Till Victory
Space Monkey
Because the Night
Ghost Dance
Babelogue
Rock N Roll Ni****
Privilege (Set Me Free)
We Three
25th Floor
High on Rebellion
Easter
Ever the contrarian, with her third album Patti Smith contrived to combine her most mainstream song to date (and still unsurpassed in this sense), and her most shocking.
Steered by the record label, Arista, who were hungry for commercial success, the former, Because The Night, was co-written with Bruce Springsteen (with his producer, Jimmy Iovine, at the helm) and remains the one Patti Smith song most non-fans know. A fist-pumping power ballad dedicated to rebellious romance, it provided the blueprint for the sound of rock radio throughout the entire decade that followed it.
On the exact opposite side of the coin is Rock ’N’ Roll Ni****. Musically, it’s brilliant, a spectacularly heated slab of garage rock, but lyrically it’s hard to see it as anything but an attempt to shock. Even in 1978 the word was offensive, now breathtakingly, unforgivably so.
Yes, it reintroduces danger into rock’n’roll, and Smith herself has defended her intentions as referring to anyone “on the fringe of society”. But it hits a sour note when someone so demonstrably intelligent attempts to reclaim something – something that’s caused so much pain to so many – that is clearly not hers to reclaim.
The rest of the album lands somewhere between the two extremes and adds up to an endlessly fascinating whole, visceral garage rock rubbing up against tender moments of pure love that hinted at what she was planning for its follow-up, Wave.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in March 1978
- ...And Then There Were Three... - Genesis
- Northwinds - David Coverdale
- UK - UK
- Zappa in New York - Frank Zappa
- A Biography - John Mellencamp
- Another Music in a Different Kitchen - Buzzcocks
- Double Dose - Hot Tuna
- Guilty Until Proven Insane - Skyhooks
- You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish - REO Speedwagon
- Generation X - Generation X
- This Year's Model - Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- London Town - Wings
- First Glance - April Wine
- Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival - Various Artists
- Jesus of Cool - Nick Lowe
- Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat
- What If - Dixie Dregs
What they said...
"Smith hadn't so much sold out as she had learned to use her poetic gifts within an album rock context. Certainly, a song that proclaimed, "Love is an angel disguised as lust/Here in our bed until the morning comes," was pushing the limits of pop radio, and on Babelogue, Smith returned to her days of declaiming poetry on New York's Lower East Side." (AllMusic)
"As basic as ever in its instrumentation and rhythmic thrust, but grander, more martial. That's what she gets for starting an army and hanging out with Bruce Springsteen (not to mention lusting after Ronnie Spector), and she could have done a lot worse: the miracle is that most of these songs are rousing in the way they're meant to be." (Robert Christgau)
"This band isn’t virtuosic, mostly because it’s not a group that’s interested in virtuosity. It isn’t punk or New Wave either; drummer Jay Dee Daugherty gives the sound a much more solid rhythmic footing than any of the bands lumped under those rubrics. (Daugherty’s emergence is a key to the band’s growth.) The new keyboard player, Bruce Brody, fleshes out the melodies, which are often sketchy, and gives the guitars something to grind against." (Rolling Stone)
What you said...
Gus Schultz: The mid and late seventies was a pretty exciting time in NYC. It seemed to be a spawning ground for punk and new wave and Patti Smith was right in the middle of it. She was never an artist I listened to back then, although I discovered her first three albums in my collection a few years ago (not sure how I ended up with them) but was pleasantly surprised when I listened to them.
Easter was the most polished and commercial of the three, in particular Because The Night definitely had a Springsteen vibe to it and may have been more well suited for Pat Benatar to sing but Patti seems to pull it off easily. As for the rest of the LP it really is a good listen, with a little less focus on Smith's vocals and a little more on the band. I can definitely hear some Blue Oyster Cult influence in some of the music I suppose because of her relationship with one of the BOC band members perhaps, but Easter holds up well and doesn't really sound dated.
I think I may have missed out back then when these albums came out, but there was so much new music coming out during that time it was hard to discover everyone, and the fact Because The Night wasn't a song I particularly liked and was all over the place maybe turned me off. I'm glad I have this album and the others and may start to listen to them a little more often.
