Gone Again

Greatly Appreciated

GONE AGAIN
 
 
Gone Again  is an album by Patti Smith, released June 18, 1996 on Arista Records.  The production of the record was preceded by the deaths of many of Smith’s close friends and peers, including her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, her brother Todd, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Sohl, and Kurt Cobain, with whom Smith had sympathized.  In addition to this, Gone Again also features the last studio performance of Jeff Buckley released before his death less than a year later.  On May 13, 1999, Rolling Stone magazine placed the album on its list of “The Essential Recordings of the ’90s”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Patti Smith suffered a series of losses in quick succession beginning with the death in November 1994 of her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, followed by the unexpected death of her brother Todd Smith – her band’s keyboard player Richard Sohl and her early love Robert Mapplethorpe had died four and five years earlier.  She reemerged from that pain more visible than ever; her next album, Gone Again (1996) was perhaps her most self-assured effort and included a tribute to Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, “About a Boy”.  The final track is a heartbreaking tribute to her late husband, “Farewell Reel”. 

 

(February 2014)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021