PATTI SMITH ‘you light up my life’ :Ruthless Rhymes

From Hot Wacks: First 200 copies rubber stamped “Advance Copy”. That seems quite high. Maybe the cover art got delayed.

I dig the depth perception here – the owner really achieved a nice result in this angled shot. Photographing records is harder than it looks, I find.

Matrix # PSG-44-A / PSG-44-B

Collector’s Comment: “Unlike most of her other bootlegs, which were taken from radio broadcasts, this one was recorded on the scene from within the audience. The sound quality is excellent, and the performance is good to very good.”

“Most of the Patti Smith bootlegs come from around 1976, during her first significant touring after the release of her debut album, Horses, in the fall of 1975. This one is notable as a chronicle of the spring 1978 tour promoting her third album, Easter. Here, appearing on May 12, 1978, at the Santa Monica Civic Center, Smith is a more polished, less-spontaneous performer, and a more ambivalent one. The LP’s second side is given over to a selection of Easter songs — “Rock n Roll Nigger,” “Till Victory,” “Space Monkey,” “25th Floor,” and “Because the Night” — but the first side is more interesting. It consists entirely of cover songs, performed by Smith in her inimitable style. After playing the Who’s “The Kids Are Alright” and the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” Smith introduces “Time Is on My Side” by reciting a brief bit of her own verse: “Memory is just hips that swing like a clock/ Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock/F*ck the clock!” the Who’s “My Generation,” meanwhile, gets new lyrics: “I don’t need that f*cking shit/Hope I die because of it.” After a surprise cover of John Lennon’s “It’s So Hard” comes an even more surprising choice from a woman who was just then experiencing her first and only singles hit. “Hi, we’re a Top 40 band, we’re the Patti Smith Group,” Smith says. “We’d like to do a little Top 40 for you.” And with that, she takes on Debbie Boone, doing a verse and chorus of “You Light up My Life.” Her mixed feelings about commercial success couldn’t be better expressed. This bootleg has only average sound, but it is one of the weirdest sets in the Patti Smith catalog. ” [allmusic.com]

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Complete set list:

01         Babelogue
02         Rock’n’Roll Nigger
03         Privilege (Set Me Free)
04         Kimberly
05         Till Victory
06         Redondo Beach
07         Space Monkey
08         25th Floor
09         The Kids Are All Right
10         Ghost Dance
11         Be My Baby
12         Time Is On My Side
13         It’s So Hard
14         Pumping (My Heart)
15         Because The Night
16         You Light Up My Life
17         Easter
18         Radio Ethiopia
19         Gloria
20         Ask The Angels
21         My Generation

“It offers an accurate glimpse of the artist circa 1978. Patti’s stage banter is hilarious and she is truly unique. There is virtually no hiss in this recording. You can hear the taper talk to his cohorts but only very rarely. Otherwise there is very little talking. No distortion, no speed problems, vocals are sometimes a little muffled. Parts of the recording are ex- in nature but I would call the rest of it vg to vg +, as always, IMHO. The show appears to be complete to me. It’s a wild performance with a lot of Patti/audience interchange and stage banter. “

Her live in concert rendition of the bootleg’s title track can be found here:

https://app.box.com/shared/c9cvc13z3n

• Patti Smith Group live santa Monica Civic Center 1978
• Ruthless Rhymes bootlegs