Patti Smith

Patti Smith-Gung Ho-24BIT-44KHZ-WEB-FLAC-2000-OBZEN
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:37 minutes | 984 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Patti Smith Group – Radio Ethiopia (1976/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:20 minutes | 924 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista – Legacy

After the success of Horses, Patti Smith had something to prove to reviewers and to the industry, and Radio Ethiopia aimed at both. Producer Jack Douglas gave “the Patti Smith Group,” as it was now billed, a hard rock sound, notably on the side-opening “Ask the Angels” and “Pumping (My Heart),” songs that seemed aimed at album-oriented rock radio. But the title track was a ten-minute guitar extravaganza that pushed the group’s deliberate primitivism closer to amateurish thrashing. Elsewhere, Smith repeated the reggae excursions and vocal overlaying that had paced Horses on “Ain’t It Strange” and “Poppies,” but these efforts were less effective than they had been the first time around, perhaps because they were less inspired, perhaps because they were more familiar. A schizophrenic album in which the many elements that had worked so well together on Horses now seemed jarringly incompatible, with Radio Ethiopia Smith and her band encountered the same development problem the punks would — as they learned their craft and competence set in, they lost some of the unself-consciousness that had made their music so appealing. – William Ruhlmann

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Patti Smith Group – Easter (1978/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:37 minutes | 1,65 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista – Legacy

Patti Smith came back from the year-and-a-half break caused by her fall from a stage in January 1977 without having resolved the art-versus-commerce argument that had marred her second album, Radio Ethiopia. In fact, that argument was in some ways the theme of her third. Easter, produced by Bruce Springsteen associate Jimmy Iovine, was Smith’s most commercial-sounding effort yet and, due to the inclusion of Springsteen’s “Because the Night” (with Smith’s revised lyrics), a Top Ten hit, it became her biggest seller, staying in the charts more than five months and getting into the Top 20 LPs. But Smith hadn’t so much sold out as she had learned to use her poetic gifts within an album rock context. Certainly, a song that proclaimed, “Love is an angel disguised as lust/Here in our bed until the morning comes,” was pushing the limits of pop radio, and on “Babelogue,” Smith returned to her days of declaiming poetry on New York’s Lower East Side. That rant (significantly ending, “I have not sold my soul to God”) led into the provocative “Rock n Roll Nigger,” a charged rocker with a chorus that went, “Outside of society/Is where I want to be.” Smith made the theme from the ’60s British rock movie Privilege her own and even got into the U.K. charts with it. And on songs like “25th Floor,” Iovine, Smith, and her group were able to accommodate both the urge to rock out and the need to expound. So, Easter turned out to be the best compromise Smith achieved between her artistic and commercial aspirations. – William Ruhlmann

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Patti Smith – Twelve (2007/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:47 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

According to her brief liner notes, Patti Smith indulged the idea of a covers album, considering songs as far back as 1978 on the back pages of Jean Genet’s Thief’s Journal when she was still assembling her groundbreaking early catalog; it’s evident she feels that covers have been part and parcel of her recording experience from the outset. Her debut, Horses, has her own apocalyptic version of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” as well as a healthy portion of Chris Kenner’s “Land of a Thousand Dances” inside “Land.” On 1979’s Wave she covered the Byrds “So You Want to Be (A Rock and Roll Star),” and scored with the single. Her intuitive reading of Bob Dylan’s “Wicked Messenger” was a beautiful aspect of Gone Again in 1996, and she paid tribute to Allen Ginsberg by using one of his poems in “Spell,” on 1997’s Peace and Noise. And who can forget her reading of Pete Townshend’s “My Generation” issued on the 30th Anniversary edition of Horses? While it’s a popular notion these days to consider a covers album a stop-gap between albums, the truth is that Smith has never been in a hurry when it comes to recording, though she has been very productive over the last decade. She has always paid tribute in one form or another to her heroes, however disparate. This collection is a wondrous sampling of pop hits, hard rock, ballads, and soul done in Smith’s inimitable way of interpreting songs — by getting inside them and breathing their meaning, and often uncovering new shades of meaning — from within. She begins with a newer, more spiritual reading of Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced?” letting her fine band — Jay Dee Daugherty, Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan — pulse the tune’s changes and vibe while she comes across as a shaman leading the way down into the underworld. Her taking on Tears for Fears’ smash hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” may come as a surprise, but in her open-throated take, the tune brims with the wisdom of a prophetess proclaiming the folly of humankind’s need for power and greed. And while her version of Neil Young’s “Helpless” may come across as a bit too reverent, the seed of memory is what infuses her take on this beautiful ballad. Loss and remembrance become a memento mori, an effigy to those who who’ve traveled on from this plane of existence. “Gimme Shelter” is a natural, and it carries all the foreboding of an apocalypse out the original nearly 40 years later as if to say that Jagger and Richard were right all along. The tune becomes a plea for shelter, rather than a demand. George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” is the complete blending of spiritual longing, with droning acoustic guitars, skittering snares and open chord drones from Kaye’s electric and fleshly experience. Smith’s read of Dylan’s “Changing of the Guard” is ambitious. Where the original was drenched in mariachi horns and a female backing chorus, she overturns those trappings and accents Dylan’s last expressionistic lyric. She sings as if everything is at stake in this clash between the forces of light and darkness, where Melville, Dumas, Joan of Arc, the myth of Orpheus and the tales of Ovid are informed by both biblical prophecy and the tarot. The meld of acoustic guitars, brushed drums and muted kickdrum wind around her. The piano and Kaye’s muted electric guitars fill the space where most of the backing vocals and horns once were — except where Smith’s daughter Jesse Paris Smith harmonizes — and seduce the emotion out of the nearly surreal narrative of renunciation. Perhaps no tune moves here like Smith’s reading of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” with help from Sam Shepherd and John Cohen on banjo, Peter Stampfel on fiddle, and Kaye and Duncan Webster on guitar in a strange dreamscape driven by a standup bass. Smith digs into the lyric and then offers a poem that is as much an early American folk song elegy to the environment Kurt Cobain grew up in as it is to what’s happening to America itself, but with current touches. Her poet’s heart not only complements the original but makes the song timeless and brings Cobain’s mature spirit to flesh once more. It is the most moving track on the set and the most visionary. Smith closes her set with a true outlaws campfire song in Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider,” and a darker than written, sparsely textured, elegiac cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise,” with a truly haunting piano by Luis Resto. Her small notes annotating each track are welcome and revealing in and of themselves. If this is truly the covers album Smith has always wanted to record, she’s succeeded on a level with the best of her studio recordings and a welcome addition to her catalog. Each song has her imprint without sacrificing the intent or spirit of the original. Full of slow burning passion and emotion, Twelve is magnificent. – Thom Jurek

