RE: Patti Smith Repays Sweet Relief Charity

["Gart, Mitch" <mgart>]

Did Patti and Beck do anything together?  How many performers?  How long
was Patti's set?

The young person in her band is probably Oliver Ray, Patti's boyfriend,
who's in his late 20's or early 30's.  Also sometimes her son Jackson, who's

about 19, plays guitar in the band, so it's also possible you saw Jackson.

The Holy Holy song is called Spell, it's from Patti's Peace & Noise album,
and is based on the poem Prelude to Howl by Allen Ginsberg.

Glad to hear the audience was so adoring to Patti.  She deserves it.

- Mitch


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Liam Sharp [mailto:razorinc]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 9:40 AM
> To: babel-list
> Subject: Re: Patti Smith Repays Sweet Relief Charity
>
>
> Hi Lids,
>
> I went to see Patti last night at convocation hall, it was a
> truly historic
> event. She was energized and poetic. She even took off her
> shoes and jumped
> into the audience to shake hands a few times. It was the
> fourth of July and
> she had a big tattered US flag hanging in centre stage. She sang a few
> oldies including GLORIA, the crowd were mostly 40 to 55 years
> of age, but
> acted like crazed teenagers Im glad to say. Her hair was
> beautiful, not one
> grey strand. Lenny Kaye was playing too. Does her kid play in
> the band?
> Perhaps her kid was the skinny one with no face, only hair??
> She sang this
> Holy song I really liked, Holy asshole, holy cock, holy
> toronto, Holy New
> York, Holy you name it..... There were slides and footage
> reflected on the
> backdrop, behind the band. her voice was amazing as always. I
> was feeling
> really down earlier in the day, and she cheered me up. The
> audience were in
> love with her. She wore baggy jeans with holes, and pointy short black
> boots, a baggy t-shirt, and a suit jacket that came off half
> way through the
> show. People give her flowers. ..
>
> Hope everything is okay with you, I have been without a
> computer for two
> weeks, I've been sick with a flu, but now Im better, the kids are off
> school, Bronwen is working and robin is bored. Liam just came
> back from
> visting his mom in England. No more newss.....sheree
>
> ----------
> >From: Lkg <Lkg>
> >To: Perthmyer <robertson>, Pasqualina
> <pmeschi>,
> Sheree & Liam <razorinc>
> >Subject: Patti Smith Repays Sweet Relief Charity
> >Date: Thu, Jun 22, 2000, 9:29 PM
> >
>
> >
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/so/20000621/en/patti_smith_repays
> _sweet_relief_
> charity_b
> > y_playing_fund-raiser_1.html
> >
> >> Patti Smith Repays Sweet Relief Charity By Playing Fund-Raiser
> >>
> >>  By Correspondent Christian Boone
> >>
> >>  LOS ANGELES - Punk poet Patti Smith and folky funk-rocker
> Beck helped Sweet
> >>  Relief reach its goal of raising $400,000 this year by
> headlining the
> > charity's second
> >>  annual fund-raiser Tuesday.
> >>
> >>  It was payback time for Smith. She told the crowd of
> about 300 how Sweet
> Relief,
> >>  which assists artists with their medical and personal
> needs, aided her
> > through "the
> >>  most difficult time of my life.
> >>
> >>  "I was a needy musician, and I wasn't really certain
> where to turn,"
> > Smith said. "I
> >>  called Rosemary [Carroll, who, along with Jill Berliner
> was honored
> > Tuesday night as
> >>  founding members of Sweet Relief,] asking for assistance,
> and she restored
> my
> >>  dignity. I was in need, and now I'm strong."
> >>
> >>  Smith, who rebounded two years later with the album Gone
> Again (1996),
> proved
> >>  her rediscovered strength with a passionate five-song
> set. Accompanied
> > by guitarist
> >>  Oliver Ray, she included covers of Velvet Underground's
> "Heroin" and
> Nirvana's
> >>  "Heart-Shaped Box." She finished with a rousing finale
> that easily could be
> >>  appropriated as a volunteer anthem, "People Have the
> Power" (RealAudio
> excerpt),
> >>  from 1988's Dream of Life, recorded with her late
> husband, Fred "Sonic"
> Smith.
> >>
> >>  If anyone was wavering on whether to make a donation,
> Smith's vocal
> exhortation
> >>  that "we can turn the Earth's revolution" couldn't help but make a
> > difference. Sweet
> >>  Relief development director Noa Jones said on Wednesday
> (June 21) that the
> >>  fund-raiser netted $250,000. "We met our goal last night,
> that's for
> > sure," Jones said.
> >>
> >>  Smith's dedication was evident in her wardrobe. "Only for
> Rosemary would I
> wear
> >>  this," Smith said of her gray frock. "I think the last
> time I wore a
> > dress was at [civil
> >>  rights attorney] William Kunstler's memorial service."
> >>
> >>  Beck, meanwhile, whirled through a mellow, 30-minute-plus
> performance, doing
> his
> >>  best to overcome the din of the crowd. In an attempt to
> get their full
> > attention, Beck
> >>  took to the woods, literally (the fund-raiser was held on
> the lawn of a
> > tony West
> >>  Hollywood hotel) with "One Foot in the Grave," from Stereopathetic
> Soulmanure
> >>  (1994).
> >>
> >>  "It's not often I get to jam out in the trees," said
> Beck, vivid in a
> > purple-sequined
> >>  pantsuit. His eight-song set was highlighted by
> back-to-back singles
> > from Mutations
> >>  (1998), "Sing It Again" and "Nobody's Fault but My Own"
> (RealAudio excerpt).
> >>
> >>  A glance at the list of people helped by Sweet Relief shows little
> > boundaries as to
> >>  who receives assistance, from the famous (Smith) to the
> anonymous (such as
> the
> >>  65-year-old Las Vegas lounge singer who received a $1,500
> grant for
> > hospitalization
> >>  for respiratory failure).
> >>
> >>  Folk singer Victoria Williams, who started the
> organization after being
> > diagnosed with
> >>  multiple sclerosis in 1993, said, "In my travels I have
> met many people
> > who told me
> >>  how grateful they were for Sweet Relief because they or
> someone they knew
> were
> >>  saved from a tragic circumstance - be it an accident, or
> a disease, or even
> >>  recovery from a self-destructive lifestyle."
> >
>