I saw Patti Smith live a few years ago at Field Day festival here in London. I had listened to Patti Smith and I liked it, but I wasn't wowed by her until I saw her live. Her presence on stage was just something really special and the emotion she put in her performance was really touching. Few gigs have impacted me in such a way. On that gig, Smith played Horses in its entirety, but after she had played all of the album's songs, she played a couple of songs from other albums as well, including Because the Night, which was one of the songs I was most excited about.
The album starts with punk rock song Till Victory, which still sounds quite a lot like her debut album Horses. The guitars sound lo-fi and the vocals switch from emotional and clean to proper rock screams. Space Monkey has a raunchy rock groove created by airy guitar riffs and slightly funky rock organs. The melody isn't that interesting, but the song still manages to portray dramatic changes between verses and chorus. Because the Night is by far the biggest hit from this album. It might even be the biggest hit Patti Smith ever had and I can totally see why. The melody is pure genius. The verse sounds slightly like Kate Bush, but the chorus is proper rock music with excellent melancholic angst. Ghost Dance reminds me of many later songs by Patti Smith. The acoustic and shamanistic sounds hypnotise the listener into some kind of trance. This kind of mysticism became more common in her later albums. Babelogue is a monologue in front of a live audience that takes us to the next song, Rock n Roll Nigger, a song that's title makes me jump today. It sounds very controversial even considering this was written in the 70s, but since I don't really know the history of the lyrics, I won't comment more about its title and just say that musically, the song is a fantastic rock song. Privilege (Set Me Free) starts as a haunting ballad, but it then explodes into a full blown rock song. We Three is a beautifully haunted ballad with pure melancholia. I love it how the song grows bigger and bigger towards the end. 25th Floor has a funky rock groove and Smith's vocals stick to the rock-style yelling rather than melodic singing. The title track Easter is a cool ending for the album. The song kind of sticks to the same pattern throughout and just grows into this loop with bag pipes in the end.
Patti Smith is a hugely well-known musician, but I've noticed that people still don't really know her songs that well apart from a couple of hit songs. Is it possibly because she hasn't gotten as much radio play as her contemporary male musicians? She has some amazing hit songs that are very radio friendly as well, but still it feels like they're not played as much as other songs from the same era that were written by men. Also, at the above mentioned festival where I went to, Patti Smith wasn't titled as the main performer even though she was definitely more well-known than Ride, who headlined the festival. This goes to show that even the amazing women rock pioneers who have managed to reach super stardom long time ago are still not appreciated as much as they should be.
In terms of songwriting, Easter is my favourite Patti Smith album. There's lots of variety between songs, but the whole album is one big banger. I definitely would've already bought this album if my wife didn't already have it, which is why I think it's completely valid to include this album in this blog.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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