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Patti Smith – Trampin’ (2004/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:03:34 minutes | 713 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

Nearly 30 years and nine albums in, Patti Smith shows no signs of giving up, or giving in, despite the fact she expected to be quietly doing her work instead of making rock & roll albums and playing in front of audiences. But then 9/11, Afghanistan, war in Iraq. Smith lives the vocation of a poet in an old-world sense of that word. Once, bards were the gadflies of society. Smith’s Trampin’ is a work that directly evolves from that tradition and fits squarely in her oeuvre. Trampin’ is Smith’s first outing for new label Columbia. She and her bandmates – Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty, Tony Shanahan, and Oliver Ray – walk the tightrope between in-your-face garage rock, poetic ballads, and raucous, improvisational pieces (à la “Radio Ethiopia”). Not surprisingly, Trampin’ is a largely political album, but it is far from a didactic one. Smith’s voice of resistance is a human one, not an ideological one. She and her band cut much of the record live from the floor, and with the exception of the field recorded sounds of children playing in the street in “Radio Baghdad” and immediate and guttural strings added to “My Blakean Year,” it comes off as both an immediate and organic record. Smith celebrates what is unique and beautiful in this America while castigating those who would abolish it in favor of homogeneity and submission. Whether it is the razored, riff-driven rock of “Stride of the Mind,” the tough, anthemic pounce of “Jubilee,” or the haunting midtempo countrified tunes like “Mother Rose,” “Trespasses,” or “Cash,” the sober-eyed critical examination, the exhortation to find the truth and to celebrate life are everywhere. Likewise, in longer pieces like “Ghandi” and “Radio Baghdad,” modes and grooves are locked and loaded. Poetry, both sung and spoken, engages the swirling, wavelike roars of apocalyptic power and chaos her band creates and splits the seams with the authority of her language, which claims no authority but that of the victim – which is all the authority there is. “My Blakean Year” is an acoustic anthem, the confession of a vision that is given full fruit in the largely acoustic “Peaceable Kingdom.” The title track is also the closer. A duet between Smith’s daughter Jesse Lee Smith’s piano and Patti’s voice, it is a folk song written in the gospel tradition. One can hear the ghosts of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, and Mimi Fariña in seams between the keys under Jesse’s fingers and the wavering, tender grain in Smith’s voice. This is timeless music. It knows no age or subgenre classification; it is American music as it has been spoken the world over; it is rock & roll done as well as it can be by anybody.

