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- Date Released: March 1, 1978
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Rock
- Label: Arista
- Copyright: (P) 1978,1996 Arista Records, Inc.
Tortured and anthemic, Smith's most commercial album is anything but a sellout
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We Say...
If only by dint of containing the Springsteen collab "Because the Night," her only Top 10 hit, Easter is Patti Smith's most commercial album, but it's hardly a sellout. The musical backing by her longtime trio of Lenny Kaye, Ivan Kral and Jay Dee Daugherty (with Bruce Brody in for Richard Sohl on keys) is almost anthemic at times, full of ringing power chords and massive snare hits, but Smith's lyrics are as dark and complex as those on Horses, maybe more so.
Not surprisingly given its title, the album is shot through with references to death and resurrection (perhaps most tangibly on "Ghost Dance"). "Privilege (Set Me Free)" closes with a snippet of Psalm 23.
Smith's embrace of Christian themes is ecstatic and tortured rather than dogmatic. She includes Jesus Christ along with Jimi Hendrix and Jackson Pollack in the roll call of social outcasts in "Rock n Roll Nigger," a song more radical for its mixture of spoken-word poetry and all-out rock than its questionable attempt to rework racial epithets.
Smith is so often discussed as a poet that her singing sometimes gets second billing, but she was never in better voice than here, shifting from a raspy snarl to a mournful wail. That "Because the Night" isn't bad, either. -
They Say...
Patti Smith came back from the year-and-a-half break caused by her fall from a stage in January 1977 without having resolved the art-versus-commerce argument that had marred her second album, Radio Ethiopia. In fact, that argument was in some ways the theme of her third. Easter, produced by Bruce Springsteen associate Jimmy Iovine, was Smith's most commercial-sounding effort yet and, due to the inclusion of Springsteen's "Because the Night" (with Smith's revised lyrics), a Top Ten hit, it became her biggest seller, staying in the charts more than five months and getting into the Top 20 LPs. But Smith hadn't so much sold out as she had learned to use her poetic gifts within an album rock context. Certainly, a song that proclaimed, "Love is an angel disguised as lust/Here in our bed until the morning comes," was pushing the limits of pop radio, and on "Babelogue," Smith returned to her days of declaiming poetry on New York's Lower East Side. That rant (significantly ending, "I have not sold my soul to God") led into the provocative "Rock n Roll Nigger," a charged rocker with a chorus that went, "Outside of society/Is where I want to be." Smith made the theme from the '60s British rock movie Privilege her own and even got into the U.K. charts with it. And on songs like "25th Floor," Iovine, Smith, and her group were able to accommodate both the urge to rock out and the need to expound. So, Easter turned out to be the best compromise Smith achieved between her artistic and commercial aspirations.
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| 01. |  |
Till Victory |
2:47 |
|
| 02. | |
Space Monkey |
4:09 |
|
| 03. | |
Because The Night |
3:25 |
|
| 04. | |
Ghost Dance |
4:43 |
|
| 05. | |
Babelogue |
1:32 |
|
| 06. | |
Rock N Roll Nigger |
3:24 |
|
| 07. | |
Privilege (Set Me Free) |
3:32 |
|
| 08. | |
We Three |
4:18 |
|
| 09. | |
25th Floor |
4:04 |
|
| 10. | |
High On Rebellion |
2:37 |
|
| 11. | |
Easter |
6:02 |
|
| 12. | |
Godspeed |
6:24 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 46:57 Total Length
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Credits
- Les Paul - Bass // Les Paul - Bass // Les Paul - Bass // Les Paul - Vocals // Les Paul - Vocals // Les Paul - Vocals // Todd Rundgren - Bass // Todd Rundgren - Bass // Tom Verlaine - Arranger // Bruce Brody - Synthesizer // Bruce Brody - Keyboards // Greg Calbi - Mastering // Charlie Conrad - Engineer // Jay Dee Daugherty - Percussion // Jay Dee Daugherty - Drums // Jay Dee Daugherty - ? // Jay Dee Daugherty - Consultant // John Paul Fetta - Bass // Lynn Goldsmith - Photography // Joe Intile - Engineer // Jimmy Iovine - Producer // Jimmy Iovine - Mixing // Lenny Kaye - Bass // Lenny Kaye - Guitar // Lenny Kaye - Bass (Vocal) // Lenny Kaye - Vocals // Lenny Kaye - Guitar (12 String) // Ivan Kral - Bass // Ivan Kral - Guitar // Ivan Kral - Keyboards // Ivan Kral - Vocals // Ivan Kral - ? // Allen Lanier - Guitar // Allen Lanier - Keyboards // Jimmy Maxwell - Pipe // Andi Ostrowe - Percussion // Andi Ostrowe - ? // Thom Panunzio - Engineer // Gray Russell - Engineer // Patti Smith - Vocals // Patti Smith - Vocals // Patti Smith - Main Performer // Patti Smith - Main Performer // Patti Smith - Performer // Patti Smith - Performer // Patti Smith - Duo-sonic // Patti Smith - Duo-sonic // Richard Sohl - Piano // Richard Sohl - Keyboards // Shelly Yakus - Mixing // Bob Irwin - Mastering // Jim Maxwell - Bagpipes // Vic Anesini - Mastering
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