Chris Elliott: A flawed diamond but a diamond nonetheless.
Mike Canoe: Easter is a mainstream rock record, at least by Patti Smith standards. Part of that is because Easter contains her one big radio hit, Because The Night, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, who was eschewing hits on his own albums at the time. But the majority of the credit goes to her band, the Patti Smith Group, who play tight and confidently.
At the risk of opening a politically (in)correct can of worms, I thought I would miss the deleted song more than I do. Great music, awful word, and so it goes. Till Victory, Space Monkey, Privilege, and 25th Floor all still rock while Ghost Dance and the title track allow her to flex her "poet priestess" cred.
Easter might not be the revelation that Horses was, but it's still a great album.
Steve Pereira: Patti Smith's debut album Horses (1975) was one of those truly astonishing albums. A standout achievement of human artistry and endeavour that will be remembered, like Shakespeare's Macbeth, Van Gogh's Starry Night, and Beethoven's Ninth, for as long as mankind draws breath. Smith wrote on the back of the album: "Charms sweet angels, you have made me no longer afraid of death" - which was a prescient recognition of the immortality of that album.
Of course it was going to be hard to follow it.
And she couldn't. Her albums since, including Easter, have referenced and copied Horses, but have failed to capture its creative essence. Much of Easter is a washed-out Horses.
But. It contained the song written with Springsteen, Because The Night, which would ensure her some public and commercial recognition, and from which she has not turned away. It's a very ordinary, conventional, run-of-the-mill pop-rock song. Surprisingly so, from two extraordinarily poetic and boundary-pushing artists. But it's catchy, rocky, and proved to be popular. People bought the album because of the success of the single. And because the stuff on the album is a washed-out Horses rather than the full-on challenging artistic experience of that album, people liked it.
But Easter is not the album that Smith will be remembered for. It will be a footnote in history as the album that brought her to public attention. Horses is the true artistic endeavour. Well worth the effort of getting to know. There are few albums as stunning and original as Horses. Let us cherish them.
Shane Reho: I've had a copy of this album for a couple years but haven't listened to it much, so it being the Album of the Week gave me a good reason to give it a spin. Overall, I like most of it, although it's definitely not a masterpiece. The opening one-two-three punch of Till Victory, Space Monkey and Because The Night is top-notch. The first two are solid rockers and the third is the hit it deserved to be. Bonus points for the Springsteen connection.
The next few tracks didn't really do much for me. Ghost Dance is alright, but it probably could've been better if it was half its length. Babelogue/(song name that will probably land me in Facebook Jail) seems more like a straight-up punk rant than anything, and punk usually isn't my cup of tea. Privilege is ok, but the prayer breaks get kinda redundant. The album regains its steam with We Three and 25th Floor/High on Rebellion, which I wouldn't rate with the first three tracks, but are still solid. That leaves the title track, which seems pleasant enough but like Ghost Dance, kinda gets repetitive. Overall, a decent album, but I can see why I don't really play it much. 7/10.
Gary Claydon: I long since came to the conclusion that I must not be either clever enough or cool enough to 'get' Patti Smith. My view of her work was always conflicted. I couldn't tune into her like the hip kids or the clued-up writers could. I didn't feel the reverence that many did, building her a pedestal she was only too happy to stand upon. There is no doubting her influence and the extraordinary nature of some of her work, particularly on Horses. Live, she was the fiery, spitting high priestess of punk. But then, much of what she did came across to me as the musings of a narcissistic purveyor of poor poetry. So no, I don't ever claim to 'get' Patti Smith.
I find it somewhat ironic that an arch iconoclast such as Smith would score her biggest hit (only hit? Patti Smith as one-hit-wonder perhaps?) in collaboration with one of the late-20th Century's most iconic figures and that the woman with the self-professed aim of changing the face of rock'n'roll would end up being most widely known for an enduring AOR classic. The best parts of Easter are Smith as torch singer - the undiluted lust and longing of Because The Night and the moving We Three. 25th Floor opens with a nice and dirty riff. Lyrically, I find Easter surprisingly heavy-handed in places. Much of it leaves me flat cold.
