Patti Smith

BFrank · June-20th-2003, 01:30 AM

Any fans out there?

On Monday I saw her at a small club here in SF. What a great show! She poured it on for well over 2 hours and the crowd left exhausted. I've always liked her, but this is only the third time I've seen her in concert and a great treat to see the show in a small venue. She doesn't seem to have lost a beat.

The band was as tight as ever, including "lifers" Jay Dee Daugherty (who I went to high school with, actually) on drums and Lenny "LENNY!" Kaye on guitar.

She performed stuff covering the full gamut of her career - from early tunes like "Free Money" and "Ask The Angels" to more recent songs like "1959" and "Summer Cannibals". A nice touch was the lead in to "Rock & Roll Nigger" which is called "Babelogue" on record, but she read "Spell" from Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in appreciation of City Lights books.

4 days later and I'm still humming the tunes. The sign of a good show.

lazarus · June-20th-2003, 01:46 AM

I am one of her biggest fans. I love her!
Unfortunely I have never seen her in concert.

I´m glad to hear that she still is in fine form.
I have only seeing positive reviews of her performances since her "comeback" in mid-90´s.
A couple of years ago she was in Stockholm with among others Tom Verlaine in the band and some friends of mine who saw the concert was very pleased with the show.

She´s a hero!

frankpop1 · June-20th-2003, 05:09 AM

good poet - i love her music and 'horses' is a 70s classic, but u have went to THREE! of her concerts. see i could never do that. was it loud?

no offense, laz, but, personally, i getting sick & tired of seeing the crack of that lady's ass.

Jon Abbey · June-20th-2003, 05:25 AM

big fan of Horses, never liked much else she did. she's OK with me on the basis of just that record, though.

Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine!

lazarus · June-20th-2003, 08:06 AM

Quote:

no offense, laz, but, personally, i getting sick & tired of seeing the crack of that lady's ass.

I´m very sorry to hear that, frankenbutt.
Personally I think it´s a very beautiful picture of a beautiful woman. It´s a classic photo by french surrealist Man Ray.

Apropos Patti Smith.
I think she´s the perfect link between the beats, hippies and the punk-rockers.

Monte Smith · June-20th-2003, 08:15 AM

I thought this was a thread about my mom.

Dr Dave · June-20th-2003, 08:18 AM

I recall seeing Patti Smith not long after "Horses" came out. She talked a lot, played the clarinet. Lenny Kaye was both loud and inept. Despite the volume, my wife fell asleep, which gives some idea of how dynamic a performer Patti was at the time. She did wake up for "Gloria," the set-closer, which was excellent.

The other band on the bill was DEVO. I'm pretty sure they were lip-synching. It was not the greatest evening in the annals of popular music.

walto · June-20th-2003, 09:00 AM

Dave did you know that a guy from Devo does the music for the Rugrats tv show and movies?

Gentle Giant · June-20th-2003, 09:50 AM

I don't have a lot of her stuff, but I definitely respect her as one of the great genre-busting writers and performers. As long as she shaves her pits, I would definitely enjoy seeing her live next time she comes to Boston.

Salvador Dali Lama · June-20th-2003, 11:21 AM

eh.. beh... ah.... gu....... eh.

blawless · June-20th-2003, 01:47 PM

Ah, memories. Horses was the soundtrack of a solid year and a half during college. I bought her follow-ups but they were very deep disappointments--too much put-on Native American cosmologizing and new-agey rhapsodizing. (All the gooey bodily fluid imagery on Horses was the sign that things were getting a little out of hand.) "Gloria," though--for me, she'll forever be in the pantheon on the strength of that alone. Pure catharsis. It still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it. I've never seen her live but I've heard her recent music and read the New Yorker feature on her a year or so ago, and it made me a little sad. She and her peers seemed the antithesis of pop-music "survivorship" and all the sighing sentimental reckonings with greyness and mortality that too many past-their-prime mainstream stars resort to. She's so much a part of her era that, although I would never begrudge her her I'm-sure-still-burning talent and right to tour (even strictly) on the basis of her past glories, I'm most happy remembering her in the day. I also think I'd pass on seeing Television on their summer state fair tour or taking a listen to Richard Hell's collaborations with Carole King (Burt Bacharach having been claimed), as much as those guys had my undying adoration for a while. Maybe it's just that it makes *me* feel old. I don't want to have to hang a dreamcatcher from my rearview mirror just yet.

Dr Dave · June-20th-2003, 08:21 PM

blawless: Amen.

Walt: Mark Mothersbaugh?

BFrank · June-21st-2003, 01:42 AM

I'm surprised no one seems to like her other albums - especially from the early years. I thought they were all pretty solid and each one definitely had at least a few first-rate pop tunes.

Ethiopia has "Ask The Angels" and "Ain't It Strange"
Easter is full of rockin' tunes including the 'Bruce' collaboration/hit "Because The Night" (which isn't one of my favorites, actually)
Wave features "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" which I think are pretty hard NOT to like. Great pop tunes, if nothing else.

There are definitely tunes that can be pretty indulgent, but after all, she's really a poet, and never set out to be a rock star. I think she would be the first one to tell you that, too.

lazarus · June-22nd-2003, 01:14 AM

Quote:

I'm surprised no one seems to like her other albums - especially from the early years.

I agree that "Horses" is her best album but I like them all except her only 80´s release "Dream Of Life".
I´m very fond of her latest cd "Gung Ho".