RE: de l'ame pour l'ame

["J" <jlregister>]

Can I just say I'm jealous and leave it at that?
 

_______________________ 
J


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-babel-list 
> [mailto:owner-babel-list] On Behalf Of Douglas 
> W. Corkhill
> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 12:14 PM
> To: babel-list
> Subject: de l'ame pour l'ame
> 
> 
> Imagine being given the opportunity to see and hear a musical 
> artist perform one of their most influential albums, in its 
> entirety, in the sequence it was recorded.  The mind is 
> boggled; Bruce Springsteen playing Born To Run from front to 
> back.  The Rolling Stones and Let It Bleed, or Sticky 
> Fingers.  Bob Dylan Revisting Highway 61.
>  
> For two nights in new York City last week rock 
> singer-poet-priestess-goddess Patti Smith celebrated the 30th 
> anniversary of her debut album Horses doing just that.  She 
> did not recreate the songs, rather reinterpreted the music as 
> both she and horses have matured.  Held at the gorgeous 
> Brooklyn Academy of Music it was truly an occasion of rock meets art.
>  
> For me, the decision to attend one of these shows was simple. 
>  I have admired Smith's music for years, introduced through 
> her collaboration with Springsteen on Because the Night in 
> 1978, and have seen her play in small clubs in North Carolina 
> and in New York City on her birthday twice.  In my never 
> ending quest for the perfect concert moment I knew this show 
> would be special - and I was going.
>  
> I didn't realize just how special upon entering the concert 
> hall, with its high, ornate ceiling, gilded balconies and box 
> seats hovering like saucers flying beside the stage.  I 
> didn't realize how special when I was handed a program from 
> the usher, complete with a playlist and biography of the 
> band.  It wasn't until the lights dimmed, they walked on 
> stage and Patti sang the first line of Gloria; "Jesus died 
> for somebody's sins but not mine," that I knew that this was 
> not your average rock and roll show.
>  
> Patti and the band attacked the first four songs with 
> unbridled passion.  Patti was pumped during Gloria, relaxed 
> in Redondo beach, channeled her poetic soul for Birdland and 
> unleashed a frenzy in Free Money.  Flea, bass player with the 
> Red Hot Chili Peppers playing now with Patti, was barely able 
> to contain his energy, marching in place and then hopping 
> during the first sides' final cut.
>  
> "Side two," Patti smiled and said before Kimberly.  Both the 
> band and the audience took a collective breath at the start 
> before Flea got funky on the bass, Lenny Kaye ripped some 
> surf guitar and then Patti and Lenny danced to the song's 
> sweet ending.  Patti recited a poem to Jim Morrison before 
> Break It Up, then pounded on her heart singing "I feel my 
> heart breaking."
>  
> The centerpiece of the album, the three part opus Land, was 
> completely reworked.  The opening ode to "Johnny" was 
> reworded, the Land of a Thousand Dances portion churned with 
> ferocious energy and the concluding La Mer was replaced with 
> lyrics that invoked the streets of Tanagers.  In spite of the 
> changes the crowd was the most responsive of the night, on 
> their feet and dancing in the aisles.
>  
> Everyone - Patti, the band, the audience - took another deep 
> breath as Flea turned bass duties over to long time drummer 
> Jay Dee Daugherty and picked up the trumpet for the album 
> ending Elegie.  Promising "We'll be right back," Patti led 
> the band off stage to the fifth (or was it the sixth?) 
> standing ovation of the night.  Horses was complete but the 
> night was not yet over.
>  
> Unlike the first set, which was a unified whole, the second 
> set was a pastiche.  Proving her past was both punk and 
> psychedelic Patti played clarinet on a mesmerizing cover of 
> Are You Experienced?  After reminding the audience that the 
> day (December 1) was International Aids Day and railing 
> against governments and corporations that don't do more to 
> make medicine available to the poor around the world, she and 
> Lenny played acoustic guitars on a simply sublime Southern 
> Cross.  Patti kept her shoes and socks on while going out 
> into the audience during Dancing Barefoot, then began Because 
> the Night serenading a stuffed Gumby doll.  The set ending 
> Rock and Roll Nigger included both a snippet of Land's lost 
> La Mer as well as a reprise of Gloria's opening line.
>  
> Returning for an encore that truly felt earned and not 
> scripted, Patti invoked her late husband Fred "Sonic" Smith.  
> She told of how when the two of them wrote the song People 
> Have the Power in "oh...1987," her daughter was kicking her 
> from inside the womb.  This night daughter joined mother 
> onstage for the finale.  "She'll probably kick me again after 
> the show," the proud mom said before ending the night with 
> the fist pumping anthem.
>  
> In the program Lenny Kaye writes of the "great privilege and 
> honor" it is for them to "share this milestone moment of 
> Horses' lifeline in Brooklyn."  Also in the program, just 
> above the playlist, is "de l'ame pour l'ame."  Translated 
> literally, this means "from the soul, for the soul".  Thank 
> you, Patti; my soul is enriched for having been there.
>  
> Doug (sad because they were out of "Horses Changed My Life" 
> buttons by the time I got there)