Patti Smith Group: Easter [ARISTA]

Why you'll love it

This 180g reissue comes with a folded insert of lyrics, credits and photos. Easter was the group's commercial breakthrough, and "Because the Night" reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 in the UK.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Lyric insert
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Patti Smith came back from a serious neck injury suffered on the Radio Ethiopia tour, and named the comeback after a resurrection. Easter is the sound of someone very glad to be back on her feet, with Jimmy Iovine producing and the band, Lenny Kaye, Ivan Král, Jay Dee Daugherty and new keyboard player Bruce Brody, playing bigger and bolder than before.

Bruce Springsteen co-wrote "Because the Night" with Smith, and it became the anthem everyone knows. Around it the album roams: "Ghost Dance" is a folk chant, "Babelogue" is spoken word, "25th Floor" and "High on Rebellion" are pure garage fire, and "Space Monkey" features Richard Sohl and Blue Öyster Cult's Allen Lanier on keys. Tom Verlaine arranged "We Three" back in 1974, Greg Calbi mastered, and Lynn Goldsmith shot the cover, with Robert Mapplethorpe among the insert photographers.

Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh called it transcendent and fulfilled, and the Village Voice critics' poll placed it 14th for 1978. Jimmy Maxwell plays bagpipes on the title track, which is not a sentence you get to write about many punk records.

Also at Kops: more Patti Smith on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Arista / Legacy (cat# 88875111721), a reissue of the 1978 album.