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^ATTI SMITH:
STILL. EDG-y AfTeR
ALL THeSk fyEAAS
// p ecause of the events in my life in the last
Dfew years, I became introspective."
Patti Smith is talking about the music she
made previous to he« recent Aiista album Gung
Ho. After retiring from the stage in 1979, she
returned to it in the mid-'90s, shedding the
role of homemaker that she embraced after the
birth of her children with late MC5 guitarist
Fred "Sonic" Smith.
"It took me a while to rebuild rry confi
dence enough to look at the external world
again," Smith says.
Patti Smith's latest record is a something
of a surprise, considering that the deaths of
her husband, her brother (Todd), a bandmate
(Richard Sohl), and a best-friend/mentor
(Robert Mapplethorpe) haunted her last two
albums, Gone Again (1996) and Peace And
Noise (1997). Those records invoked a sense
of confusion, loss and anger—emotions
which have fueled her entire career.
However, those documents of her pain were
rendered so personally and acutely that they
seemed intrusive, if not downright
masochistic. Rut such sentiments are the
tableau from which Smith's art flows.
"I'm like (fin de siecle French poet
Guillaume] Apollinaire: one of these
people who writes elegies," she says.
Smith has always eulogized certain cul
tural icons, like Jim Morrison, Allen
Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Kurt
Cobain. On Gung Ho, she gives rock and roll props
to Mother Teresa, Jerry Garda, Ho Chi Minh and
even Custer's wife. Instead of fashioning odes to
these individuals, she builds her song-poem state
ments around them.
Smith's father, who passed away recently, is
eulogized on the cover of the record, instead of in
a song. "It's one of the few shots of my father
taken during the war." she explains. It's also the
first time she has chosen a cover image not of
herself. "My mom always used to say to us kids,
'Oh, look at your father. He's so gung hor
Apropos of her skill as a wordsmith, the singer
looked into the roots of the phrase. "'Gung Ho' is
an old Chinese character meaning 'working
together.' In 1942, the U.S. Marines—the Raider
Division—used it as their slogan."
To that end, the Patti Smith" Group—long-
timers Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, Smith's
current beau, Oliver Ray and Tony Shanahan—
have never sounded better, thanks in part to pro
ducer Gil Norton, who always brought the Pixies'
idiosyncrasies so audibly to the fore. Smith's vmce
has grown into an amazingly versatile instrument;
she wails, grunts, screams and moans through her
poetics in a way that brings them to life like
never before. No longer a musician-for-lack-of-a-
better-term, punky Patti now commands respect
as a songwriter, rather than just as a poet with a
band. "I'm at a time in my life where I'm comfort
able with what my skills aie," she says.
Ever the artful provocateur, Smith has fash
ioned "Glitter in Their Eyes" into the most potent
single of her career. It's a gntty stab at our con-
sumerist culture and features a guitar solo by old
CBGB's compatriot Ton Verlaine (Television).
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, a long-time fan of Patti's,
provides backing vocals.
"I wish people would wake up," she says.
"People are looking at themselves as consumers.
Children are looked at as demographics. Even the
way we're using the new technology is all about
how you can buy something. We're losing our
selves as spiritual beings to become just people
who have stuff."
Elsewhere on Gung Ho, "New Party" finds Smith
directing her poetic venom at today's politicians:
"Why don't you fertilize my lawn/ With what's
running from your mouth." On "Strange
Messengers," a piece on the pre-Civil War slave
trade in the South, she transform: her voice into
that
of an old black woman, railing, "I toiled for you
and your cnildren/ You bum your life on crack and
sorrowful stories/ You feel so sorry for yourself/
that's how you repay your ancestors?!"
Awkward and reckless though these songs may
seem to some, they mark Smith's return to what
made hei so ahead of her time, and so exciting to
watch and listen to, when she first began
recordmg and performing in the 1970s. She also
returns to the essential subversion that made her
'70s work so unforgettable.
"People give me accolades I don't deserve,"
Smith answers, like the queen of punk. "I was just
trying to be a Paul Revere character, the person
waking people up. The tact that I didn't record for
16 years and have only made eight albums in 25
years means I'm still learning. My singing has
gotten stronger."
Smith's artistic voice has never been ques
tioned, however, and never sounded more fit. Her
gracing the stage at the 40 Watt Club constitutes
the smallest venue the singer has played this tour,
perhaps as a favor to her bud Stipe (who, we can
hope, will join her for a rousing rendition of
"Glitter in Their Eyes" on-stage). Further urgency
was added when Smith recently announced she
has recorded her last for Arista, a statement in
response to the ouster of label founder, and Smith
patron, Clive Davis.
‘I've never been in step. I was called old-fash
ioned in the '70s by the English punk rockers. But
there's so much more to explore. I've never heard
so much music in my head."
Mark Emge
Tuesday's Patti Smith performance is part of the
Digital Club Network Festival—a four-day "cyber
cast" series in which dozens of national bands are
broadcast live over the web from clubs across the
country Go to digitalclubnetwork.com for infor
mation.
WHO: Patti Smith
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Tuesday, July 25, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $15
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JULY 19, 2000 FLAGPOLE E3