Patti Smith-Gone Again (1996)

 

Artist: Patti  Smith

Title: Gone Again

Label: Arista

Format: CD

Cat #: ARCD-8747

Year of Release: 1996

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1996 Advance CD Promo

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 1/29/21

Sell Price: $2.99

Discogs Last Sold: 6/19/18 $2.99 NM/VG+

Low: $1.25

Median: $2.99

High:  $14.99 M/NM 8/29/15

Current low price: $4.00 VG+/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 13

Have/Want: 27/16

Where Sold:  Portland, OR

Time it took to sell: 9 years

Where and When Bought: either Sounds or Rocket Science Records before release somewhere in $5-10 range

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go:  No

"Grateful arms limb/grateful soul/he's gone again."-Gone Again

Although I've always thought this album to be a nod to the passing of Patti's husband Fred "Sonic" Smith who passed in 1994.  The title track might very well indicate a nod to Jerry Garcia, who passed in 1995, although the co-writing credit to Fred Smith indicates this would not be a correct assessment. 

Death permeates Gone Again, but it the album began a quality career rebirth, and a series of excellent studio albums spanning at least over a decade.  Hell it permeates for me personally.  I took my late mom to see Dylan at a 2/3 full Worcester Auditorium in late 1995 and Patti opened.  This was right before a run of Beacon Theater shows in NYC whose tickets were impossible to get even outside.  I remember great tangible joy in my mom's face when Patti kicked off her shoes during "Dancing Barefoot."  It's really one of my favorite memories of my late mother.  We took Easter out of the library in the 70's (mom had similar long black hair back then and noted the hairy armpits I recall) and Wave in the early 80's, so Patti Smith was known in my household long before I had earned money to buy all her albums.  This was more because my Dad had in interest in her because he read in Stereo Review that she covered Bruce Springsteen, than any sort of "punk" hipness.

Patti was a child of the 60's, more of my parents generation, than the punk one it is often forgotten.  One only needs to see the short film of Robert Maplethorpe getting his nipple pierced in 1971 to confirm that.  She got lumped in with BlondieTelevisionRamonesTalkingHeadsCBGB more by locale, as well as the Lenny Kaye Nuggets garage rock aesthetic. But she was as mainstream as apple pie (minus the yeast) and she could cavort easily with Dylan and Ginsburg after hours at the Bottom Line and not be out of place.

So the Kurt Cobain tribute of "About A Boy" salutes the fallen of her spawn. Clearly she felt a threaded kinship there.   Death and Dylan.  She covers Bob's "Wicked Messenger" from John Wesley Harding.  An elder that still lives, but even he casts a dark eye.  "Ravens" with it's mandolin wouldn't sound out of place on the Rolling Thunder Revue next to "Romance In Durango."

Patti really showed the world how to mourn and be great.  I'm sure, she, like I, would rather not mourn and be subpar.  I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way.

I felt a rising in my throat/The girls a-saying grace/And the air the viscous air/Pressed against my face/And it all got too damn much for me/Just got too damn rough/And I pushed away my plate/And said boys I've had enough/And I laid upon the table/Another piece of meat/And I opened up my veins to them/And said come on eat

Those Summer Cannibals sure get hungry!

Eat.  

Eat. Eat.