RE: Patti flashback: Free and alive in 1975 (or 6)?

["J" <jlregister>]

I've been off the list for a couple of weeks and just catching up when I saw
this post.

I've never seen/heard this recording, but I would LOVE a copy.  Chances are
good I was at that show.



First off, we can rule out November 1976...she wasn't here then.   Its gotta
be Nov 1975 or Feb 1976.

Patti did play the Boarding House in San Francisco in November 1975.  I
remember those shows as being fairly straightforward...this was right after
the release of Horses.  The Live at the Bottom Line bootleg is about 4-6
weeks later and gives a good feel for her shows at the time.

The setlist that L French posted as being "PATTI SMITH -- FUCKED UP IN SAN
FRANCISCO 
November 16, 1976 - Live at the Boarding House" matches the 11/21/75 list on
the Patti setlists site.    More on this in a minute.  The Nov 16, 1976 date
is undoubtedly an error.

On November 23, 1975 she played two sets at the Longbranch in Berkeley, just
across the bay.  I have a recording of thoses shows, which is also full of
monologues and audience dialogue.  The volume is uneven -- the music comes
through okay but you need to turn it up to hear the monologues, etc.
clearly.  These are still clearly regular sets, there's just a lot of
talking in between the songs.  The (partial) set lists are on the setlist
site.


In February 1976, she did a 5-night run (Wed 2/11 - Sun 2/15) at the
Boarding Housing.  A recording of the 2/15/76 show was weeded here several
months ago.  Very similar to the Teenage Perversity and Ships in the Night
bootleg, which was recorded in Los Angeles just a couple of weeks earlier,
except the Boarding Housing show included a fabulous reading of an old piece
she wrote for Crawdaddy magazine that segues into an improvised narration of
the murder of Sal Mineo (which happened just a couple of nights earlier in
Hollywood).

On Tuesday, Feb 17, 1976, she played the Longbranch in Berkeley.  That was
also a more typical show.  I remember that actress Erica Gavin (from Russ
Meyer's Vixen and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) was part of her entourage,
and I remember my friend (owner of a local record store) backstage
frantically trying to transcribe Patti's copy of Jim Morrison's American
Prayer until Patti grabbed it and ran onstage, where she read from it.
But while there was a lot of interaction with the audience, it was more or
less a regular set, although perhaps rougher than the Boarding House shows.


So here's where my my memory isn't entirely clear, but I think this is what
happened:

In November 1975, Patti played one or more shows at the Boarding House.
These were fairly straightforward sets.  While these don't show up on the
setlist site, I've found other references that would suggest dates around
11/15/75

If I remember right, she then went down to Los Angeles for a couple of
nights, and returned to the Bay Area where she performed what was billed as
a poetry reading at the Boarding House.  Eventually she ended up with the
entire band onstage.   I think that is what the 11/21/75 show is, and
probably  is what L French came across.   I was at the "poetry reading"
show, and it was pretty chaotic and she seemed to be pretty fucked up, all
of which fits with the setlist.  

Finally, there are some photos of Patti that are billed as being at the
Boarding House on 11/21/75:

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/tx/search/search.html?t=patti%20smith%201975



So....I think the recording in question is from the 11/12/1975 "poetry
reading".

And I would LOVE to get a copy of this.




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-babel-list
[mailto:owner-babel-list] On Behalf Of L French
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 3:19 AM
To: Babel- List
Subject: Patti flashback: Free and alive in 1975 (or 6)? 


I was just listening to a recording of Patti performing at The Boarding
House in San Francisco, which I believe was probably from November, 1976 and
I must say this is one of the most unusual performances I've ever heard
Patti give!   

The reason this show is so strange, is because it's basically one long Patti
monologue, with only five or six songs thrown into the mix. If it is from
November, 1976, it's even stranger, because two days later I actually saw
Patti perform a brilliant, incredibly tight set in Hartford, Conn. - and it
was only the second time I had seen her live!!  

Listening to the SF show now, I really liked the free-flowing
improvisational nature of it, but I wonder what I would have thought if I
heard this long seemingly endless rant as only my second exposure to
Patti...  I think it might have actually turned me off to her.   

Anyway, there also seems to be some confusion about what year the show
actually occurred... '75 or 76,  so if J or anyone else out there can shed
any light on the correct year (and possibly even the venue), please feel
free to add your thoughts. 

According to the PSG setlists it took place on 11/21/75 - but it seems to me
that wouldn't make sense, since Andy Paley is playing on the keyboards
(replacing DNV).   

Here's the set list which conveys some idea of the very loose nature of this
show: 
 
PATTI SMITH -- FUCKED UP IN SAN FRANCISCO 
November 16, 1976  Live at the Boarding House  

Introduction & rap (Im all fucked up) 
Seventh Heaven (poem - interrupted for a sound check)
Guitar feedback Improvisation (Give me more light Moe) 
Rap: The New Jersey Triangle 
Rap: Think of a John Ford Movie
Jesse James (poem- Picture Hanging Blues)
Interlude: If I fell (The Beatles) one verse 
Free Money 
Aint It Strange (w/ totally improvised Alexander in Babylon lyrics) Redondo
Beach Edie Sedgwick (poem) Today I Met The Boy I'm Going To Marry (Darlene
Love song) Moroccan improvisation (w/poem - Ballad of a Bad Boy) Radio
Ethiopia (Lenny doing Iguana lizard lyrics) /  
Abyssinia (piano/guitar solo) 
Deep in the Heart of me ("The Ethiopian Crawl")  

Encores: 

A Letter to Johnny Carson - from Jesus Christ 
My Generation 
Gloria 

The Band:  Lenny, Ivan, Jay Dee, Andy Paley & Steve Foxx  

Now compare the SF set list to a show  just two days later - when I saw
Patti for only the second time, at the Bushnell Auditorium, in Hartford Conn
(on November 18, 1976) doing a truly killer show: 

Were Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together 
Kimberly 
Pissing in a River  
Pale Blue Eyes / Louie Louie 
Free Money 
Ask the Angels 
Redondo Beach 
Pumping (My Heart) 
Time Is On My Side 
Aint It Strange 
Radio Ethiopia / Rock n Roll Nigger 
Horses  
Gloria 

My Generation 

  
       
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