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April 22, 2007
Patti Smith
Patti Smith did a short set outside the Central Branch of The Free Library of Philadelphia on Saturday as part of a Book Fair. She played for about 45 minutes, accompanied by her son Jackson and local guitarist Jeffrey Gaines on acoustic guitars. Apparently she met Jeffrey backstage before they went on and asked him to join them. She wandered onstage to no introduction but a lot of audience cheering and said she originally planned to read poetry but was afraid she’d be distracted by the traffic noise, so she decided to sing instead. A lot of people cheered at that and no one one appeared to complain.
She was GREAT! I’m not a huge fan of hers, either. I think Horses is one of the very best records ever made. (That and Television’s Marquee Moon were the first CDs I bought even though I still had the LPs.) I haven't liked any of her recordings since then nearly as much, certainly not enough to buy, even back when people still paid for music. I saw her with and without her full band quite a few times in the Horses days and earlier and always walked away happy. I remember a show at The Tower Theater around the time of Easter, I think. She sang an awesome (in the real sense of the word) accapella version of “You Light Up My Life,” of all things. I still remember the stunned silence in the audience. It completely worked. A few weeks later, though, she lived down to my expectations when she got all “tranced out” during a performance and stepped right off the stage. Oops. She sang wearing a neck brace for a while after that incident.
She did a new song, two songs from her upcoming album of covers 12, “Because the Night” and another song of hers that I don’t know well enough to remember the title. Her voice sounded wonderful, as good as ever. She was really friendly, positive and self-effacing which I didn’t expect. Her cover of Neil Young’s “Helpless” was really beautiful, the Allman Brothers song was not. The small crowd, literally infants to octogenarians, all seemed to love her. Good for her.
I was close enough to the stage to suit me, being short, and had a great view, except when the large pear-shaped man in the photo above would lurch to his feet. You know the type: carrying around too many rolled up newspapers in too many tattered plastic bags and a fanny pack in the front, cinched tightly to accentuate his already strange figure. Yeah, him. There were some hot men there, too, but I couldn’t get close enough to snap any pics of them without being noticed and possibly…well, I’m not exactly sure what they might do.
I had just come from Volunteer Recognition Day at the Wilma Way Center. The entertainment was really terrible belly dancer Habiba. She was really embarrassing to sit through. She evoked stunned silence of a completely different kind. Afterward, I got to the Book Fair early enough to catch the act preceding Patti Smith and, coincidentally, it was Joe Tayoun’s Middle Eastern Ensemble with Roger Mgrdichiana on oud and Meesha, a belly dancer! She was great, though, as were the musicians, and she had her picture taken many times by a few of the older gentlemen in the audience.
I’m listening to “Gypsy Solitaire” from Fraser & Debolt with Ian Guenther by Fraser & Debolt, who I know Patti would just love.
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Posted by HighStrungLoner in Music at 2:27 AM
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Comments
Jimmy Tayoun's Middle Eastern Restaurant...
Oh interesting. Back in 1990, as I was preparing to leave Philadelphia to move to NYC, those loopy guys and gals in ACT UP were in sort of a grudge match against Tayoun. They were protesting something or other at a Council hearing and made the mistake of directing some catcalls his way about his indictment for tax evasion. He responded by saying "Tell you what, you die of AIDS and stop bothering people and I'll pay my taxes, 'kay?" So ACT UP started protesting on his ass.
I had been a visible member of the group before they went all loopy. So I got a threatening phone call! And the caller said, "Know this, faggot: Jimmy Tayoun knows where you live."
So it's good to see that Mr. Tayoun and the gay community seem to have kissed and made up.
P.S.: But please don't tell Jimmy Tayoun where I live now.
Posted by: Drew Kramer on April 23, 2007 11:23 PM
Great story! This was his son though, I think.
Did I see you at BrewHaHa a few weeks ago?
Posted by: HighStrungLoner on April 29, 2007 6:07 AM
no u did'nt you blind homo get your glasses fixed
Posted by: Anonymous on April 30, 2007 2:59 PM
