Patti Smith Group - Easter

Easter

The Patti Smith Group-Easter **** 1/2


It's ironic to think that Bruce Springsteens only number one song was performed by an artist/group who is not even half as famous as him and that never really set out to be that famous. 'Because The Night' the song Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen wrote together in the mid 1970's which went on to become a massive number one hit for The Patti Smith Group in 1978, and really the bands only hit single. But Easter is more then that. The Patti Smith group is a group of intelectuals who happened to pick up instruments and just happened to start a band. Lenny, the guitar player was a musical writer, while Patti is a a straight up poet in the truest and most purest since of the term, a pure poet.

Opening with 'Til Victory' the most just straight up rocker the band would ever record starts the album off just right. 'Space Monkey' is a guitar driven rant which does seem to lose it's focus at certain points but still prevails like and ancient comedy. 'Because The Night' keeps things rolling with dark lyrics of longing and love mixed somehow with a pop astetic. 'Ghost Dance' should be called 'Ghost Chant' rather because that is essentialy what it is. Much in the same vein as Jim Morrison and The Doors' 'Wild Love.' Not that I am comparing the two. 'Babelogue' is a live poetry reading from Patti with a crowed going wild in the back ground demostraiting the power of her readings which she was known for almost more so then her rock n' roll performances. 'Bebelogue' sort of rolls right into the focal point of the album, and maybe Patti Smiths greatest song of all time, 'Rock N' Roll Nigger.' A song that is nothing like you would assume from the title. Much like John Lennon's own 'Woman Is The Nigger Of The World' this song is about outsiders and trailblazers, originals, and those who have the courage to be themselves and in the process of that different. Calling Jesus Christ, Jackson Pullock, Jimi Hendrix, "niggers" and grandma too. Patti Smiths own mother use to vacum to that song. The rest of the album is sort of less then breathtaking you could say. Which is understandable concidering what they are fallowing. 'Priviledge (Set Me Free)' flows nice but is not too spectial. 'We Three' is moving and wonderfully written, with a nice piano melody to move it along. '25th Floor' is the shining diamond in the rough on the second side of the album. Next to 'Rock N' Roll Nigger' it is the strongest track on the album with powerful vocals and great imagry, fantastic guitar work from Lenny, and the driving Organ is perfectly complamentary. 'High On Rebellion' is a rocker with poetic lyrics spoken over a screaming Patti Smith vocal. It makes for an interesting track but can be too much to some, while I love it. 'Easter' seems like a stab at another epic like the band had done on their last album, their debut, Horses, which went on to become one of the greatest and most aclaimed albums of all time. Some versions of the album come with the bonus track 'Godspeed' which is a nice addition but one that I can personally take or leave.

Much like her first album and all the albums to come Patti takes the cover as a peice of art just as important as the music which is incased in side. The cover of Easter features Patti wearing a tank-top with her arms in the air displaying hairy armpits. Wow! It even tops the cover for Horses, which many thought would be impossible.

Easter is not the album Horses was, but it is not far off. The albums are nothing alike so don't expect them to be. All of Patti's solo albums as well as her work with the group are different from one another. One thing is for sure, Easter is worth owning, it's a peice of art, punk, and rock history that should not be left unvisited. February 5, 2008

100% unique.

love this cd. one of the most truly unique and individual performers ever. love her voice and style. this cd is a good introduction to her range. October 27, 2007

patti smith

from the mother of punk and grunge, one of the best combinations of words and music. others may copy "Because the Night", but hers is done the way it was meant to be. it only gets better with replay. June 19, 2007

Her Second and Final Masterpiece (* * * * 1/4)

That Patti Smith's third LP was to be unique in her catalogue was evident by the album cover: it was in color. Similarly, the sound of the album was a bit more colorful, too. This was thanks to producer Jimmy Iovine, whose previous clients as a sound engineer included Bruce Springsteen and Meat Loaf, and among whose future credits as a producer would be Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Stevie Nicks, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, and U2. This résumé makes him seem like an odd choice for a singer who just three years earlier was being produced by John Cale.

But there was a common bond between Smith and Iovine: the aforementioned Bruce Springsteen. Iovine had engineered Born To Run and Darkness On the Edge of Town, and Springsteen co-wrote what has justly become Smith's most enduring song, "Because The Night". Some at the time probably considered Smith to be a sellout for daring to reach the top 20 with a really good song on a really good album. However, just as rage and spirituality - sometimes borderline preachiness - are part of her poetic formula, so is tenderness. Her unrefined voice gets a great showcase here, and shows that one's voice must only suit the material to be beautiful. (Listen to Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits for other examples of this.)

Iovine's touch is obvious on the opening track, "Till Victory", which starts off with a triumphant beat that almost turns into The Boss' "Badlands". This followed by the strong mid-tempo rocker "Space Monkey", co-written with her long-time collaborator and friend Tom Verlaine. "Ghost Dance" is somewhat repetitive and goes on a bit long, but it has a nice tribal flavor to it. "Babelogue", unfortunately, is a pretty sophomoric rant. "I haven't f----- much with the past, but I've f----- plenty with the future"...oooh, deep. Still, there is one line which stands out in a post-9/11 world: "In heart I am a Moslem, in heart I am an American; in heart I am Moslem, in heart I am an American artist".

This brings us to what is probably Smith's most controversial song, "Rock 'N' Roll N-----". If her goal was, as she says in "Babelogue", to "seek the nerves under you skin", then she certainly succeeded with this song. Such a title alone has the potential to be downright offensive, poetic license notwithstanding. However, the fact that Smith was able to perform this song nearly 30 years later at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction is proof enough that people understand how she is using the forbidden word. Clearly, it is not meant as a disparaging term for African-Americans. Granted, she does say "Jimi Hendrix was a n-----", but she says the same of Jesus Christ and Jackson Pollack. What these three have in common is that they were "outside of society", as were the African slaves who went from being considered subhuman to 3/5 human, only to have their descendents relegated to second-class citizenship. The skin that they were literally born into made them different, but it didn't make them inferior to others any more than the figurative skin into which Jesus, Jackson, and Jimi were born did. Thus, it was wrong to treat African-Americans as inferior, just as it would have been to treat the latter three as such.

"Rock 'N' Roll N-----", divides the album down the middle, and she waxes poetic a bit more on the second half. "We Three", which has a bit of a girl group quality to it, and "Easter" are both fairly tender tracks. "25th Floor", conversely, is a pure rocker, with a curious rant about pollution and excrement thrown in halfway through. The guitar that opens the song is reminiscent "Teenage Head" by The Flamin' Groovies, while in the verses it settles into a staccato strut that sounds like it might have been on Marquee Moon. This song segues into "High On Rebellion", another sturdy rocker, which contiues Smith's double vocal track that began in the previous song.

Rock critic Jim DeRogatis described Horses and Easter as albums on which Patti Smith's "artistic pretensions and rock 'n' roll power are mixed in equal proportions". While Easter is not quite as strong as her debut, it is darn close. The longer pieces from Horses are forgone for shorter, more focused songs. (The longest song on Easter is the title track, which is just over six minutes long, as opposed to the two songs of over nine minutes on Horses.) Anyone who is inclined to like Patti Smith will find both albums equally satisfying, and both are essential to any rock 'n roll CD collection. (Although her releases have been few and far between since 1978, and have only fitfully reached the standard of her best albums, the 2-disc compilation Land: 1975-2002 is also nice to have around.) May 11, 2007

easter/patti smith group

this is a very good album, i liked all the songs ex/ for a few,went on too long f/me. May 11, 2007

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