Patti Smith - Paris 1978 - here
Punk rock's poet laureate, Patti Smith ranks among the most influential female rock & rollers of all time. Ambitious, unconventional, and challenging, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan's heyday.
If that hybrid remained distinctly uncommercial for much of her career, it wasn't a statement against accessibility so much as the simple fact that Smith followed her own muse wherever it took her - from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism, or even completely out of music at times. Her most avant-garde outings drew a sense of improvisation and interplay from free jazz, though they remained firmly rooted in noisy, primitive three-chord rock & roll. She has a powerful concert presence, singing and chanting her lyrics in an untrained but expressive voice, whirling around the stage like an ecstatic shaman delivering incantations.
The Stooges may have defined the sound and attitude of punk rock, and the New York Dolls lent it some style, but Patti Smith gave it its substance. Imbued with an all-consuming passion for the verse of Arthur Rimbaud and the grit of early rock ‘n’ roll, Patti combined simplicity and intellect to help forge the most vital and honest musical form of the 20th century.After humble beginnings in Chicago and chasing her muse to Paris, Patti Smith eventually found her way to the artistic circles of New York in the early ‘70s. Her readings at St. Mark’s Poetry Project lead to performances including musicians like rock historian and guitarist Lenny Kaye and pianist Richard Sohl, who would later comprise her fully fledged rock band and contribute to a series of records that were as aggressive and daring as they were beautiful.
Here´s a bootleg called "Live In Paris, 1978". The sound quality is excellent. All but the last 5 tracks were recorded live in Paris in 1978 - performance is fair to good. This show from March of 1978 was a sort of spiritual homecoming for the woman that had once busked on the streets of the City of Light, immersed in the environs that had created her favorite poems. But the cobbled alleyways needn’t have served as her theatre this time around; the punk scene Patti helped nurture was in full swing and the recent release of the album Easter yielded her highest charting hit, “Because the Night,” co-written by Bruce Springsteen. The band is in top form as the rattle through a brief set, book-ending their palpitating version of Them’s “Gloria” with newer material that is just as transcendent - listen for a room full of raucous French fans chanting, “pah-TEE, pah-TEE!!”
The first 4 of the last 5 tracks were from "The Mike Douglas Show" in 1976 - performance is excellent. The very last track is from "The Today Show" in 1978 - Patti sounds a little bit worn out. The cover shows a picture of Patti's back (in Vietnam jacket) and pink cartoon hands with paintbrush and pen nib on index fingers.
Tracklist:
Ask The Angels 2:57
25th Floor 5:29
High On Rebellion 3:28
Till Victory 3:13
Set Me Free 3:37
Because The Night 3:18
Gloria 7:00
Free Money 3:43
I Was Working Real Hard 2:12
Keith Richard Blues 1:35
I Was Working Real Hard (Reprise) 2:26
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