Patti Smith's handpicked 12 recreations

Sal Amenta
Staff Writer

Patti Smith - twelve (3 Stars)

Punk rock’s reining queen—the unrivaled Patti Smith—digs through her personal record collection and handpicks 12 of her favorite songs and gives her unique voice to them.

She’s backed up by some impressive musical folk. The Rolling Stone’s classic “Gimme Shelter” gets a down and dirty treatment (courtesy of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist, Flea and Television’s Tom Verlaine,) and Smith sings it like she owns it. The ’80s pop gem “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears gets a refreshing update. Bob Dylan’s “Changing of the Guards” receives a modest, acoustic approach and is obviously much improved with Smith’s fearless vocals. Of course, some of these tracks fall flat on their faces; Smith and Co. somehow manages to royally screw up Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” Still, the most talked-about track will undoubtedly be the stripped-down, banjo-laden cover of Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit,” featuring additional spoken word poetry by Smith. If only Kurt Cobain had thought to perform the song in this manner on MTV’s Unplugged all those years ago.