"Original Album Classics" by PATTI SMITH GROUP – Featuring Five Albums on Arista Records - "Horses" (1975), "Radio Ethiopia" (1976), "Easter" (1978), "Wave" (1979) and "Dream Of Life" (1988) – featuring Producers and Arrangers John Cale, Jimmy Iovine, Todd Rundgren, Tom Verlaine, Scott Litt and Fred Smith with Musicians Lenny Kaye, Richard Sohl, Ivan Kral, Bruce Brody, Jay Dee Daugherty, Fred Smith and more (October 2008 UK Sony/Arista/Legacy 5CD Hard Card Capacity Wallet with Mini LP Artwork Card Sleeves – Each Album With 1996 Bob Irwin Remasters and Bonuses) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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There are a wad of 5CD capacity wallets (that's what they're technically calling them nowadays) in Sony's 'Original Album Classics" series of mini box sets - and quite a few 3CD variants as well. But some just stick out better than most - Johnny Winter, Shuggie Otis, Sly & The Family Stone, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac in the 3CD issues, etc. 

And so it is with the mighty Patti Smith. Armed with 1996 Remasters by Bob Irwin and Bonuses on all five CDs - you have to say that this 2008 Legacy reissue with its dinky mini LP artwork card sleeves and tasty purchase price has it nailed to the urinated river on every front. Let's get at the details 'cause there's a wave of them...

UK released 13 October 2008 - "Original Album Classics" by PATTI SMITH on Sony/Arista/Legacy 88697313832 (Barcode 886973138328) offers Five Remastered CDs (each with Bonuses) in a Hard Card Capacity Wallet with Five Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves and plays out as follows:

CD1 "Horses" (46:42 minutes):

1. Gloria (i) In Excelsis Deo (ii) Gloria (Version) [Side 1]

2. Redondo Beach 

3. Birdland 

4. Free Money 

5. Kimberly [Side 2]

6. Break It Up 

7. Land (i) Horses (ii) Land Of A Thousand Dances (iii) La Mer(de)

8. Elegie 

Tracks 1 to 8 are her debut album "Horses" - released December 1975 in the USA on Arista AL 4066 and December 1975 in the UK on Arista ARTY 122. Produced by JOHN CALE - it peaked at No. 46 on the US albums charts (didn't chart UK)

BONUS TRACK:

9. My Generation - non-album B-side of the March 1976 US 45-single "Gloria" on Arista AS 0171 - cover version of The Who classic - first appeared digitally on the 1996 CD reissue of "Horses" as a lone bonus track 

CD2 "Radio Ethiopia" (48:40 minutes):

1. Ask The Angels [Side 1]

2. Ain't It Strange

3. Poppies 

4. Pissing In A River 

5. Pumping (My Heart) [Side 2]

6. Distant Fingers 

7. Radio Ethiopia

8. Abyssinia 

Tracks 1 to 8 are her second studio album "Radio Ethiopia" - released October 1976 in the USA on Arista AL 4097 and October 1976 in the UK on Arista SPARTY 1001. Produced by JACK DOUGLAS and credited to PATTI SMITH GROUP - it peaked at No. 122 in the USA (didn't chart UK)

BONUS TRACK:

9. Chiklets - Previously Unreleased track from the 1976 sessions, first appeared digitally on the 1996 CD reissue

CD3 "Easter" (46:59 minutes):

1.  Till Victory [Side 1]

2. Space Monkey 

3. Because The Night 

4. Ghost Dance 

5. Babelogue 

6. Rock N Roll Nigger 

7. Privilege (Set Me Free) [Side 2]

8. We Three 

9. 25th Floor 

10. High On Rebellion 

11. Easter 

Tracks 1 to 11 are her third studio album "Easter" - released March 1978 in the USA on Arista AB 4171 and March 1978 in the UK on Arista SPART 1043. Produced by JIMMY IOVINE and credited to PATTI SMITH GROUP - it peaked at No. 20 in the US album charts and No. 16 in the UK. The album also had exclusive song material from Tom Verlaine of Television (a co-write on "Space Monkey") and Bruce Springsteen ("Because The Night")

