When I saw this last year, and when I found out that some kind person had uploaded this video of the moment to You Tube, I swore I would post it to my blog.
So here it is: Patti Smith singing "O Holy Night," from her Dec 31, 2007, concert at the Bowery Ballroom.
To those of you who are familiar with Ms Smith, but have not heard her sing this, you are in for a treat. As you are all aware, Ms Smith is not a "singer," per se... not like a Luciano Pavoratti, or ever (shudder) a Celine Dion, or any performer blessed with an outstanding singing voice. But imagine being at one of her concerts, that thunderous rock, the poetic wordsmanship, that in-your-face brazen rebellious spirit, crashing down all around you, and then she slows everything down to a whisper and surprises the audience with something so traditional -- in fact, maybe the most traditional of all, if one could compare such a thing -- and so precious. And that New-Years-Eve-Bowery-Ballroom-New-York-City audience became silent, and hardly breathed for four-ish minutes. Because, while Patti is not a singer in the traditional American Idol sense (and thank God for that), no one puts over a lyric like Patti.
Now if the tall guy in front of our videographer would just remove his head!
I am sad to report that I am not going to see her this year, because the tickets sold out faster than I could get any of my silly friends to make a decision about going. Oh, well. There's always Sirius Radio!
UPDATE: I am posting this version from Dec 29th that same year, because, while the video was shot from farther away, it's from the beginning and includes her spoken intro. I also think she sings it better. I saw her sing this on the 30th, and have yet to find a clip from that night.
Notice in this version some idiot starts yammering on to her (I think it's a her) friend. I mean really, you can't shut up for 5 minutes?
In Hello, I Must Be Going, author Charlotte Chandler writes about being on the red carpet with an elderly Groucho Marx the day he was to receive a special Oscar. The crowd went crazy when they saw him; for her, silence. Then one person cheered. After that, Groucho called her "One Cheer." Recently, a review I wrote on itunes got a "yes" vote, and I thought, "Hey! I have one cheer!" Intoxicated with my new found fame, I started a blog.
"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain." -- Leo Durocher (July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), in The New York Times, 16 May 1965
“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we now know that it is bad economics.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945)
"For our last number I'd like to ask your help: Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery ..." -- John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), at the Royal Command Performance, November 4, 1963
"The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle." -- Pres. Ronald Reagan's inaugural address, 1981
"When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had and never will have." -- E. W. Howe(May 3, 1853 - October 3, 1937)
"New York is the only city in the world where you can get deliberately run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian." -- Russell Baker
"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" -- Douglas Adams (March 11, 1952 - May 11, 2001)
"Artists are traditionally resistant to labels." – Patti Smith
"It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America." — Molly Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007)
"You don't have to be religious to believe in God, just observant." — Gypsy Rose Lee (January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970)
"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." -- John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." -- H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
"Truth is what you get other people to believe." --Tommy Smothers, Emmys 2008
"The purpose of evolution is to raise us out of the mud, not have us grovelling in it." -- Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, from Northern Exposure, "Cicely," 1992
"They say if you scratch a cynic you find a disappointed idealist." -- George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)
"We make the music. You make the noise." -- Bruce Springsteen, Giants Stadium, July 31, 2008
