy.”
It was probably viewed as controversial because it mixed religion and music. Sort of like Bono now. “High Fidelity” was an entertaining movie. We understood that.
Hands down my favorite soundtrack of all time would be “Blow Up” Herbie Hancock…”Blow Up” is an endless source of inspiration…The Yardbirds doing “Stoll On…” “Performance,” “Memo To Turner…” What about the first time you heard something like that? Really great. Jack Nitzsche was making great music for films.
“West Side Story” is one of my favorite movies and soundtrack albums. The songs…What a glimpse into New York City street life. The Nice did “America,” and PJ Proby covered “Somewhere” from it.
“The Thing You Do” is really a great movie that captures what it’s like being in a band. The cast. “Back Beat” was great. I cried at the end.
The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night”’ Blew my mind. The most enduring thing about that movie was seeing the Beatles as human beings. Walkng, talking and eating…Funny human beings. I loved the way the Marx Brothers incorporated music into their films way before rock ‘n’ roll. I liked “Help!” a lot, too. For me, I like the songs better than “A Hard Day’s Night.” 1966 come on! “Let It Be” is essential viewing for anybody in a rock band. I think you have to be in a band or involved in the music business to really get the dynamics of what is going on in that film and all the baggage on display. I saw “Let It Be” before I was ever in Blondie. “Let It Be” is a learning tool. Art is really there to learn from generally, especially if you are in the arts. That movie evolves as you evolve as a human being.
I like “Monterey Pop,” if nothing else for the Who, (Jimi) Hendrix and Otis Redding footage. I liked “Woodstock” at the time but it’s not a film that I go back over and over to watch it like “Performance,” “Privlige,” “Don’t Look Back,” “Bangla Desh” or “The Last Waltz.” The music of the “Woodstock” era has not endured for me the same way Iggy Pop or David Bowie has. The Monkees’ “Head” was hard for me to watch. I loved their TV show. More concise and edited. It was under control. Maybe with “Head” they all were out to destroy the Monkees. “The Harder They Come” is a great movie about the
Music business. A phenomenal reggae music soundtrack. The Who’s “Quadrophenia” was terrific. The soundtrack is just as good as the film.
I really like “The T.A.M.I. Show” and “The Big T.N.T.” The black and white concert films. “T.A.M.I”. had James Brown, The Supremes, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones. T.N.T. had The Byrds, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Ronettes, Ray Charles. Donovan. I really like the Frank Sinatra movie “The Man With The Golden Arm” with the Elmer Bernstein score. That’s brilliant.
“8 Mile” is great. Eminem was good on screen. I’m very familiar with that part of the country. Eminem walked off the street into my friend’s studio.
Elvis Presley… “Jailhouse Rock,” “King Creole” and “Kid Galahad.” The only one that is horrible is “Change Of Habit.” “Viva Las Vegas” was a great movie. Just Elvis’ sexuality and all his interaction with all those cool chicks in it. His movies were microcosms of an era too, and out of synch with the times, in some ways they still kinda reflect the times at the same time. The songs in the movies. I really liked his concert movies. “The Way It Is.” He didn’t seem larger than life because in some ways he was before my time in a way. I think people that are in one’s time seem to become mega larger than life more so than people that are so more kind of mythical. Elvis was cool and had one of the best voices. His films were movies inside of movies in a way. I think the only time Elvis seemed bigger to me was when he died in 1977. When the whole punk rock thing was going on and it added an extra meaning to me. Like all of a sudden there was no Elvis Presley only Elvis Costello, which was kinda strange…
Q: What is your best movie and music collaboration?
A: Actually, the soundtrack I’m probably the most proud of is “Repo Man.” It’s Checkered Past, my old band, after Blondie, minus Michael des Barres, with Iggy Pop. On the record we’re listed but not the film. We did the title a song with Iggy who just blasted out the lyrics. I know I didn’t get paid and we got the studio for free. I think in general movie soundtracks for the creators, artists and composers is more of an outlet, more of a free reign to be more creative, especially if you get to see the film and let your imagination run wild and create music for a particular scene. There’s also some background music that you can expand.
I’m like Phil Spector: I like to hear things coming out of a little five-inch mono speaker coming out of the radio anyway.
Q: Is looking at music films a different experience now since you’ve been a professional musician and involved in a global music band for many decades?
A: Any film that is about the entertainment business you’re able to say this is genuine or this is not a real experience. This is too corny.
Q: It must bum you out when you see wrong song time-appropriate placements in movies. When the songs are not time specific for scenes.
A: That’s really bad…It’s weird enough when you see a 1985 Fender head stack about a blues musician in 1964. Or when you see drums that obviously weren’t around in the Sixties. I think our generation has come of age, and we are in control, for better or worse. I think you see less of that.
The archival stuff… It’s gonna be a while before the next generation picks up on it. Like
compact discs there’s gonna be less interest in it. Less interest in catalogue. Less interest in Blondie. Maybe not the Beatles. It might skip a generation until after our generation has bought the CD’s, and seen all the DVD’s.
The evolution of pop music needs to be explained as time goes on and how it’s all connected.
I’m doing some live shows with Nancy Sinatra between working with Blondie which is a lot of fun. (Keyboardist) Don Randi is in the band. She sings her theme song to the James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice.” So, I’m around and involved with movie and music tunes.
(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015’s Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016’s Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017’s 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 the duo wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) is scheduled for 2025 publication.
Harvey wrote the liner notes to CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.
During 2006 Kubernik spoke at the special hearings by The Library of Congress in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 he appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Distinguished Speakers Series. Amidst 2023, Harvey spoke at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles discussing The Last Waltz music documentary).
