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Spotlights [Issue
#
8 ]
Patti Smith:
A Good Time For Trampin'
By
Peter Vouras
I was driving with a friend of mine recently when the 10,000 Maniacs’
version of “Because The Night” came on the radio. He turned to me
and said, “Boy, Natalie Merchant is such a great songwriter.” I felt
like pulling the car over, slapping him, and letting him out right there; but
instead, I just shook my head in disgust. I informed him that Patti Smith and
Bruce Springsteen wrote that song and that Smith had a hit with it off her incredible
album, Easter, in 1978. He said, “Patti who?” Needless to say,
he had to hitch a ride home.
In rock journalist
Nick Tosches’ book, The Nick Tosches Reader, he writes about the
time Creem Magazine wanted an article written about her. He called her up and
she said, “Hell Nick, you know me. Just make it up.” And he did. That’s
Patti Smith. It seems a shame that she is not more popular than she is, but
in some perverted sense, I think she likes it that way. This 57-year-old punk
priestess pioneer’s latest release, Trampin’, is only her ninth
album in 30 years and her first with her new label, Columbia. Smith fittingly
signed with her new label on the 148th anniversary of the birth of poet Arthur
Rimbaud, a longtime inspirational source for her music and lyrics. Smith’s
lyrics have always been her forte, delivered in a mixture of spoken word and
music. Over the years, Smith had drawn inspiration from various musicians and
poets adding more recently William Blake and Marian Anderson to her list. She
writes on her web site, “Almost all the songs I record are collaborations
but occasionally I write a little song myself. I hear the melody in my head
and sit on the floor with my acoustic guitar. After a bit of struggle I work
it out and bring it to my band. I have worked on this song for a while reading
a lot of William Blake as well as the wonderful Blake biography by Peter Ackroyd.
His life was a testament of faith over strife. He suffered poverty, humiliation
and misunderstanding yet he continued to do his work and maintained a lifelong
belief in his vision. He has served as a good example in facing my own difficulties
and feeling a certain satisfaction in doing so.”
On “In My Blakean Year,” she sings, “Boots that tread from track
to track. Worn down to the sole. One road is paved in gold. One road is just
a road. In my Blakean year, temptation but a hiss. Just a shallow spear. Robed
in cowardice.”
On the other end of the spectrum is the title track, “Trampin’,”
in which Smith pays homage to and sings an old spiritual that was a staple of
American contralto, Marian Anderson, famous for being the first black artist
to sing publicly on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. The song also
features the debut of her daughter Jesse on piano.
The most stirring track is “Radio Baghdad,” a 12 minute Doors-like
rant about the injustices she perceives in the cradle of civilization.
Patti Smith, well into her fourth decade of recording music, continues to create
provocative material worth listening to.
Trampin'
Columbia
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