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Patti Smith – Peace & Noise (1997/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:31 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista

After a prolonged retirement, Patti Smith returned to action in 1996 with Gone Again. It was recorded after she suffered the loss of both her brother and her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, two losses so great that it’s not surprising she is still exploring that pain on Peace and Noise, which quickly followed Gone Again in 1997. Patti had been working on Peace and Noise with Fred before his death, and its issues are appropriately more domestic than those on Gone Again. Throughout most of the record, she explores aging and raising children, trying to find a place for her family in the modern world while coming to terms with her aging rebelliousness. The music on Peace and Noise trims away the sonic bluster and anthemic rocking of Gone Again, preferring a sparse, piano-based musical foundation. As a result, her words resonate clearly and have a succinct, poetic power that was lacking on the otherwise worthy Gone Again.
– Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Patti Smith – Outside Society (2011/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:37 minutes | 1,73 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista – Legacy

Outside Society is a compilation album released by American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist Patti Smith. Outside Society is the first single-disc collection of her work and spans her entire career. The songs are in chronological order and the booklet contains comments by Smith on her work.

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Patti Smith – Horses (1975/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:09 minutes | 946 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista – Legacy

The seminal punk classic, newly remastered by Vic Anesini. Produced by John Cale (Velvet Underground), Patti Smith’s poetic lyrics and the band’s proto-punk sound continue to inspire countless bands. Horses ranks #44 on Rolling Stones’ “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, and frequently appears on many critics and fans top picks.

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Patti Smith – Gung Ho (2000/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:37 minutes | 990 MB | Genre:
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista

After years of silence, Patti Smith returned to music with a series of concerts in late 1995. It had been years since she had performed live – for most of the ’80s and ’90s, she concentrated on domestic life. Following the death of her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, in early 1995, Smith began playing music in public again and those concerts eventually led to the triumphant comeback Gone Again. Her husband wasn’t the only loved one Smith lost between 1988’s Dream of Life and 1996’s Gone Again – her brother and her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe both died. Appropriately, grief and loss hang over Gone Again, but the overall effect is not one of indulgent melancholy. Instead, it’s a sober but strengthing listen – this is healing optimistic music. Like most of Smith’s best work, the songs on Gone Again aren’t proper songs, they’re song poems, with cascading music and dense, inspired lyrics. Smith sounds more mature than her earlier records – there are only a handful of out-and-out rockers, and most of the album is subtle and folky – which gives the album extra weight. Gone Again is more than a comeback, it’s a revitalization – Patti Smith simply hasn’t sound so engaged and provocative since Easter.

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Patti Smith – Gone Again (1996/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:57 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista

After years of silence, Patti Smith returned to music with a series of concerts in late 1995. It had been years since she had performed live — for most of the ’80s and ’90s, she concentrated on domestic life. Following the death of her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, in early 1995, Smith began playing music in public again and those concerts eventually led to the triumphant comeback Gone Again. Her husband wasn’t the only loved one Smith lost between 1988’s Dream of Life and 1996’s Gone Again — her brother and her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe both died. Appropriately, grief and loss hang over Gone Again, but the overall effect is not one of indulgent melancholy. Instead, it’s a sober but strengthing listen — this is healing optimistic music. Like most of Smith’s best work, the songs on Gone Again aren’t proper songs, they’re song poems, with cascading music and dense, inspired lyrics. Smith sounds more mature than her earlier records — there are only a handful of out-and-out rockers, and most of the album is subtle and folky — which gives the album extra weight. Gone Again is more than a comeback, it’s a revitalization — Patti Smith simply hasn’t sound so engaged and provocative since Easter. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Patti Smith – Dream of Life (1988/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:26 minutes | 970 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista – Legacy

The big difference between Patti Smith’s four 1970s albums and this return to action after nine years lies in the choice of collaborator. Where Smith’s main associate earlier had been Lenny Kaye, a deliberately simple guitarist, here her co-writer and co-producer (with Jimmy Iovine) was her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, formerly of the MC5, who played guitar with a conventional rock competence and who lent his talents to each of the tracks, giving them a mainstream flavor. In a sense, however, these polished love songs, lullabies, and political statements are not to be compared to the poetic ramblings of Smith’s first decade of music-making – she’s so much…calmer this time out. But you can’t help it. Where the Patti Smith of Horses inspired a generation of female rockers, the Patti Smith of Dream of Life sounds like she’s been listening to later Pretenders albums and taking tips from Chrissie Hynde, one of her spiritual daughters. Dream of Life is the record of someone who is simply showing the flag, trying to keep her hand in, rather than announcing her comeback. Not surprisingly, having made it, Smith retreated from the public eye again until the ’90s.

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Patti Smith – Banga (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:40 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

Banga is the eleventh and most recent studio album by American rock musician Patti Smith, released on June 1, 2012 on Columbia Records. Recorded throughout 2011 at New York’s Electric Lady Studios and Hoboken’s Hobo Recorders, Banga was produced by Smith, Tony Shanahan, Jay Dee Daugherty and collaborator Lenny Kaye. The album includes a number of guest musicians including Tom Verlaine of Television, Italian band Casa del Vento, Jack Petruzzelli and Smith’s own children, Jackson and Jesse Paris.

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