Besides the fact that this is a long Memorial Day weekend, here in Seattle we are also celebrating SIFF, which is an abbreviated way of saying that the annual Seattle International Film Festival is upon us. What does any of this have to do with Patti Smith, you ask?
Well, SIFF's opening night featured the world premiere of a film called Battle In Seattle, which is a dramatization about the 1999 WTO riots. The film was directed by Stuart Townsend and stars his girlfriend Charlize Theron, among other notables. This got me to thinking about one of the many Patti Smith shows I've seen over the years, one that took place at about the same time as the riots over the World Trade Organization's conference here.
Never one to downplay her political leanings, Patti used the stage as something of a pulpit at this show, railing against oppression in government, urging the audience to boycott MTV, and in general proclaiming her solidarity with her WTO protesting comrades.
It was classic Patti Smith. In fact, Patti probably could've written a hell of a soundtrack to Battle In Seattle.
From the very first time I heard Patti Smith's brilliant debut album Horses, I instantly fell in love with her. Most of my friends thought I had gone completely nuts as I raved about this album, citing then common complaints about her voice, and the hair under her armpits. But for me, there was simply no denying the beauty of her more often spoken than really sung words, or the hypnotic draw of her stark, minimal sound.
The song from Horses that most grabbed me was "Birdland."
I had absolutely no idea what the words were about at the time — only that her delivery of them had this strangely sacred, yet equally dark and profane beauty about it. Set against a quiet piano, Patti Smith recites the words in a soft, plaintive, and almost childlike voice that builds for the song's nine or so minutes to a thundering crescendo of screeching guitars and feedback. In this particular song, the cadence was everything:
"His father died and left him a little farm in New England.
All the long black funeral cars left the scene
And the boy was just standing there alone
Looking at the shiny red tractor
Him and his daddy used to sit inside
And circle the blue fields and grease the night.
It was if someone had spread butter on all the fine points of the stars
'Cause when he looked up they started to slip.
Then he put his head in the crux of his arm
And he started to drift, drift to the belly of a ship,
Let the ship slide open, and he went inside of it
And saw his daddy 'hind the control board streamin' beads of light,
He saw his daddy 'hind the control board,
And he was very different tonight
'Cause he was not human, he was not human."
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Article comments
1 - JC Mosquito
You and me both, Glen.
One point I'd make is that I don't think it was years before people figured out Horses was something special - read the contemporary reviews, and I believe most of them were quite positive.
Personally, Radio Ethiopia was my fave - heavy metal via White Light/White Heat.
2 - Glen Boyd
She was a critics fave from day one Skeet, that much is true. But the general record buying public didn't start to catch up until Easter, and even then there was skepticism. You have to remember that this was back when rock music was completely polarized into all of these seperate camps...the metalheads vs. the punkers and the like. It took years for Patti to gain respect outside of the critics and the hipsters. To some folks she was just too "out there." Today, what she did would be considered mainstream.
-Glen
3 - JC Mosquito
I agree with you Glen, but are you saying she eventually was assimilated into the mainstream? Obviously she got noticed with Easter and Because the Night, but I know lot of people to this day who don't know who she is other than from the one song.
Or maybe I'm just hanging with the wrong crowd.
4 - Glen Boyd
She's still what you'd have to call a somewhat fringe artist I suppose. Although Dancing Barefoot has been covered nearly as much as Because the Night has. But even as a fringe artist, she is pretty much universally respected now. You just don't hear the "she can't sing" or "her band can't play" like you did back in the day from some quarters. Bottom line is if you know rock, you know Patti Smith. She's not so much just a "critics act" anymore.
As for that crowd you run with...
-Glen
5 - JC Mosquito
You know, I'd even go so far as to suggest that vocally she's not only grown in her emotional range, but oddly enough, her technical ability has improved with age. We should all be so lucky. But that's part of the reason you don't hear the "she can't sing" naysayers anymore - just give her last disc a spin for the evidence.
But you know all that already - as an aside, I wonder if Jimbo Mojo Risin', one of Patti's early inspirations, would've aged this gracefully.