Patti Smith

This two-record set distills Patti Smith's rock & roll life into seventeen classic tracks,
fourteen studio and live rarities and two basic truths: There is no revolution without toil,
and no euphoria without communion. "Piss Factory," which opens Disc Two and is actually
from 1974, was her first great ode to joy, a flat-out declaration of escape gunned by
Richard Sohl's hydraulic saloon piano and Smith's own vengeful incantation. She... More >

Tacky though the best-of-plus-outtakes gambit may be, especially with another best-of filling out the box set, this is the same artist who's never released a concert album, not even as a profit taker when her income dried up during her seclusion. And though she's scattered live cuts here and there, the five-track sequence on disc two, dominated by post-1996 material that's never sounded better and capped by the inexhaustible "Birdland," is a welcome taste of the real live one she can put together next with no complaint from me. She recites a Blake poem, a Ginsberg poem, a Prince poem. She blows clarinet. She sings "Tomorrow" for her mom. And by the way, the best-of never quits. (Grade: A-)