The show Patti Smith called “the best performance ever”
Music has always been about more than making art in a studio. Anyone can take that out on the road and do the same set over again, but Patti Smith understood the power of capturing that essence live, and she knew that there was no one better than a singer who knew how to use their voice as an instrument.
Because listening to Smith’s voice, it’s not like she’s trying to impress a panel of judges on a reality show. She knows that her songs aren’t about reaching up into the stratosphere to get the best possible note out of it, but listening to how she works on her best albums, it’s about relating more to the person behind the notes rather than the individual pitches. In that respect, Smith is more of a sonic actor reciting her poetry, which explains why she gravitates to other musical characters as well.
Outside of admiring people like Lou Reed half the time, Smith was always interested in seeing where her music could go that wasn’t necessarily in the mainstream sphere. She knew from her cover of ‘My Generation’ that she wasn’t worried about censoring herself by any stretch, so the next best thing was to have songs that took their time and let everyone internalise every word so that they hit like a battering ram every single time.
That’s a fine way to listen to music, but it’s easy for people to get a little bit exhausted over time listening to that style of song. There’s no shame in wanting to listen to a singer who’s great at the technical aspects of singing, and Smith has never strayed away from shouting praise to people like Rihanna over the years, either.
But given the massive vocal chops Smith had seen in the past, Christina Aguilera was in a different league. Despite being one of the members of the Mickey Mouse Club, there had to have been something in the water at the time, considering it managed to birth Aguilera, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, and Justin Timberlake all in one go. Even if Smith was into more artsy ventures, she had to respect what Aguilera did with her bluesy delivery.
There was already a lot she had to offer as a pop singer with’Genie in A Bottle’, but what made Smith turn her head was her performance at the Grammys singing a James Brown song, saying, “[That was] one of the best performances that I’ve ever seen. I sat and watched it, and at the end, I just involuntarily leapt to my feet. It was amazing.” But, really, that’s what music is supposed to do half the time.
Even in the days of the Beatles, most people didn’t know how to react when they saw a couple of messy-haired boys waving their locks on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it was the same reaction. The music was doing the talking for them half the time, and even if the songs were a little bit abnormal for rock and roll, you had to marvel at the sheer power behind every single track.
And while Smith doesn’t even pretend to be in the same league as Mrs. Aguilera, she knew that what she was doing had the power to inspire millions of others like she did back in the day. Smith was teaching people the power of the written word and the impact it could have on the world at large, but Aguilera reminded everyone how far a singer could go with the pure vocal muscle.
