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When Just Kids, Patti Smith’s brilliant memoir about her early life and relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, won the National Book Award last year, it ignited renewed interest in the iconic NYC rocker’s writing and music. The timing’s right, then, for Outside Society, the first collection of songs that span her entire career.
She curated the chronological track list, and chose classics (Gloria, Free Money, Rock N Roll Nigger), late-period covers (Smells Like Teen Spirit, with her improvised verse near the end) and political tunes that resonate more than ever. The brief but illuminating liner notes reveal that many of the songs are connected to important people in her life: Todd Rundgren (Dancing Barefoot), Richard Sohl (Frederick), the beat poets. Four in the middle mark the trajectory of her late husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith.
Because The Night, a Bruce Springsteen co-write whose lyrics she penned for Fred Smith before they were married, still holds special power, especially this remastered version. “Though we have performed it hundreds of times” she writes, “the strong response it draws always makes it fresh and exciting to sing.” Indeed, time hasn’t diminished its power, or hers.
Top track: Because The Night
