Rising from the New York punk movement of the 70’s, Patti Smith is an influential singer and musician known for combining spoken word poetry with primal garage rock. By 1976, she had released her debut Horses and the more raw-sounding Radio Ethiopia.
Her October 3rd, 1976 concert at The Konserthuset in Stockholm, Sweden was filmed and recorded for broadcast, documenting this early stage in her career. Prior to the internet, the audio portion had been circulated among fans with the bootleg title, ‘I Never Talked To Bob Dylan,’ a slight reference to the short interview that accompanied the performance.
Smith’s influence by The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed is well represented with the covers ‘Real Good Time Together’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes’. Actually, there are quite a few cover songs here including the classics ‘Louie Louie,’ ‘Gloria,’ and the Smith original ‘Land’ which includes yet another rock classic, ‘Land Of 1,000 Dances.’ Patti’s version of The Rolling Stone’s ‘Time Is On My Side’ is prefaced by her own spoken-word piece.
‘Ask The Angels’ and ‘Land’ stand out as highlights of this show as well as a representation of the performances that inspired Gilda Radner’s Candy Slice character on SNL in the 70’s.
Setlist Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, October 3rd, 1976:
0:00 Interview
4:41 Real Good Time Together
7:15 Redondo Beach
11:24 Free Money
15:21 Pale Blue Eyes
19:28 Louie Louie
20:40 Ask The Angels
24:06 Poem
24:49 Time Is On My Side
28:44 Land
– Hallgeir