"Easter," by Patti Smith

Special ALBUM edition of Spoken Interludes!

While listening to the Tom Wanderer Radio Experience (Thursdays on WMSE, 3-6PM) on my ride home from work this week, I heard the unmistakable sounds of spoken word after singing.

First, the song that inspired this post, Patti Smith's "Easter":

I am the spring, the holy ground,
the endless seed of mystery,
the thorn, the veil, the face of grace,
the brazen image, the thief of sleep,
the ambassador of dreams, the prince of peace.
I am the sword, the wound, the stain.
Scorned transfigured child of Cain.
I rend, I end, I return.
Again I am the salt, the bitter laugh.
I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
the ball of sight that leads that sheds the tears of Christ
dying and drying as I rise tonight.

As I listened to the 1978 album by the same name, I counted even more songs with spoken interludes (in addition to an obsession with Christian imagery surrounding death and resurrection (see the title), and organ music.)

 Here are a few examples:

 "Space Monkey" (track 2):

A stranger comes up to him; hands him an old, rusty Polaroid.
It starts crumbling in his hands.
He says, "Oh man, I don't get the picture. This is no picture.
This is just...this just-a...this just-a...
This is my jack-knife. This is my jack-knife.
This is my jack-knife. This is my jack." (shriek)

"Privilege" (track 7):

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me through the path of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.

A bonus second spoken interlude from Track 7:

In the presence of my enemies,
Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

"25th Floor" (track 8):

Stoned in space. Zeus. Christ. It has always been rock and so it is and so it shall be.
Within the context of neo rock we must open up our eyes and seize and rend the veil of smoke which man calls order.
Pollution is a necessary result of the inability of man to reform and transform waste.
The transformation of waste
The transformation of waste
The transformation of waste
The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest pre-occupation of man. man being the chosen alloy,
He must be reconnected via shit, at all cost.
Inherent with(in) us is the dream of the task of the alchemist to create from the clay of man.
And to re-create from excretion of man pure and then soft and then solid gold.

Bonus trivia: Patti Smith's "Easter" album also features the song made popular in the 1990s by 10,000 Maniacs: "Because The Night."