Search - Patti Smith :: Land

In some ways, singer-songwriter Patti Smith seems an unlikely choice for a full-bore anthology. After all, she's had only one charting single with "Because the Night." Even at that time, most people probably were more familiar with Gilda Radner's spot-on parody of her on Saturday Night Live than with Smith herself. Yet her influence both on the fledgling NYC punk scene and as a protofeminist poet renders her something of an American counterculture icon. As such, Land (1975-2002) serves to frame an uncompromising career spanning four decades. Split over two discs and featuring 31 tracks and almost two-and-a-half hours of music, Land begins with a survey of Smith's studio albums, relying most heavily on 1978's Easter. All the greats are here--"Dancing Barefoot," "People Have the Power," "Gloria," "Rock 'n' Roll Nigger," "Frederick," and of course, "Because the Night," plus a newly recorded version of Prince's "When Doves Cry," one of two songs cut specifically for this collection. The second disc is where fans--who were solicited for track selection input via gigs and the Web--get the goods. Early demos, among them 1974's coveted "Piss Factory," plus two other pre-Horses recordings, "Redondo Beach" and "Distance Fingers," kick things off. What follows is a batch of previously unreleased live recordings--"Dead City," "Spell," "Boy Cried Wolf"--most captured during a 2001 tour through the U.S. and Europe, and studio outtakes. Smith herself helped remaster the recordings while stacking the accompanying booklet with fans' photos and the like. Land probably won't spark a Smith renaissance, but loyalists can marvel at an artist who's never turned a fast buck by easing up on the sweat, tears, hunger, and integrity that inform every one of these tracks. --Kim Hughes