Autoamerican is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Blondie. It was released in November 1980 and reached #3 in the UK charts, #7 in the US, and #8 in Australia.
The album was a radical departure for the band, with opening track "Europa" setting the pace. The track is a dramatic instrumental overture featuring orchestral arrangements and ending with vocalist Debbie Harry declaiming a passage about automobile culture over an electronic soundtrack. Besides rock and pop tracks, the band explored a wide range of other musical genres: "Here's Looking at You" and "Faces" show jazz and blues influences, the reggae hit "The Tide Is High" was a cover of The Paragons' 1967 Jamaican ska hit, whereas "Rapture" combined funk, rock, jazz, and even saw them embracing the then emerging genre of rap. The closing track, "Follow Me", was a cover of a torch song from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical Camelot.
Producer Mike Chapman insisted the band record in Los Angeles. Guitarist Chris Stein lamented: "Every day we get up, stagger into the blinding sun, [and] drive past a huge Moon-mobile from some ancient sci-fi movie." Drummer Clem Burke welcomed the change: "Autoamerican was fun. We got to spend two months in California. I'm always up for a free ride." However, the band insisted on the cover artwork shot being from their hometown, posing on a roof at New York's Broadway and Eighth. The image was taken from a commissioned painting by artist Martin Hoffman (1935-2013).
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
Back to back, sacroiliac
Spineless movement and a wild attack
Face to face, sadly solitude
And it's finger popping
Twenty-four hour shopping in rapture
Fab Five Freddie told me everybody's fly
DJ's spinnin' are savin' my mind
Flash is fast, flash is cool
Francois sais pas, flashe' no do
And you don't stop, sure shot
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercurys and Subarus
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Then when there's no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars
Where the people meet
Face to face, dance cheek to cheek
One to one, man to man
Dance toe to toe, don't move too slow
'Cause the man from Mars is through with cars
He's eatin' bars, yeah, wall to wall
Door to door, hall to hall
He's gonna eat 'em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour through the sewer
Don't strain your brain, paint a train
You'll be singin' in the rain
I said, "Don't stop, do punk rock"
Man to man, body muscular
Seismic decibel by the jugular
Wall to wall, tea time technology
And a digital ladder, no sign of bad luck in rapture
Well, now you see what you wanna be
Just have your party on TV
'Cause the man from Mars won't eat up bars
Where the TV's on
Now he's gone back up to space
Where he won't have a hassle with the human race
And you hip-hop and you don't stop
Just blast off, sure shot
'Cause the man from Mars
Stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars
And now he only eats guitars
Get up!