Customer Reviews

Wave

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Often dismissed by critics as Patti Smith's weakest album before her temporary retirement from the business in the late 70s, "Wave" is worth having just for the first three tracks. Had there been any justice, "Frederick" would have been a huge follow up hit to "Because The Night" from the "Easter" set. Its commercial potential couldn't have escaped listeners, could it ? But wait, the best is yet to come. "Dancing Barefoot" has got to be one of the most gorgeous melodies ever written by Patti and arguably the high point of the album. By the time you reach the impressively hard rocking "So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star", you think this set is gonna top even "Easter" but sadly, this was not to be. With the possible exception of "Seven Ways Of Going" - the equivalent of the unlistenable final two tracks of "Radio Ethiopia" - the rest of "Wave" starting from "Hymn" isn't bad but not nearly as compelling as the three openers. "Revenge" and "Citizen Ship" actually grow on you if you let them and the title track is a little ethereal beauty. Don't let the critics put you off this album. "Wave" may be a little uneven and not quite the masterpiece that were its predecessors, but the highlights shine so brightly no fan of Patti's should miss out on them, particularly "Dancing Barefoot" which is absolutely brilliant.

For the first couple of years I owned this album I thought side 1 was the highlight. But the first time I really listened to what side two was saying it blew me away. The title track - Wave - might be her finest moment.

This is music at its purest. With all the posing and rock'n'roll masks stripped away. As spiritual as The Doors but simpler. To me, Patti Smith's oft quoted narcissism and self obsession is the mark of someone whose journey into themselves is a journey into the heart of everything.

DANCING BAREFOOT is one of the greatest songs of the past fifty years. This album is, in its entirety, as good as anything The Doors ever made, which is saying a lot.

After the spectacular Horses, Radio Ethiopia and Easter anything would have been a let-down and it was indeed slammed by the critics. I love the album, however, for its great songs. It has now been enhanced by the addition of two tracks.

Frederick is a poetic number with a lovely, hummable melody in the vein of Because The Night. Dancing Barefoot is more experimental and rather haunting with an interesting tribal rhythm, whilst So You Wanna Be A Rock 'n Roll Star is a spirited version of the classic and Hymn a fragile lullaby with Patti accompanying herself on a harp - it reminds me of The Jackson Song on Dream of Life.

The highlight of the album is Broken Flag, a solemn but powerful dirge about courage in adversity, celebrating some early American heroine. The title track Wave is a spoken word delivery with gulls and ocean sounds and doesn't appeal to me at all.

I would say this album is essential for fans but not the correct entry point for someone just starting to investigate the talented Ms Smith. When it was released, the critics were unnecessarily harsh - it has stood the test of time very well.

Land (1975-2002)

This is an album of contradictions, but compelling nonetheless. It was the first PSG effort I heard, and inspired me to buy Easter and Radio Ethiopia too (all vinyl, over 20 years ago). The LP has only the first nine songs. The opening track (Frederick on side A), and 6-9 (the entire side B) are the ones that count. Ignore the rest. "Frederick" sounds like a made for radio single at first hearing, but later you can tell that she's speaking from the heart (even if you don't know about the husband part). The title song is rather pretentious, or maybe it's just a cynical adult who'd much rather still be a little girl. "Broken Flag" can actually give you goosebumps, but could also leave you with a Readers Digest aftertaste. "Seven Ways of Going" is paradoxically the most straightforward and unambiguous piece on the album. Resist the instinct to play it over and over. Finally, the opener on side B, "Citizen Ship" is a masterpiece of melding emotions with instrumentation. So brilliant that I'm willing to forgive the pointless meandering at the end. I'm amazed that nobody talks about this song.
The musical arrangements are generally sparse, but still stark and potent more often than not (producer Todd Rundgren is no Phil Spector). Ms. Smith's voice is rasping at times, lilting at others, even out of tune occasionally, but it works. I can't figure out if she's a latter day female Jim Morrison, or the Joan Baez of punk. But one thing's for sure, classifying her amongst "Women in Rock" amounts to trivializing her.

I've listened to this thoroughly and it is one of my favorite Patti Smith recordings. Other than the title song, which is primarily talk, the rest are fine, accessible, numbers. You can find "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" on Smith's "Land" compilation but then you'd miss out on many other great tunes.

She and her band have a way of creating a different sound and mood for each song so it never gets tiring. And they construct these sounds well. There are lots of tasty guitar riffs here. Overall, this album strikes me as similar to "Gung Ho"--not as great but fine nevertheless--even if they are 20+ years apart. So if you like one you may like the other. Patti Smith's music ages well.