BONUS TRACK:

12. Godspeed - non-album B-side to the March 1978 US 45-single "Because The Night" on Arista AS 0318 - first appearance digitally as a lone Bonus Track on the 1996 CD reissue of "Easter"

CD4 "Wave" (43:25 minutes):

1. Frederick [Side 1]

2. Dancing Barefoot 

3. So You Want To Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star) 

4. Hymn 

5. Revenge 

6. Citizen Ship [Side 2]

7. Seven Ways Of Going 

8. Broken Flag 

9. Wave 

Tracks 1 to 9 are the fourth studio album "Wave" - released May 1979 in the USA on Arista AB 4221 and May 1979 in the UK on Arista SPART 1086. Produced by TODD RUNDGREN and credited to PATTI SMITH GROUP - it peaked at No. 18 in the US and No. 44 on the album charts

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Fire Of Unknown Origin 

11. 54321/Wave - Tracks 10 and 11 are the non-album B-sides of the September 1979 US 45 "So You Want To Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star)" on Arista AS 0453 - first appeared digitally as two Bonus Tracks on the 1996 CD reissue of "Wave" - "54321/Wave" recorded live in New York, 23 May 1979

CD "Dream Of Life" (51:45 minutes):

1. People Have The Power

2. Up There Down There 

3. Paths That Cross 

4. Dream Of Life 

5. Where Duty Calls 

6. Going Under 

7. Looking For You (I Was)

8. The Jackson Song 

Tracks 1 to 8 are their fifth studio album "Dream Of Life" - released July 1988 in the USA on Arista AL 8453 and July 1988 in the UK on Arista 209 172 (Vinyl Versions) and on CD too. Produced by FRED SMITH and JIMMY IOVINE – it peaked at No. 65 in the USA and No. 70 in the UK on the album charts. Note: original versions of the album had the track order as follows: Tracks 1, 6, 2, and 3 as Side 1 with Side 2 as Tracks  4, 5, 6 and 7. This CD is based on the June 1996 CD Remaster that altered that running order. 

BONUS TRACKS: 

9. As The Night Goes By - previously unreleased track from the sessions 

10. Wild Leaves - non-album B-side to the May 1988 US 45-single "People Have The Power" on Arista AS1-9689 - both tracks first appeared digitally as Bonuses on the 1996 reissue of "Dream Of Life"

The hard card slipcase or capacity wallet (as they like to call it now) houses the five Mini LP Repro Sleeves with the album info available online at Legacy Recordings website for 'Original Album Classics' - they are nice to look at, tactile and with those 1996 Remasters and Bonuses - very cool indeed. The audio is superb – so damn good - all thoughts of those first waves of dullard 80ts CDs banished. It is a shame there isn't a separate slip-in booklet to accompany these five-disc overhauls, but you can't deny that for the price, there is an awful lot of goodness on offer here for really not a lot of wonga. To the poet and her band of merry men...

It is surely the height of period cool to open your debut album with lyrics like "...Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine..." – you go lady of words and music. Patti re-writes the Van Morrison-written THEM classic "Gloria" into a musical pyre – building, building as it hurtles to the finish line with the hymn "In Excelsis Deo" thrown in for good measure. Her sort of Clash-type Reggae Rock kicks in with "Redondo Beach" – looking for her beau down by an ocean of smudge-faced teen suicides. "Gloria" was good for sure, a sure-fire 45-single winner. But for me her special kind of genius began to really show with the ethereally beautiful "Birdland" – a half-spoken and half-sung tale of lost boys left alone by cruel daddies – Lenny Kaye's fantastic guitar so subtly aiding the heavy storytelling (same applies to the piano ache in "Elegie" that finishes Side 2). 

And then, just when you think you've nailed the LP's Punk, New Wave and Art Rock credentials – she moves you with The Velvet Underground-doomy "Free Money" – hot in jet planes as it thrashes its way out your speakers with such anger and life (love those doubled vocals). And on it goes towards a nine-minute three-part collage of Gloria-type speed called "Land" – a racer that includes Chris Kenner's Atlantic Records 60ts soul dancer "Land Of A Thousand Dances" amidst the mantra of Horses, Horses, Horses – Johnny doing the Watusi in a pretty little place in a sea of possibilities - how utterly brill. 

