Peace & Noise (Remastered) Patti Smith

• 1 Waiting Underground 05:20
• 2 Whirl Away 05:01
• 3 1959 03:58
• 4 Spell 03:17
• 5 Don't Say Nothing 05:52
• 6 Dead City 04:15
• 7 Blue Poles 05:19
• 8 Death Singing 03:44
• 9 Memento Mori 10:34
• 10 Last Call 05:09
• Total Runtime 52:29

Info for Peace & Noise (Remastered)

One of the most important figures of the musical revolution of the late '70s, Patti Smith later went into a self-imposed exile, returning to form after nearly a decade with 1996's "Gone Again". On "Peace & Noise", she proves that the comeback was no fluke. While themes of death and loss pervade, Smith tries to make sense of it all.

On "1959" she take a nostalgic look at a turning point in our cultural history, continuing the lesson with "Spell," an excerpt from Ginsberg's Howl read over a bed of acoustic guitars and strings. On "Dead City," Smith mourns the economic death of Detroit, working a proletarian fury worthy of her late husband Fred's Detroit proto-punk band MC5. This sentiment is furthered on "Blue Poles," a powerful ballad of a family losing hope in the Dust Bowl. Where "Gone Again" served as the document of one woman's loss, "Peace & Noise" finds the godmother of punk taking a parental view; looking at the world her children (both biological and spiritual) have inherited, and she's flying the flag of discontent for a whole new generation.

"After a prolonged retirement, Patti Smith returned to action in 1996 with Gone Again. It was recorded after she suffered the loss of both her brother and her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, two losses so great that it's not surprising she is still exploring that pain on Peace and Noise, which quickly followed Gone Again in 1997. Patti had been working on Peace and Noise with Fred before his death, and its issues are appropriately more domestic than those on Gone Again. Throughout most of the record, she explores aging and raising children, trying to find a place for her family in the modern world while coming to terms with her aging rebelliousness. The music on Peace and Noise trims away the sonic bluster and anthemic rocking of Gone Again, preferring a sparse, piano-based musical foundation. As a result, her words resonate clearly and have a succinct, poetic power that was lacking on the otherwise worthy Gone Again." (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG)

Patti Smith, vocals, clarinet
Lenny Kaye, guitar, pedal steel
Jay Dee Daugherty, drums, organ, harmonica
Oliver Ray, guitar
Tony Shanahan, bass, piano
Additional musicians:
Michael Stipe, background vocals

Recorded 1997 at IIwII Studio, Weehawken
Engineered and mixed by Roy Cicala
Produced by Patti Smith

Digitally remastered

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This album contains no booklet.