Patti Smith, "Banga" On

I first became infatuated with Patti Smith with the cover shot of her album, "Horses." It was so 70s, so NYC, and so descriptive of the independent icon she would become. It predated the modern music skinny tie pop idols of early 1980 decade while at the same time giving a nod to Sinatra during the Rat Pack insolence of the Don Draper era.

I lusted (in my mind) after Patti Smith with the guinea tee of "Easter". That she used a song penned by my hometown hero, Springsteen, only cemented our commonality. Imagine my surprise,when years later I found out that it was she that created the bridge as an ode to her lover, Fred "Sonic" Smith. It became her biggest hit, and any live show she does includes the fan favorite.

I fell in love with Patti Smith on an early May night in Eugene, Oregon at a college hangout called The Place. To my great delight, I watched her and the band do a two night stand over some days, standing literally at her feet. She had me at, "Hello, Everybody!" It was an amazing performance, one that was so incredible that I could never drag myself to see her perform again, in fear that the Eugene shows would be lessened.

Not that I had to worry. In a move that would be found to be who she really was, more Patricia Lee than Patti, Smith married Smith and through most of the 1980s was in semi-retirement from music, living with her family north of Detroit.

In 2008, at the Stockholm Jazz Festival, I decided to renew my romance with Patti Smith and I attended her press conference before her set that night. The firebrand I saw in Eugene, who was living on the high of touring and making the big time, was now a humble yet seasoned celebrity, patient with the same old questions and delivering answers as if it were the first time she had ever heard that one. It reminded me of a mother, which she was, patiently tolerating her young child. During the Q&A, I mentioned that this was the first time I had seen her since those nights in Eugene. To my delight, she became excited and said, "I remember those shows…and that radio station where I got to play music." For me, the press conference grew dim as for a minute or two, she and I shared a memory that no one else in the room could. She ended the conference with an impromptu acoustic rendition of "In my Blakean Years."

The show that night did not dampen anything in Eugene on that evening in 1978. We lament the great sports players who lose their skill that endears them to us. But musicians can doff the coat of age and for a few hours be that young player again, only better with experience and practice. Patti had lost nothing.

Sweden gave Patti Smith its most prestigious award, the Polar Prize, for contribution to music last fall. Patti was humble, yet proud about her winning (along with the Kronos Quartet). The citation called Smith “a Rimbaud with Marshall amps,” and that she “has transformed the way an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams.”

She was generally moved as different Swedish artists played her music. She sat with tears in her eyes along with her children, Jessie and Jackson, and soul mate, Lenny Kaye.

“Receiving the prestigious Polar Music Prize is both humbling and inspiring, for it fills me with pride,” Smith told the audience at the Stockholm Concert Hall. “It also fills me with the desire to continue to prove my worth. I am reminded always how collaborative the music experience is and so I would like to thank the people, for it is the people for whom we create and it is the people who have given me their energy and encouragement for four decades."

"It also fills me with the desire to continue to prove my worth." It must have, because her latest message, "Banga", has some of her best pop music since "Because the Night" while staying true to her literary roots. If this album had been released after "Easter," or upon her returns in 1996 or 2004, she would have been cemented as a genuine pop star. Songs like Amerigo", "April Fool", "Fuji-san", "This Is the Girl" (about Amy Winehouse), "Banga" and "Maria" are as accessible as any she has done. And her rendition of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" would not only have fit easily on the cover LP "Twelve", but the "godmother of punk" turns the song into a children's sing along with the use of a kid's choir. It gives the song a lift from the downer lyrics of Neil.

(If you can believe it,the two idiosyncratic artists of rock, Patti Smith and Neil Young will be sharing a limited tour this summer. Amazing because while Neil has loosed an unusual take on American folk tunes, at best an album for dedicated Young fans, Smith has released one of her most attainable.)

Yet, she remains true to her values with lyrics like "Constantine's Dream," the song that demands the most from the listener. The 10-minute piece works Columbus’s voyage to the New World, the work of Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca, the pastoral peace ideal of St. Francis of Assisi along with environmental cataclysm. It’s a remarkable feat if, for no other reason, the words are improvised.

While the album was made over a period of time, revealed by the song's varied stories, it doesn't sound piecemeal. Credit the flexibility and loyalty of her band, including the long time collaborator, Lenny Kaye as well as her children Jackson on guitar and Jessie on piano.

While most people in their sixties sit back and take comfort in their accomplishments, Patti Smith has shown with "Banga" that she certainly is comfortable to continue " the desire to continue to prove my worth."