After a balls-to-the-wall breakout like "Easter" – it was going to be hard to follow up, but she did it with the spit and sawdust kick-ass power of "Radio Ethiopia". Hot sometimes as you "Ask The Angels" (great guitar) and don't look at me in this broken state of "Ain't It Strange". I guess "Poppies" is the closest she's come a 'commercial' sound singing about longing and addiction to all manner of debilitating things while the notorious "Pissing In A River" just reeks of pain and loss of love. And don't you just tingle at the sheer rocking abandon in "Pumping" - the soloing axes screeching as she wails about connection and her heart pumping - wow! I would admit that the grunge 10-minutes of the title track is still hard for me to take all in one go, but I was surprised and even taken aback by the "Wild Horses" Rolling Stones acoustic-beauty of the bonus track "Chiklets" - a middleweight boxer getting eulogized. I would probably go as far as saying that the "Radio Ethiopia" album has weathered even better than its more famous and illustrious horsey predecessor – and the Remaster has upped its menace four-fold to where it should always have been. 

In 1978, Bruce Springsteen was all grown-up by the time he released the hard-as-nails "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" LP and it seemed his knack of giving away great songs to other artists was hitting something of a zenith (Southside Johnny, Graham Parker and later Gary U.S. Bonds, Donna Summer and Dave Edmunds). But he kept his best for Patti. I was a Bruce-o-nut in 1978 (continued from 1974 in fact) so the fact that the wicked "Easter" album also contained the equally rampant "Because The Night" by The Boss was all right in the dark-night by me. Other winners included the chug muscle of "Space Monkey" with that old-fashioned organ whining – rusty Polaroids and guitars. And there is peace to your brother in the Indian-chant of "Ghost Dance". She is joined by Jackson Pollock, Jimi Hendrix and Jesus in the infamous "Rock n Roll Ni**er" - while Brit tunesmiths Mark London (Manager to Stones The Crows and Maggie Bell) and Michael Leander provided her with the very Blondie-rocking "Privilege (She Me Free)" – a reason to live – make me lie down in green pastures. And while I never could dig the jagged mayhem of "High On Rebellion" – once again the Remaster saves the day with the superb six-minutes of "Godspeed" – a Bonus Track B-side about static and adrenalin.

"Wave" has always been seen as the let’s go for commercial album and therefore poo-pooed for it, but I liked the Rundgren-esque keyboard fills on "Frederick" and the very Velvets feel to "Dancing Barefoot" – a fantastic song in my not-so-humble opinion – some strange music that draws me in. She sings of sweet payback as she skewers a former flame in "Revenge" (love that huge guitar solo, so Hall & Oates "Along The Red Ledge" that I believe Rundgren also produced) and Patti gives even more lambasting to the message in the Byrds industry-acidic "So You Want To Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star)". Sounding like a drunken sailor, I love the ramshackle feel to the B-side "5-4-3-2-1" – another Bonus that likes up to the moniker. She even finds a tranquil Galilee of sorts in "Seven Ways Of Going" albeit one steeped in a sort of East meets the West rock mysticism (a sleeper on a very underrated album in my opinion). 

After a decade away, she returned to much ballyhoo with 1988's "Dream Of Life" - only eight tracks - but many with that fire of old (even if the reviews were mixed). It opens strongly where "Power Have The Power" sounds like a rocked-up Buffy St. Marie as does "Up There Down There" - a great Rock shuffler with her trademark vocal style letting rip once again. But both are soundly trumped by the sheer loveliness of "The Jackson Song" while "Going Under" feels more hurt than it wants to admit. Of the Bonuses the acoustic-light "As The Night Goes By" feels the lesser to the falling of "Wild Leaves" to the ground. 

For sure you could argue that "Wave" and "Dream Of Life" are not as spectacular as the first three, but for me Patti Smith is like John Martyn or Bruce or Joni - gotta have the lot because I know there will be magic in there somewhere. Babelogue on and on - you lovely slightly loony poetess...