 So Patti Smith described her music on the 1975 release of Horses, her celebrated debut album; and so she has continued to blend the spoken and sung arts in incantatory fashion with her latest album, Gone Again. Impossible to categorize, moving easily between the literary and musical worlds, always unpredictable and impassioned, Smith is an idiosyncratically unique performer who has always remained true to her artistic vision. Smith continued performing as a poet/actress over the next two years, opening for the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center, writing songs for The Blue Oyster Cult, "reviewing" records for Creem and publishing her first volumes of poetry, "Seventh Heaven and Witt." In November of 1973, she and Kaye reunited for a "Rock `n Rimbaud" performance at Le Jardin off New York's Times Square, and the seeds for a band were sown. They were accompanied by a succession of piano players, culminating in the arrival of Richard "DNV" Sohl in the Spring of 1974. As a trio, they began to play more regularly, a curious blend centered on Smith's improvised wordplay, between free rock and free jazz, original songs mingling with strange cover versions that were used as counterpoint and segue. After successfully touring America and Europe, sounding a "wake-up call" to the legions of aspiring guitarists waiting in the wings, the Group returned to the studio in the summer of 1976 to record Radio Ethiopia with producer Jack Douglas, featuring a more rock-based sound. The band's touring was cut short when Smith fell from a stage in Tampa, Florida, during "Ain't It Strange," cracking two vertebrae in her neck and taking an enforced convalescence. The time off was spent preparing a volume of poetry, "Babel," and an album, Easter (1978), which contained the group's first Top 20 hit -- "Because The Night," a collaboration between Patti and Bruce Springsteen. The maiden production of Jimmy Iovine, the Easter became a worldwide hit, and Smith and the band toured America and Europe throughout much of that year. In the summer of 1995, she entered New York's Electric Lady studios to begin recording her sixth album. Produced by Malcolm Burn and Lenny Kaye, Gone Again features old friends like Tom Verlaine and John Cale, new friends like keyboardist Luis Resto and guitarist Oliver Ray, guest appearances by the late Jeff Buckley, cellist Jane Scarpantoni, and mandolin player Kimberly Smith; and the inimitable Smith, magic of song and the spoken word.
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