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The entire audience
at Central Park Summerstage was on their feet to receive
the legendary Patti Smith as she appeared on stage. The
heat was sweltering, but Patti and her band performed with
such intensity that the crowd shivered collectively with
every climax.
Smith’s t-shirt was emblazoned
with half of a peace symbol, and a small cross hung around
her neck. Her slight frame was topped with the wild mane
of her hair, reminiscent of her early punk days at CBGB.
She opened with the theatrical version of “Beep Beep,”
which energized the crowd. |
Patti then took a moment to eulogize late Grateful Dead front-man
Jerry Garcia: “This week starts with August first, which was
the birthday of Jerry Garcia, and ends on August ninth, the day
of his death. Jerry deserves a nine-day week. We remember you.”
She then sang, “Whose
bones scrape/ inspire stars/ amaze?” Her poetry segued
into the eerie folk song, “Ain’t it Strange,”
which is about a young girl shooting up in a New Jersey
club. This and other older Smith classics recollect her
youth in South Jersey’s desolate dancehalls. Lenny
Kaye, Smith’s first guitar player, is still jamming
with her today. They seemed intrinsically connected as they
played “Dancing Barefoot.” Patti spit on stage
and taunted the audience with a snarled upper lip. Smith
is still a punk at heart, but she is now a seasoned hippie
as well. She made an impassioned speech about the war in
Iraq, saying, “We like to do this song about the senseless
and illegal war in Iraq. We like to remember the citizens
and the journalists and every young child and mother and
every library and school that was destroyed. Everything,
because of a fucking lie."
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"This will continue
unless we do something. Unless we become aware of what is
going on around us.”
Smith is still trying to change the
world with music. The message in her rock is simple and
clear: the world needs peace. She softened her voice to
sing “Build it Back Again."
She cooed, “Maybe one day we’ll
be strong/ Build a peaceable kingdom/ build it back again.”
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The protest song, “People Have the Power,” followed,
with Smith insisting, “New York, don’t forget. We
must use our words!”Smith the returned to honoring Jerry
Garcia’s memory by singing “Not Fade Away,”
during which she played the harmonica and recited a poem: “Jerry
lifted up to the clouds/ And Jerry died smiling.”
Despite the gravity of her
words on war and her melancholy tribute to Jerry, Smith’s
set ended on an upbeat note with a rocking rendition of a
fan favorite, “Because the Night.” Patti Smith
& Co. encored with a super-charged version of “Gloria”.
Smith is still a quintessential punk-rock poetess. She will
go down fighting, and her fight for peace is far from over.
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