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Friday, October 31, 1997

Making 'Peace'

MUSIC: Music pioneer Patti Smith brings a lifetime of rock 'n' roll to her new album, "Peace and Noise"

By Mike Prevatt

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

For many everyday music listeners, the name Patti Smith is either barely familiar or unknown. Yet to hard-core rock 'n' roll fans, or those involved in the burgeoning punk scene in New York in 1974, Patti Smith reigns as the queen of poetic rock.

Smith, now 50, has just released "Peace and Noise," only her second record of the '90s, and yet it has been given the critical red-carpet treatment, hailed already as one of the best albums of the year. In "Peace and Noise," she returns to familiar lyrical territory with songs centering around the lost and lonely youth.

Smith, with her widely celebrated gigs at New York's punk mecca CBGB's, helped begin a punk revolution in 1974 with her starkly personal indie single, "Piss Factory." A year later, she released her major-label debut, "Horses," which has been lauded as one of the best and most influential records of all time. In the spirit of Bob Dylan, Smith put her poetry to moving music, yet her sound was noted for its passionate fury. Smith took themes of religion, sex and the unguided youth and gave them a blunt rock 'n' roll treatment never seen before, somewhere Generation X and Alanis Morrisette eventually came from.

"I don't really direct my work to anyone, or any age group or type of person," Smith says, practicing in her New York home for her Halloween stint at CBGB's. "I don't presume to know what kind of person listens to records. I just try to do the best work I can, and communicate abstractly to whomever will listen."

The new record looks at a past, present and future of America. Smith takes a lot of the issues confronting young people of today and tomorrow, just like she did in 1975.

"The first song, 'Waiting Underground,' is just an abstract form of hope," Smith says, "just giving some people something to think about in terms of the constructive aspects of union, of people gathering together."

One song, "Whirl Away," looks at the disturbing direction of today's young people. "One of the things that inspired (that song) was just daily reading, things in the paper like '14-year-old boy on the subway getting killed for his leather jacket' and these kind of things. Young people are killing each other for material objects or some abstract idea, or they don't like the color of the person's skin or the way they looked at them in the subway.

"Often, people are measuring their worth by material things, instead of the kind of person they are," Smith says. "And really, when it comes down to it, what you've got is yourself. No matter what kind of clothes you've got on or stuff you've got ... what you really have in the end is yourself. That's what one should be working on, themselves ... not so much bettering their financial position."

This humble, earnest attitude has been with Smith since the early years, but it's no longer for herself as much as it is for the generation her 15-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter belong to, a family she gave up rock 'n' roll for in 1980. But besides maternal instincts, there seemed to be an event sparked with a different urgency that led her to some of the themes on "Peace and Noise."

"I started feeling extremely concerned when Kurt Cobain took his life," Smith admits. "I really loved Nirvana. I thought it was a great band, and I thought he was extremely gifted. I was deeply shocked at that. I was living at Detroit at the time and I remember going into record stores, or just seeing young people standing all over the streets not knowing what to do with themselves, you know, feeling really bummed out. I was really concerned that this would have its reverberations, that young people looking up to him ... might apply that to their own lives.

"I just felt like the younger generation seemed extremely lost," Smith says. "I mean, they don't lack strength or energy. The newer generations aren't being brought up with a lot of spiritual values, or hopes ... or even a deep respect for their own humanity. And self respect ... if one lacks self respect, one's not going to respect another, or the planet for that matter."

The only problem with Smith's musical mission statement is her appeal. Despite being one of the founding parents of alternative rock and punk (although she did not really having that aggro-punk sound), her styles and sounds just don't seem to translate to the youth listening to the blitzkrieg pop dominating radio today.

"I don't have any particular place with younger generations, obviously - I'm 50 years old," Smith says. "I might not do the kind of work nor have the kind of image that's interesting. But I do care and I have a lot of experience behind me. And I feel like I am a person that can be trusted. Maybe some people will be helped by it or inspired by it. It's one of the reasons I do the work that I do."

Smith's defiant yet soothing prose, especially on the "Horses" album, has been a source of inspiration for countless rock stars, like members of R.E.M., U2 and Sonic Youth. Courtney Love and PJ Harvey have also credited Smith as an inspiration. Yet Smith herself doesn't seem to keep up with modern music like one might assume.

"I don't really know what people are doing," Smith admits. "I'm very involved in working and taking care of my family, so it wouldn't be right of me to put down or not be supportive of what people are doing. I haven't really heard anything lately that has really inspired me. I like things people are doing, like Flying Saucer Attack, and I like this band Smoke. I like R.E.M."

"I listen to a lot of old stuff," Smith says. "I listen to a lot of old blues records, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. And Beethoven. I tend to keep accessing the things I've liked for much of my life. I still get inspired by them. But the band I listen to the most these days is my own, 'cause we're always working and practicing. I guess the last band that I put a lot of faith in and really liked was Nirvana. And I haven't really taken with a new band since then. But, that's just me."

Smith is also a huge Bob Dylan fan - he influenced her life like she has so many others. "I got to tour with Bob Dylan, which was a very big dream of mine. I was really happy when Bob came out with the (new) record. He's been with us for so long, he really helped me get through rough times when I was younger and I think that's one of the things I think about all the time."

Smith's tours tend to be small so she can spend more time with her children, but she will stage a small tour for the album nonetheless, including a stop in Los Angeles. "We're working it out now. I don't tour much; I have a family. But I always come to San Francisco and L.A. In the '70s, being the band we were, we had our certain places where people supported us, and one of those places is L.A. It's always inspiring to come back."

Besides touring and promoting her new album, Smith has books in-the-making for the future. But the seemingly busy Smith doesn't get so preoccupied as to forget the important things.

"I'm working with Doubleday to do a really beautiful book with all my lyrics and history of the band. I have a really great band, and we did "Peace and Noise," which I'm really proud of. So, I have to say I'm really lucky. I have my dark days like anyone else, but I would have to say that with everything, I feel like a blessed person."

Patti Smith is known as "the mother of alternative music."

Smith's 1975 album "Horses" has inspired many current artists.