Overall it's a frustrating album. There are tantalising glimpses of genius but, ultimately, it's only the presence of one truly classic track that raises 'Easter' above average.
Greg Schwepe: For me, the Patti Smith Group’s Easter was a happy musical accident found while doing some other musical sleuthing. Prior to us visiting our daughter in NYC this summer, I made an NYC-inspired playlist featuring artists from NYC or those that had a following there. Being the music geek, I also had a list of music related places to visit as well. That also lead to a CBGB playlist (sadly, CBGB does not exist in its prior format to visit!), which contained Because The Night. Truth be told, that was probably the only Patti Smith song I’d ever heard. That lead to a full out “I guess I need to check out the rest of the album that Because The Night is on…” And here we are with Easter as this week’s selection.
All of us in this group are all experts on some musical genre or band, but still know just “enough to be dangerous” about a good chunk of most classic rock artists. I was in the latter about Patti Smith. Every blurb I had ever read about her seemed to contain some variation of the descriptions; “avant garde performer,” “poet,” or “punk princess.” So, I knew that. Oh, and I knew she did a spoken word intro on Blue Oyster Cult’s The Revenge of Vera Gemini on Agents Of Fortune (thank you liner notes!). And yeah, and as far as influencing something "live from New York," I would also wager a guess that she was the inspiration for Gilda Radner’s Candy Slice skit on Saturday Night Live. (Google Candy Slice “Gimme Mick” for a laugh.)
If you’ve read enough of my reviews, you know I like albums that start out hard and fast. Get my attention on the first track and I might stick around for the second, and so on. Till Victory did not disappoint me with its slightly jangly guitar and Smith’s forceful vocals. Keyboards bring the funky Space Monkey next and those keyboards and Smith’s vocal bring about a slight Doors-vibe.
Because The Night is next and my guess is that like me, if others had heard only one Patti Smith Group song, this was it. The plaintive piano intro give was to Smith’s emotive vocal, which goes to the strong chorus. A nice guitar solo appears halfway through this track. This song was co-written with a New Jersey artist who I’m pretty sure went on to make his own mark in the music world after playing the bars of Asbury Park.
Ghost Danc” follows and throws the first slight musical curve. Quieter than the first three tracks, with an almost acoustic direction along with some basic drumbeats and other background vocals.
The second (cool!) musical curve comes in the form of Babelogue. Smith’s ranting diatribe with seemingly stream of conscious lines spat out while a studio trick of a rowdy audience seems to egg her on. Towards the end of this track you start to hear the band slowly bring up the volume with some riffing guitars…then it stops. [*Update: Thanks to Club member Evan who clued me in that the streaming services edit “Babelogue” due to the "naughty no-no" title of the song the original album segues to. Makes sense now. Thanks.] My disappointment is that I loved that riff that was starting and would have loved to hear a full song with that! But as that segues to Privilege (Set Me Free) and I’m not disappointed for long. The track gets revved up and Patti’s vocals get a workout once again.
Probably my two favourite tracks are 25th Floor and High On Rebellion. 25th Floor builds and builds with some more raunchy guitar. The song builds and flips right to High On Rebellio” with no break between the two. High energy.
The title track Easter is a slower track and once again shows Smith’s ability to sing a variety of styles. I will call this a balanced album. Fast tracks, slow tracks, loud tracks, quiet tracks. And they all held my attention.
The big surprise for me about this album was how much I really liked it after not knowing what to expect. Ever listen to some album where the general consensus from the music world is “well, you have to listen to this and you have to like it.” And then you listen, and you don’t like it? Well, if this is one of those “you have to listen…” albums, well I listened and liked it. 9 out of 10 for me on this one. Like it so much I selected for this week’s review to see if others might enjoy as well. That’s the great thing about this group… always some new album and artist to explore.
Dale Munday: Horses, her debut ,is commonly regarded as her defining album. This was followed by Radio Ethiopia, which was a more esoteric release and panned by the critics at the time. Easter was the breakthrough album. The one with the hit on it.
Whilst not what you would regard as overtly commercial, it is maybe a little more accessible than the previous two. Uber contentious too, with the inclusion of the song Rock N roll Ni****. Although she has tried to expound her interpretation of the phrase , it was at the time and remains extremely polarising . A shame ,as there is a great song hiding in there.
