Patti Smith Peace And Noise CD

"1959" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

One of the most important figures of the musical revolution of the late '70s, Patti Smith later went into a self-imposed exile, returning to form after nearly a decade with 1996's GONE AGAIN. On PEACE AND NOISE, she proves that the comeback was no fluke. While themes of death and loss pervade, Smith tries to make sense of it all.

On "1959" she take a nostalgic look at a turning point in our cultural history, continuing the lesson with "Spell," an excerpt from Ginsberg's Howl read over a bed of acoustic guitars and strings. On "Dead City," Smith mourns the economic death of Detroit, working a proletarian fury worthy of her late husband Fred's Detroit proto-punk band MC5. This sentiment is furthered on "Blue Poles," a powerful ballad of a family losing hope in the Dust Bowl. Where GONE AGAIN served as the document of one woman's loss, PEACE AND NOISE finds the godmother of punk taking a parental view; looking at the world her children (both biological and spiritual) have inherited, and she's flying the flag of discontent for a whole new generation.

Limited edition (3,000 only) tour souvenir coupling togetherher 1997 album with a three track bonus CD featuring'Pissing In A River', 'People Have The Power' and 'DeadCity'. A combined total of 13 tracks. The album is in astandard jewelcase; the CD single is in a slimlinejewelcase. They come shrinkwrapped together. 1998 Aristarelease.

Recorded at Iiwii Studio, Weehawken, New Jersey. Includes liner notes by Patti Smith.

Personnel: Patti Smith (vocals, clarinet); Lenny Kaye (acoustic, electric & pedal steel guitars, bass); Oliver Ray (acoustic & electric guitars); J. D. Daugherty (harmonica, organ, bass, drums); Tony Shanahan (piano, bass, drums); Michael Stipe (background vocals).

Spin (12/97, pp.156-158) - 7 (out of 10) - "...Driving relentlessly into the dark, PEACE AND NOISE avoids overt morbidity by masking Smith's doomsaying as fair warning for a world in peril....Like the realm it explores, this music is both vast and airless, and Smith is not a gentle guide--she grabs your arm and drags you in."
Entertainment Weekly (10/03/97, p.84) - "...Smith has made peace with the ghosts that haunted 1996's mournful GONE AGAIN and reommitted to electricity for a triumphant album that's of a piece with her '70s masterworks....Smith's at her wild-eyed, visionary best." - Rating: B+
Option (11-12/97, p.81) - "...a full return to the casual grace and power of her best early work..."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #29 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
NME (Magazine) (9/27/97, p.59) - 7 (out of 10) - "...a fiercely uncompromising record released on the back of a sprawling, emotional one....PEACE AND NOISE stands up, shakes a defiant fist, and hisses `death be not proud'."