This is another bootleg that I picked up in the late 70’s (this must have come out very quickly since the show was May 12, 1978 and I know I did a drawing from the cool cover photo within a year of that) that shows the band in reasonably light mood, with the entire first side of the album (presumably the first half of the show) made up of cover tunes.
Starting with “The Kids Are Alright” (with some vocal help from Lenny – I think Patti was still recovering from her broken neck at this point and so allowed the other members a little more spotlight than normal), they go to their girl group roots with “Be My Baby” before moving on to the Stones’ “Time is On My Side” (with a short poetic intro from Smith and spot on leads from, I think, Lenny Kaye).
The B-side to John Lennon's “Imagine” single, “It’s So Hard” comes next, with a literal shout out to Ivan Kral, who then trades lead vocals with Patti, followed by the title tune – “the Academy Award winning song of 1977” (the year that punk broke), Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life”. Introducing the song Patti says “we’re a top forty band, we’re the Patti Smith Group, we’d like to do a little top forty for you” – apparently referencing their success with “Because the Night” from the Easter album that they were promoting. I always assumed that this was supposed to be humorous, though you never know with Smith. She also admonishes the audience to give her next single the amount of applause and enthusiasm that the audience gives to this cover.
Side one closes with their iconic take on “My Generation”, this time without John Cale but still fabulously chaotic! Vocals are traded off throughout, with Kaye more or less on “lead”, as much as that is applicable in this case.
Side two is entirely made up of their own tunes and all from the then-new album. “Rock’n’Roll Nigger” has a slightly different introduction, though the song itself is pretty much as recorded. “Till Victory” and “Space Monkey” are also fairly true to the originals, though a bit rawer and with rougher vocals from Smith.
Opening with a noisy blast of feedback and distortion, “25th Floor” is practically spat out and the middle section is sung improvisationally rather than done in spoken word, as on the vinyl. There is a nice build up to a loud and climatic ending! The boot finishes off with their own top forty tune that was previously alluded to, “Because the Night”, which is done quite traditionally.
Overall, another excellent bootleg and a fine window into the band’s influences and attitudes. This and Teenage Perversity are the only two Patti boots I have but both are high quality and utterly recommended.
<< Home