Easter is the third studio album by the Patti Smith Group, released in March 1978 on Arista Records. Produced by Jimmy Iovine, it is regarded as the group’s commercial breakthrough, owing to the success of the single, “Because the Night” (co-written by Bruce Springsteen and Smith), which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in the UK. (More from Wikipedia)
While recording their third and most successful album, Easter, Patti Smith Group encountered Bruce Springsteen who was recording his fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town in the adjoining studio. The Boss had recorded “Because the Night” but was unsatisfied with it and did not include it on the album. Jimmy Iovine was the producer and engineer on both albums; he passed along a copy of the tape of the song to Patti Smith, who recast the song and included it on her album. The first performance of “Because the Night” was at a Patti Smith Group concert on December 30, 1977 at New York’s CBGB club, with Bruce Springsteen joining in on guitar and vocals. Bruce and Patti share songwriting credits on “Because the Night”, which is probably Patti Smith’s best known song. Easter also includes several songs about Patti Smith’s feelings on organized religion; and her debut album, Horses includes her version of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” that had the spoken-word introduction, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”.
(February 2014)
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The Wikipedia article on Slow Train Coming also states (with no footnotes), in apparent violation of their NPOV (neutral point of view) policy: “In a year when Van Morrison and Patti Smith released their own spiritual works in Into the Music and Wave, respectively, [Bob] Dylan’s album seemed vitriolic and bitter in comparison.” Neither album is particularly Christian, from what I can tell. Also, Patti Smith’s previous album Easter, as might be expected from the title, has more Christian imagery; and Smith opened her acclaimed debut album Horses with a spoken-word introduction that could easily be described as “vitriolic and bitter”: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”.
(August 2014)
