Everything changed for Blondie in 1978. Leaning into their punk background, pop hooks, and the playful, far-ranging curiosities that gave their shows an edge, Blondie honed in on their sound with Plastic Letters, their sophomore album, in February and landed on U.S. Billboard charts for the first time. The band’s cultural domination exploded with Parallel Lines in September of that same year, with the Mike Chapman-produced album reaching No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and propelling several of its singles—including “Heart of Glass,” “One Way or Another,” and “Sunday Girl”—to achieve the vaulted status of classics.
Despite the Roland CR-78 drum machine kicking off “Heart of Glass” and its opening clicks being pushed to the forefront of the mix at a time when drum machines weren’t dominating popular music, Burke didn’t sweat the idea that he might be replaced. Instead, he enjoyed the challenge of bringing energy and spirit to a static, technology-centered song. “I later got to work with Kraftwerk’s German producer Conny Plank when he was producing the Eurythmics, and he really made a point of telling me how much he enjoyed ‘Heart of Glass’ and hearing the electronic influence, because it was very early on that we recorded that with the drum machine and all those kind of things,” Burke later recounted.
Following Blondie’s dissolution in 1982, Burke became a go-to drummer for some of the biggest names in music at the time, including the Who’s Pete Townshend—one of his personal idols—as well as Bob Dylan, Eurythmics, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, Nancy Sinatra, Dramarama, and the Fleshtones, among many others. Arguably his most famous sit-in experience was with the Ramones, who he joined for two shows in 1987 and was officially named Elvis Ramone. Burke also formed a number of supergroups over the years like the International Swingers, Slinky Vagabond, and Magic Christian.
During Blondie’s comeback era, Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the band in 2006. A few years later, Burke revealed that he had participated in an eight-year-long study about the physical and psychological effects of rock drumming at a professional tier, which included playing 90-minute sets at 100 concerts in a year. The University of Gloucestershire awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011 for completing the project, and Burke founded the Clem Burke Drumming Project to document the positive results of the study and encourage other drummers to participate.
Countless tributes have rolled in from musicians as they process the news of Burke’s death, including posts from the Kinks’ Dave Davies, Johnny Marr, Blur’s Graham Coxon, Echo and the Bunnymen, Garbage, and Sky Ferreira. “My heart is shattered,” wrote Nancy Sinatra. “Clem became an icon as a member of Blondie, but he was also a important part of my band, the KAB. I was blessed to call him my friend. If I ever needed him, he was there.”