Some of my favorites (besides "Frederick" and "Barefoot") include "So you Want to be a Rock n Roll Star"--which tops the original by eight miles at least. "Revenge" has a lick like Lennon's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" but with a darker theme and with a bite. "Broken Flag" is an inspiring, march-like tune. "5432/Wave" (nothing like "Wave")is a fun, energetic ending, as if it were the band's last song before intermission. Unfortunately, it is the last song here but then one can always return to all her other records...

for some people, a lot of the songs on this album may be difficult to get into at first. people have a tendancy to get scared off by lengthy songs, but i'd advise you to really listen to what she's saying. there seems to be a theme of religion & doubt running through a lot of the songs, she says in dancing barefoot: "the plot of our life/sweats in the dark like a face/the mystery of childbirth/of childhood itself/grave visitations/what is it that calls to us?/why must we pray screaming?/why must not death be redefined?..."

PLEASE give this one a chance, once you get into it you won't regret it.

A work of tremendous beauty. "ksgnyc" said it best, "The version of the Byrd's So You Want To Be Rock and Roll Star is grave and honest. The song Wave recreates an imaginary meeting between Patti and Pope J.P. It includes the sounds of "waves" breaking, creating a mood of peace and transcendence. To make it all perfect, Wave includes Frederick, Patti's valentine to her now deceased husband. On Radio Ethiopia, she asked the angels, on Wave they have answered." AMEN to that.

Although Patti Smith has generally been seen as a precursor to the punk rock movement of the late 1970s, even on her debut Horses she hardly conformed to the stereotypical image of a punk rocker presented to readers in modern times. Her songs were more than anything highly idiosyncratic piano-based torch songs, and even when on Easter she moved towards something closer to rock and roll and de-emphasised Richard Sohl's piano, she does not come across in the way one would expect of a precursor to riot grrls, but as a much older type of woman rebel.

Her fourth album, and last before her long-term retirement from the music business to raise a family, 1979's "Wave", lies even further removed from the aggressive, stripped-down sound that was coming from groups like the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Dead Boys. Often thought of as overproduced by Todd Rundgren, in fact "Wave" is less overblown than "Easter", but so soft as to be closer to her 1990s and 2000s comeback albums than to her first three classics or 1988's disappointing Dream of Life. The lyrics on "Wave", in contrast to "Gloria" and amazingly so compared to what was being seen in the underground and even on radio, are mystical, at times religious, but still very dark. Opener "Frederick" is the sound of a woman at peace with herself for marrying, rather like early Decadent and Modernist tales of the redemption of the radical, whilst "Dancing Barefoot", also about former MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith who was to be her husband until his death, is quite stark and folksy, but its sensual poetry is more than catchy and the powerful finale shows exactly the intense and dark emotions she had always felt. Third track "(So You Wanna Be A) Rock and Roll Star" is the only song she did not write on any of her original albums (being a Byrds cover) but it shows the problems Smith felt about the fame "Easter" gave her and if it is not anything new or notable, it still has her trademark passion.

"Hymn" is rather slight, and fifth track "Revenge" fails to match the powerful sensuality of past classics "Birdland", "Poppies", "Distant Fingers" or "Easter", but on the second side of the original vinyl Smith produces the two best tracks here, even if both are too politically incorrect for some listeners today. "Citizen Ship" is the hardest rocker here but its amazing power, backed up by vicious organ and one of the great drum performances in rock from Jay Dee Daugherty and a guitar solo that Richard Lloyd could hardly have matched from Kaye. The patriotic, anti-war lyrics of "Citizen Ship" could easily be one of the best anthems for the "small is beautiful" crowd, but with "Seven Ways of Going" Smith moves into even more religious territory than ever on "Easter" with lines like "Seven ways of serving Thee"/"Lord, I do extol Thee"/"For Thou has lifted me" that could literally come from a Catholic church. At the same time she produces a song with clarinet that soudns like it comes from Albert Ayler's saxophone. The way "Seven Ways of Going" changes tempo in the middle is quite unlike anything else in her catalogue, but is more heartfelt than anything else Patti Smith ever recorded.

The final two tracks, "Broken Flag" and the title tune (well known as a tribute to Pope John Paul I) fail however to maintain the standard of the first two songs on the second side, and even "Fire of Unknown Origin" does not return to her absolute best. Still, as a look into the heart and soul of a woman searching for peace after a chaotic life, "Wave" is on the whole quite worthwhile if the opposite of what you would expect from the "punk" label.

Wave, is the fully realized Patti Smith at the peak of her powers, embracing rock'n'roll and poetry in one of the most sublime expressions "Dancing Barefoot" and her quirky imaginary encounter with the Pope on the title selection. Some of this is hit or miss, but, it all rocks.