The Meaning Behind Heart Of Glass By Blondie

While many songs of the 1970s and 1980s eras (and of today, come to think of it) have obscure lyrics that seem to hint at some sort of tragic (or at least dramatic) secret in the singer's life, that was definitely not the case with "Heart of Glass." Debbie Harry spoke with The Guardian in 2013 and told them the lyrics to the hit song "weren't about anyone. They were just a plaintive moan about lost love."

Harry admitted that the original lyrics amounted to nothing more than the bit that goes, "Once I had a love, it was a gas. Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass," but said that they had to expand upon that line so added in, "Soon turned out, had a heart of glass." This phrase eventually came to be used as the title of a track originally known as "The Disco Song" and then later as "Once I Had a Love" (via Far Out). Believe it or not, back in the late 1970s, the word "ass" was seen as so controversial that BBC Radio bleeped it out. Harry also told Entertainment Weekly in a 2014 interview that, "People got upset because I sang 'ass.' Maybe because it's a three-letter word and not a four-letter word? I think we got banned in a few places because of that."