From the opening track, Till Victory through to the closing mournful title track, this album is a blast. Patti Smith has throughout her career remained a staunch outsider, neither in or out of fashion, but us groovy kids know.
Neil Immerz: Was a good album. I’ll always remember Because The Night being on 2WSFM (now called WSFM) when I was growing up. I was around 5-10 years old and became one of my favourites. I like this one better than Horses because it was more song based, rather than rambling poetry.
Philip Qvist: Patti Smith is another one of those artists who I have heard a lot of but have never really explored. Yes, I have heard many of her songs; but this is actually the first time that I have listened to any of her albums - well nearly all of it, as a certain song (no prizes for guessing which one) was banned from the playlist.
By all accounts, Easter is her most accessible record, and although I have nothing to compare it to - it does seem that her most familiar songs do come from this one album. The title track is epic, while a lot of people must be familiar with her biggest ever hit single, not to mention the story behind it, viz the Springsteen / Smith composition Because The Night.
Those two songs are my highlights, although Till Victory and 25th Floor / High On Rebellion are also strong songs. Only Babelogue is something that resembles a throwaway track - but overall this is a pretty strong album.
But after listening to it, what do I really think of Easter? I liked it but didn't really love it - if that makes sense. I respect Patti Smith and her legacy but she has never floated my boat - and it is the same with Easter. I'm hovering around 7, maybe 8, for this week's choice.
Wibo Koeman: Fantastic album. Bought it at the time on vinyl and also have it on CD. Favourite tracks are Because The Night, 25th floor, Privilege. Not a bad song on it.
John Davidson: I bought this in the 80s on the strength of the single and while none of the album tracks are on my regular playlists the album retains its scuzzy charm.
While Debbie Harry was undoubtedly the most popular new York punk lead (and with good reason) there is an argument to be made that the raw energy of Easter showed that Patti Smith cleaved more closely to the true spirit of punk as an art movement while Blondie delivered some excellent power pop.
Was Patti Smith the uncrowned queen of punk? From the plaintive romance of Because The Night, through the angry slam poetry of Babelogue to the rock'n'roll rabble rousing of 25th Floor and High on Rebellion, I think you could make the case.
Cristian Fabian: Masterpiece, maybe her best album.
Jim Carson: Thanks for making me re-listen to this album. Easter stands as one of Patti Smith’s strongest albums. I don’t think it quite matches Horses, but it blends poetic defiance and primal energy to capture the punk ethos with a unique intensity. Like her literary hero Rimbaud, Smith is a libertine who both challenges and empowers listeners to question the world and embrace complexity.
The standout track Because The Night, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, channels a balance of vulnerability and power, uniting the raw urgency of punk with a spiritual fervour. While not all of Easter resonates with me personally, I respect its power to move others deeply. This album embodies Smith’s artistic spirit, acting as a bridge within punk, linking intellectual rigour with visceral rebellion – a testament to her ability to challenge and inspire listeners.
Wesley Winegarden: Patti Smith is one of those artists that for some reason pretentious music critics (like those guys and gals who work at Pitchfork) think is a genius. Maybe she is too smart for me because I don't get it. She wrote one great album, and some absolutely terrible albums; this album lies in the middle range of her career. It has one great tune, written by Springsteen, but the rest of it is nothing spectacular. If I had to score it, I would give it 5/10 (Pretty much the same score I'd give her entire career).
Evan Sanders: I've always enjoyed this album, Patti Smith's commercial breakthrough due to Because The Night, given to her by Bruce Springsteen, and then reworked to a fiery love song. I find it ironic that this New York City poet's biggest song is one that she co-wrote. The songs are strong, starting fast with 'Till Victory, winding down to the slower-paced Easter.
Her star burned brightly in the late 70's, and she was probably the most "punk" of the new wave women at that time. It's too bad for her listeners that she took a long hiatus after her less well-received follow-up album, Wave, but it seems at that point she wanted to retreat from fame to focus on her family and poetry. 7 or 8 out of 10, I'll decide once it's time to vote.
Final score: 7.34 (47 votes cast, total score 345)
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