Twelve by Patti

[L French <lrfrench>]

Now we know almost half the songs on the new covers album... 
   
  TWELVE 
   
  Recorded at Electric Lady Studio - West 8th Street, NYC  
   
  1. JIMI HENDRIX: Are You Experienced? 
  2. NIRVANA: Smells Like Teen Spirit 
  3. STEVIE WONDER: Pastime Paradise 
  4. NEIL YOUNG: Helpless 
  5. TEARS FOR FEARS: Everybody Wants To Rule The World 
   
  6. BOB DYLAN: ?
  7. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: ?
  8. REM: ?
  9. THE DOORS: ?
  10. ROLLING STONES: ? 
   
  11. Wild Card - THE GRATEFUL DEAD, PUCCINI 
  12. Wild Card - TIM BUCKLEY, GENE CLARK 
  
     
    
  PATTI SMITH on MEETING JIMI HENDRIX: 
   
  I was fortunate enough to have had a little discussion with Jimi Hendrix on the steps of Electric Lady studio. It happened when he was leaving a big party for the opening of his studio. I had been invited to the party, but I was too shy to go in, because it was my first rock and roll party. I didnt really know what to do, so I just sat on the steps. And suddenly out came Jimi Hendrix. He was on his way to the Isle of Wright festival and I got to see him leave. He asked me what I was doing sitting there and said, "Hey, I'm kind of shy too."  So we sat on the steps and he talked about his vision of the studio and what he wanted to do when he came back from London. He said he wanted to create a new language with musicians from all over the world; to create an atmosphere where at first there might be a cacophony because of all their different approaches, but by playing together after some months they would find some common thread. So he had great visions for the studio, but
 then he was gone. He never came back. So I felt we were very privileged to record HORSES at Electric Lady, but I dont think we were exactly what he had in mind. But it was so exciting and so wonderful to go into that studio and be able to do a body of work there. I also had to learn a lot of new stuff, like how to improvise in a vocal booth, which was kind of scary. Also, at that time you had to mix by hand, and I had done nine different poems to put on LAND so we had to write down all the words on long strips of paper and then (producer) John Cale, Lenny and I, we all had to have a couple of faders and bring them up and pull them down at different times. So I had all these little cryptic notes, like when it says Tower of Babel, you have to bring up, build it, build it, build it. It was pretty exciting. I remember we also had to record REDONDO BEACH at four in the morning, because that was the only time available, and I lived nearby on Macdougal street and Lenny had
 to come by and wake me up when we all went into the studio to record REDONDO BEACH. That was driving John Cale so crazy, that he finally started banging his head against the speakers. Luckily it was at the end of the record. 
   
   


 
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