Re: Patti - Meltdown - Horses - 25 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

A timeless punk classic 
Reviewed by Pete Clark
Evening Standard, 27 June 2005

It was as if a punk tear had opened up in the space/time continuum:
Patti Smith stepped through it, arriving on stage in black jacket,
white shirt, black tie and skinny, ripped jeans, and it was 1975 all
over again.

She announced her intention to sing Horses - her epochal LP of that
year - all the way through for the first time ever. And with the help
of a sterling band including Television's Tom Verlaine and old cohorts
Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, that is precisely what she did.

If the packed audience had come along in a mood of antique veneration,
then this was instantly blown away by the utterly contemporary
exuberance of the performance.

Over the intervening years, Smith's voice has become richer and more
eloquent, which is not bad going considering it was a thing of great
beauty in the first place. Give or take some slight embroidery, the
songs were performed as they were first heard, their dramatic power
undiminished over 30 years.

Patti Smith is clearly aware of their resonance - a stray heckler was
quietly but ruthlessly admonished for his temerity - but in no way
overplays it.

This remarkable cycle of songs still represents the best-ever fusion
of poetry and rock music. Even the reggae embellishments don't sound
as stiff-legged as is the norm.

It is invidious to single out tracks, but the title song remains a
masterpiece of form and content, as is Redondo Beach and the Gloria
sequence. And there surely cannot be any doubt that Free Money should
be taken up as the Lottery anthem.

For the encores, John Cale appeared, as was fitting for the producer
of Horses. Earlier, his extraordinary ensemble the Meatgrinders,
featuring the supple bass of Flea, had given new hope to support bands
everywhere by turning in a set that only Smith could possibly have
bettered on the night.

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