You trying to tell me you don't have Patti Smith's knock-down, poetic, guitar riffing, convention-blasting new album Trampin' yet? It's not on your iPod or in your iTunes library? Are you - in the words of Crazy Eddie, who was swamping the New York airwaves the year I discovered the majesty and depth (not to mention, the sheer balls) of Horses - insaaaaaaaane??!!
Patti Smith is the original Jersey Girl, poet, punk rocker - an original whose voice and lyrics and rhythm brought a new voice to rock, and the rare female artist whose sheer volume and talent was more important than her looks. I don't just dig Patti Smith, I revere Patti Smith - who, at 57, shows that even 30 years down the road it's possible to cut the best rock and roll album of the year, and quite possibly, the last several years.
Go get this record now. Go, Goddamnit! The opening track, Jubilee, hits your spine circa 1978 with (yes I've never given him credit) Lenny Kaye's vicious guitar - a trend that continues throughout. Patti paints the word picture, as Bob Murphy and Arthur Rimbaud used to say - stretching from Gandhi to Baghdad. The record is political and yet much larger than current events. It bring you up, and then down - and keeps moving. I have seen the future of rock and roll - finally, an optimistic, artistic future - and its name is Patti Smith.
