pattirate, and more

["Francine R. Cohen" <fc>]

Hmmm. rating...I don't know, different albums suit different states of
mind.

For me, nothing can touch the first four LPs.  I was aware of Patti when
they came out, and loved everything I heard on the radio (BTN, Rock n Roll
Star, maybe Dancing Barefoot?) but was only introduced to the full albums
shortly after Patti left recording behind. And then I was consumed by them.
 Maybe it's that I was in a raw emotional state at the time, but to me,
nothing she has recorded since can touch those first four...or can touch me
like those first four do.

Those recordings were more about internal life...perhaps in the self
absorption of youth.
It seems that on all the others, Patti has a more outward-, issue-oriented
aproach (aside from the focus on personal loss of Gone Again) which while
arguably commendable and important, leaves me cold as subject matter for
art.  This focus probably comes with maturity and/or having children...both
of which I have avoided so far. :)

Having said that, I would not be without her recent recordings. When Gone
Again came out, I ran out and bought it, opened it and popped it into the
car player, and I began to sob uncontrollably as I drove away, just for
hearing her again after so long.  And the power of her grief and determined
survival make that disc a powerful one.

I'm still digesting Gung Ho - don't love the whole thing yet but I think it
will grow on me and over time it may become a favorite.  Re Glitter - has
anyone else noticed the similarity, in subject and attitude as well as in
sound, with 'So You Want to Be ( A Rock n' Roll Star)? Wouldn't they go
together great on the radio?

At first in Strange Messengers I heard a presumptuous white woman with an
idealized vision of black history lecturing black kids, but the last time I
played it, Patti sounded like a mother wailing for her lost children, or as
a mother empathising with the mothers of those children. I think there are
elements of both.

As a footnote to the discussion on RnRN, I have to say on the recorded
track on Easter, the part that I love the most, gives me chills, and that
seems more daring to me (with the most potential to offend) is the spoken
intro, ending with "I have not sold my soul to God." (Bet she doesn't say
that live anymore, just like she won't say, "...but not mine.") What
follows is frenzy in the exhiliration of having made that statement.  In
that intro, I hear Patti saying, among other things, "I follow no rules -
follow me if you dare!" And once she's stepped outside, and the rules no
longer apply, the old definitions of words fall away, too.

Back to the shadows....
                                ~Francine