Blondie - Rapture (5.1 surround sound mix)

Описание: This 5.1 mix was sourced from lossy ogg/vorbis stems.
___
"Rapture" is a song by American rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album Autoamerican (1980). Written by band members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and produced by Mike Chapman, the song was released as the second and final single from Autoamerican on January 12, 1981, by Chrysalis Records. Musically, "Rapture" is a combination of new wave, disco and hip hop with a rap section forming an extended coda.

"Rapture" was another commercial success for the band, shipping one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, their fourth and last single to reach the top ten. It was the first number-one single in the United States to feature rap vocals. The single also peaked at number three in Canada, and number five in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein were friends with Brooklyn- and Bronx-based hip-hop artists such as Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Brathwaite) in the late 1970s. Brathwaite took Harry and Stein to a rap event in the Bronx one night in 1978, and they were both impressed by the skill and excitement as MCs rhymed lyrics over the beats of spinning records and people lined up for a chance to take the microphone and freestyle rap. Harry and Stein went to a few more such events, before deciding to write a rap song of their own in late 1979. They decided to combine what they had seen and heard in the Bronx with Chic-inspired disco music. Keyboardist Jimmy Destri found some tubular bells in the back of the studio, which added a haunting touch to the song. The title "Rapture" was an obvious pun on rap, according to Stein.

In an early recording the music was slower and simpler. Stein said that "[t]he slower tape was just bass, drums and guitar doubling the bass, I don’t think much else." This version was put aside and later reworked as "Rapture". For "Rapture", Stein said that "[w]e decided to make it faster." Stein later retrieved the original recording, and Harry and Braithwaite added vocals. The result was released in the UK as "Yuletide Throwdown", as a flexi disc given away with the magazine Flexipop.

Stein loved B-movies and science fiction imagery, so he wrote some surreal verses about a man from Mars. For the chorus, Harry tried to capture the feeling of a crowded hip-hop dance floor in the Bronx: "Toe to toe / Dancing very close / Barely breathing / Almost comatose / Wall to wall / People hypnotized / And they're stepping lightly / Hang each night in Rapture." They also referenced their friend Fab 5 Freddy, as well as Grandmaster Flash.

Record World said that "Debbie's sweet, enticing vocal transforms itself into a streetwise jam," calling the song "infectious" and calling the rhythm "hypnotic."

Credits and personnel

Debbie Harry – vocals
Clem Burke – drums
Jimmy Destri – electric keyboards
Nigel Harrison – bass
Frank Infante – guitar
Chris Stein – guitar, timpani
Tom Scott – saxophone