I was just about to turn off the TV and go to bed early this morning. I literally had the remote in my hand and my finger on the green off button. David Letterman reminded me that The Patti Smith Group was appearing live next so I settled in my spot and watched them rock out “Banga”, the title track from the new Special Edition book and CD.
I loved the risk that Patti Smith took playing that song, “Banga” is edgier than “April Fool” the first track to get airplay.
I haven’t seen The Patti Smith Group live in person yet. We are not scheduled to catch them until Monday December 3rd, 2012 at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Ct.
The band’s performance has whet my appetite for when that evening arrives
Patti Smith has become my favorite artist on multiple levels these past few years. I love her immediacy as a person as well as her bohemian artist lifestyle.
Living near New York City as we do has afforded my wife and the opportunity to see Patti Smith perform live several times now. We have also had the fortunate experience to meet Patti Smith at various book signings. She is always gracious to us. I dare to say we feel a kinship with her as fellow children of the sixties.
Her new recording, Banga is intriguing me endlessly. Its only a couple of more days until I can hear all the tracks in flow.I tell myself with baited breath. There are a bakers dozen of new songs with “Just Kids” as the bonus track on the Banga special edition CD.
There is even a unique offer on Patti Smith’s Web site that bundles a lithograph of Patti Smith and the Banga CD. (See image above)
(Thought this was published through my iPhone App yesterday….sigh)
I am glad I waited closer to the release date of Patti Smith‘s Banga recording (due June 5th) to place my pre-order. I had a premonition that Columbia Records would have a limited edition available. Today I got an e-mail from pattiwmith.net that outlines the final promotional push for Banga.
I am excited that there is so much to read, view, hear and absorb when it comes to Banga. In true Patti Smith form it is a work of art, with many objects of literary inputs to study and pursue. Its going to be great to immerse in the enrichment Patti Smith, her group, music collaborators and her video documentarian, Steven Sebring will be offering us. It’s also a family affair with Jesse Paris, Patti’s daughter and her son Jackson, playing guitar on this recording.
Rather than my repeat what has already been shared with Patti Smith fans, click on this Web link to see why I am so pumped about Banga the limited edition, the new videos and so much more!
I can’t wait to give Banga a full listen and sit down with the hard cover book including 64 pages of original images, complete lyrics and liner notes.
Its music as it should be, a work of art and ongoing education about the literary world that begs us to explore and discover its wondrous universe.
I have discovered a music, social activism and journalism synergy between Patti Smith and Neil Young. Each is a respected cultural icon with a distinct style and loyal fan bases. Its magical when their artistic muses intersect.
Copyright Kate Simon 1979
Both have new studio albums coming out on the same day this year, June 5th, 2012. Patti Smith will release Banga on Columbia Records on June 5th. The last song on Banga is Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush” which sews the Patti Smith and Neil Young tapestry closer together.
On June 5th, Neil Young & Crazy Horse will release a very special album titled AMERICANA, which is the first Neil Young & Crazy Horse recording in nearly nine years.
AMERICANA is a collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as “protest songs”, “murder ballads”, or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman!
Oh Susannah
Clementine
Tom Dula
Gallows Pole
Get A Job
Travel On
High Flyin’ Bird
Jesus’ Chariot
This Land Is Your Land
Wayfarin’ Stranger
God Save The Queen
Patti Smith performed at the Music of Neil Young at Carnegie Hall in New York City to pay tribute to the legendary 50-year, 34-album career of Neil Young.
Patti Smith, with her daughter Jesse on grand piano, stood at the mic, hands behind her back, and recited “It’s a Dream,” a spare tune of simple emotion from Young’s 2005 album Prairie Wind, which he wrote after his father’s death, with a nod to his own brush with mortality from a brain aneurysm. It’s a song of retrospection and appreciation, with Young revisiting his boyhood in Ontario and celebrating life’s little beauties, like the sound of the birds in the morning, and holding his wife in bed at night. Smith choked up, missing a verse. When she continued, the crowd carried her on their cheers. Now that’s a tribute.
Patti Smith has established herself as an award-winning author with the book,Just Kids which won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2010.
BookExpo America announced that Neil Young will speak June 6 (the day after Americana is released…) about his upcoming memoir on Blue Rider Press, “Waging Heavy Peace”. Young will speak on stage at the Jacob Javits Center with an interviewer to be named later. One interviewer possibility: Stephen Colbert, who has interviewed Young on his Comedy Central show and is already a featured speaker at BookExpo
“I felt like writing books fit me like a glove; I started and I just kept going,” Young said.
The artistic energy of Patti Smith continues to educate and liberate my consciousness. I received an e-mail from Patti Smith early this morning which shared her thoughts about her first studio recording in eight years, Banga, that will be available on June 5th, 2012.
Banga is Patti Smith’s 11th studio recording. The track list will include:
Amerigo
Fuji-san
April Fool
This Is The Girl
Banga
Maria
Tarkovsky (The Second Stop is Jupiter)
Mosaic
Nine
Seneca
Constantine’s Dream
After the Gold Rush
The first song from Banga, “April Fool” is available for download on iTunes or it can be heard on Spotify.
APRIL FOOL
(Words by Patti Smith)
Come be my April Fool
Come you’re the only one
Come on your rusted bike
Come we’ll break all the rules
We’ll ride like writers ride
Neither rich nor broke
We’ll race through alleyways
In our tattered cloaks so
Come be my April Fool
Come we’ll break all the rules
We’ll burn all of our poems
Add to God’s debris
We’ll pray to all of our saints
Icons of mystery
We’ll tramp through the mire
When our souls feel dead
With laughter we’ll inspire
Then back to life again
Come you’re the only one
Come be my April Fool
Come come
Be my April Fool
We’ll break all the rules
There was a CBS Sunday Morning Show segment about Patti Smith this morning, Patti Smith an artist never at rest. The transcript is available here. This was followed by a special CBS Sunday Morning Show Webcast with a studio audience in New York City with Charles Osgood, Anthony Mason and Patti Smith. There are various video clips including the one hour Webcast located on the CBS Sunday Morning Show Website.
It is also Palm Sunday 2012 and I was the Narrator at our parish for the reading of the Passion.
I found this very nice reflection from fellow Catholic Patti Smith on her Web site and wanted to share it with you,
I am glad I waited closer to the release date of 
