Patti Smith Sage

Patti Smith Gives Advice!
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Banga: Hey, Hey Wake Up.

Poetry, an American’s poetry and the medium is rock n’ roll; Banga is Patti Smith’s latest release and her first release of original music in eight years. Songs about singers and saints sung in sonic swirling symphonic style abound. Banga, the title track is the most rockin’ song of the lot. April Fool is reminiscent of the Motels’ “Take the L Out of Lover” only smarter. The tribute to Amy Winehouse “This is the Girl” is an apt and sad song Amy herself might have sung, a fitting tribute to an artist from an artist. There are strings, clarinets, barking dog sounds and children in the mixes. Layers of sound and lyrics add up to her best original release since “Gung Ho”. Ponderous, yes, but isn’t that how a Patti Smith record should be. The listener should be lost in her sound and poetry entranced by her invocations.  The traveler is ever the American of the 21^st century standing in the past but rooted in the now. Aware and in awe of the saints and sins and travelers of the past she watches and scribes songs of the travelers and seers. Patti Smith’s dreams are dreams of life and art and basilicas. “Constantine’s Dream” is an example of Patti Smith the artist evoking, emoting, making art. This is the important “Patti Smith” on the record. The last song is a cover of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush”. Like every Neil Young song it is beautiful and better as a cover than his version. Neil Young is another American genius and deserves of the respect Patti Smith and her child chorus gives him. “Hey, Hey wake up!

Painting by Jo Pendola

Banga a New Release From Patti Smith

June 4th is the stated release date for "Banga" Patti Smith's tenth studio album. This is her first release since 2007's "Twelve" a compilation of cover songs and her first original material since her 2004 release of "Trampin". The first single is available for download now. It is titled "April Fool". I love Patti Smith and have since I first heard her many many years ago. I listened to "April Foll" and I was sadly disappointed. I was expecting something musically better. It reminds me of a "Motels" recording form the 80's. It sounds like either "Only the Lonely" or "Take the L out of Lover" only with better lyrics. As a writer of poetry and lyrics she can not be topped.
The information on "Banga" sent out by the record company has a list of tracks. One of the songs on the new release is "This is the Girl" a tribute to Amy Winehouse. The other noted track is a birthday song for Johnny Depp titled "Nine"? I am not sure what to make of either of these but I have high hopes for both. I know she is a fan of Johnny Depp and her tribute to Kurt Cobain "About a Boy" was very moving and rocking. There is another track that was written for the people of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami titled "Fuji-san". This too should be an interesting listen especially as she has written songs of this nature before specifically "Radio Baghdad" and "Gung Ho".
Perhaps as time goes on "April Fool" will grow on me but as of this listen I was hoping for more rock and less middle of the road. I have never thought of her work as being middle of the road so I may be wrong. I will pickup "Banga" when it is released next month with hope.

Patti Smith's Just Kids

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From the very moment I first heard Patti Smith I was enraptured. I was a suburban teenager and this chick from New York was saying just what I was thinking. The first song I ever heard was "Pissing in a River". "Should I pursue a path so twisted?" From that lyric on I was hooked. I found paperback copy of "Babel" in a leftist bookstore when I was in high school. I stole a copy of "Witt" when I was in art school. I had every record she put out and started collecting bootlegs. You see by the time I first heard her she had already disappeared into Michigan. She was an enigma to me, my own J.D. Salinger. Then one day "Dream of Life" came out. She and Fred put out a dream come true, a new Patti Smith album. I got phone calls from people I hadn't seen in years making sure I knew of its release. I of course did and had obtained an advanced copy. Still I hadn't seen her perform but this was the next best thing. I was a diehard fan. I was like a Dead Head without the live shows. I had discovered Robert Mapplethorpe around the same time. I didn't know they even knew each other when I first saw his work. It wasn't until I was looking through a book of his photos and saw the portraits of her I put two and two together in that slow witted teenage way. Suddenly both she and he were so much cooler.

"Just kids" is Patti Smith's newest book. This time it is prose, the story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. It is also the story of New York in the seventies. It is their story and it couldn't have happened in any other place and in other era. They were both in the right place at the right time for them. It is a beautiful love story through one of the lover's eyes. This is more than an autobiography it is a painting. It is a story just waiting to be made into a film. Patti Smith being a poet can draw you into the story with her words crafting beautiful images like a photograph or sculpture. She honestly discusses their foibles and failures and celebrates their beauty and humanity. Their desires and belief in themselves can not be ignored. They both wanted to be famous and they succeeded. They wanted fame and she makes no bones about it. They don't come off as fame whores but as artists who need their art to be seen and appreciated. It is of course a sad story. It is a story where one of the lovers dies. That is where their story ends; Robert Mapplethorpe died and Patti Smith carried on. This is a little story for him about him.