Patti Smith Twelve CD

Personnel: Patti Smith (vocals, Clavinet); Tony Shanahan (vocals, keyboards, upright bass); Jay Dee Daugherty, Jay Dee Daugherty (drums, percussion); Lenny Kaye (acoustic guitar, electric guitar).
Audio Mixer: Emery Dobyns.
Recording information: Effigy Studios, Ferndale, MI; Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY; Loho Studios, New York, NY.
Photographer: Steven Sebring.
Ever since Patti Smith arrived on the New York scene in the mid-'70s, heralding the first flowering of punk, she's been all about confounding people's expectations. Over the years, the iconoclastic poet-turned-punk-icon moved from raging rock to contemplative balladry and back again without ever worrying about anyone's preconceptions. On the heels of her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame comes another sonic curve ball from Smith, an album full of classic-rock covers (among other things).
TWELVE finds Smith interpreting well-known tunes by artists who've seemingly influenced her (Jefferson Airplane, Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, et al.) as well as those she undoubtedly influenced (see the twangy, banjo-based cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). Amidst some of the more radical reinventions accomplished here, one might wonder about the faithful reproduction of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule the World," but why should Smith cease trafficking in the unexpected now?
According to her brief liner notes, Patti Smith indulged the idea of a covers album, considering songs as far back as 1978 on the back pages of Jean Genet's Thief's Journal when she was still assembling her groundbreaking early catalog; it's evident she feels that covers have been part and parcel of her recording experience from the outset. Her debut, Horses, has her own apocalyptic version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" as well as a healthy portion of Chris Kenner's "Land of a Thousand Dances" inside "Land." On 1979's Wave she covered the Byrds "So You Want to Be (A Rock and Roll Star)," and scored with the single. Her intuitive reading of Bob Dylan's "Wicked Messenger" was a beautiful aspect of Gone Again in 1996, and she paid tribute to Allen Ginsberg by using one of his poems in "Spell," on 1997's Peace and Noise. And who can forget her reading of Pete Townshend's "My Generation" issued on the 30th Anniversary edition of Horses?
While it's a popular notion these days to consider a covers album a stop-gap between albums, the truth is that Smith has never been in a hurry when it comes to recording, though she has been very productive over the last decade. She has always paid tribute in one form or another to her heroes, however disparate. This collection is a wondrous sampling of pop hits, hard rock, ballads, and soul done in Smith's inimitable way of interpreting songs -- by getting inside them and breathing their meaning, and often uncovering new shades of meaning -- from within. She begins with a newer, more spiritual reading of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" letting her fine band -- Jay Dee Daugherty, Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan -- pulse the tune's changes and vibe while she comes across as a shaman leading the way down into the underworld. Her taking on Tears for Fears' smash hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" may come as a surprise, but in her open-throated take, the tune brims with the wisdom of a prophetess proclaiming the folly of humankind's need for power and greed. And while her version of Neil Young's "Helpless" may come across as a bit too reverent, the seed of memory is what infuses her take on this beautiful ballad. Loss and remembrance become a memento mori, an effigy to those who who've traveled on from this plane of existence. "Gimme Shelter" is a natural, and it carries all the foreboding of an apocalypse out the original nearly 40 years later as if to say that Jagger and Richard were right all along. The tune becomes a plea for shelter, rather than a demand. George Harrison's "Within You Without You" is the complete blendingQ (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Smith's 12 choices aim high, bravely taking on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Tears for Fears....Her most purely enjoyable album since 1978's EASTER."
The Wire (p.65) - "Such is the power and grace that Patti Smith brings to her performance, arguably anything she turns her attention to is worth hearing....Simply, twelve is very much Smith's selection of favourite songs."
No Depression (p.84) - "A surging 'Are You Experience?' illuminates lyrics Hendrix didn't live long enough to fully inhabit; the acoustic rendition of Neil Young's 'Helpless' is spare and vulnerable."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]here is much languid beauty here, with Smith's ethereal singing floating over Lenny Kaye's crystalline guitar."