867 Patti Smith - Easter (1978)

Mostly Studio Album - Punk/Rock

About the Act:

Patti Smith is a long-haired Hippie Punk Freak-Powered American Poet, performance artist, author and singer-songwriter and musician. She started to be a poet and other things in the late 60s, and turned to Rock in the mid-70s. She was a seminal influence on the New York Punk Scene. 

About the Album:

This was the third album by The Patti Smith Group and their break-through album. "Because The Night", which was co-written by Bruce Springsteen became a major hit for the band.

My History with this Album:

None, although I know "Because the Night"

Review:

The Patti Smith Group are mostly about Patty Smith, the singer/poet who fronts the band. This album is curious, and at times hard to describe. There is the major hit Because the Night, there are rock songs, and punk songs, and I guess Punk Rock songs, and a live track, preceded by a live poem/rant. There is one track that sounds like a sit-in protest song. 

Musically it's quite varied, and although there are raw and energetic bits that are punky, there are equally rock tracks, and more mellow tracks too. It's as if somebody who started off in the 60s had brought their 60s persuasions through in time to the late 70s and fused it with Punk, which all in all might not be far from the truth. Sometimes it sounds more like The Doors than The Ramones, and this is partly due to the more measured musical approach, but also because of the rock organ that is prominent.

The singing is also varied, in some tracks Patti sounds like a punk, with off-note growls and squeaks, in some she sounds like a hippie, with mellow grace, and in others she sounds like a rock chick with gravel in her larynx. And in others, she sounds distinctly like Madonna. There is no doubt that she can sing, and at times choses not to, and that's fine. She is expressive and versatile.

And she is far from safe. She expresses all manner of things in the words, and the poetry (which is also words). These days she might be described as "edgy", at the time, "rebellious" might be a good word. The sources I have looked at insist that she was considered a founding element of NY Punk, and I will bow to superior knowledge. There are many ways in which she is not like London Punk, or at least not like the Sex Pistols. She has thought, and meaning and depth, and not nihilism. She is dark and maybe disturbed, but not facile. The same also applies musically. Without having been told, I would not categorise this as punk. At times it is actually dreary.

So, do I like it? Yes, some. I don't agree with everything she says, and she is somewhat acerbic about Christianity at times (despite fooling Wikipedia into painting this more favourably). She is subtle and refreshingly original. She is intense and this has conferred itself well onto the album. It's a ride.

If this is punk, then punk can be better than I thought.

7.5/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1p6cWoueuunhpgy6131zAd

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGibfZATlGr84idmVT7-uNOvc5hkGC4d

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_(Patti_Smith_Group_album)