"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."
As I said, I had no idea at the time what the words were about, except for the fact that despite its title, I was pretty sure it wasn't about Charlie Parker. What draws you in here is simply the dark, descriptive beauty of those words and Patti's brilliant delivery of them. Like I said, it's all about the cadence.
"And then the little boy's face lit up with such naked joy
That the sun burned around his lids and his eyes were like two suns,
White lids, white opals, seeing everything just a little bit too clearly
And he looked around and there was no black ship in sight,
No black funeral cars, nothing except for him the raven
And fell on his knees and looked up and cried out,
“No, daddy, don't leave me here alone,
Take me up, daddy, to the belly of your ship,
Let the ship slide open and I'll go inside of it
Where you're not human, you are not human.”
"Birdland" remains my favorite Patti Smith song to this day, and one of my all-time favorite pieces of music by just about any artist, period. But it was only several years later that I figured out what the song may have been actually about. It would seem to be about any number of things, but chief amongst them would be life, birth, death, and apparently some sort of UFO abduction. (You tell me what else all that stuff about white opals and being carried up into a ship is supposed to mean.)
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.