TWELVE-- PATTI SMITH'S ALBUM OF COVERS

Tomorrow Patti Smith is being inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. I used to be on the Hall of Fame nominating committee and every year Patti would get the highest number of votes on the committee but would never get in. One of the honchos there told me she wasn't really rock'n'roll so I stopped going to the meetings. Maybe he was sleeping this year when one of the most powerful influences on any young woman who plugged in a guitar-- or wrote a lyric -- since the mid-70s finally slipped by the Old Guard and won her long overdue right.We were introduced to Patti Smith through a cover song. For most of us that was her culturally transformational version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" on her debut album (which also contained a breathtaking, hallucinatory remake of Chris Kenner's-- and Wilson Pickett's-- "Land of a Thousand Dances.") Now if you were really one of the coolest kids on the block who managed to get turned on, even before HORSES, to the tiny indie pressing of "Piss Factory," the cover that could have hooked you on Patti was the b-side, "Hey Joe," a song popularized by The Byrds and Jimi Hendrix.Cover art from Twelve.Patti Smith's new album isn't coming out until April 24, but I bumped into an old friend of hers and mine and he played it for me a couple weeks ago. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. The album is called TWELVE, a reference to the number of songs on it and the number of albums she's recorded. All 12 songs are covers. It kicks off with a sensual, Beatles-informed version of the Hendrix classic "Are You Experienced?" and I won't miss a Patti Smith concert until I've heard her do this one live. It's absolutely spectacular. Nor is it the only song on the album that seems to be influenced by a kind of Beatles sound.And when Patti isn't sounding like George Martin produced, she's sounding a lot like a New York folk artist, as she does on her Neil Young cover, "Helpless." I'm eager to get my hands on the CD and sit down and listen to it for a week. From my one listen I've gone back and forth in terms of a favorite, but her version of Grace Slick's "White Rabbit," which is as much a paen to Lewis Carroll as it is to the Jefferson Airplane and Botero, absolutely kicks ass. Also from that era she does a version of the Doors' "Soul Kitchen" that makes it abundantly clear that Jim Morrison had a powerful impact on her when she was in her formative musical years. The depth and intensity is staggering.Her cover of George Harrison's "Within You Without You" reminded me of Marriane Faithful at her best and there is a politically charged version of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter." Since Patti's live rendition of "Heart Shaped Box" is always so overpowering there was no reason to expect "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to be anything less than wonderful and she doesn't disappoint. I wish I had taken better notes; I was putting all my energy into listening. I recall a Renaissance-sounding rendition of "Boy in a Bubble" and covers of the Tears For Fears classic "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers. The Dylan song she chose, "Changing of the Guard," isn't one of my faves from his repertoire so I'll have to give it more time when I get her full album. I can't wait! (Musical guests include Tom Verlaine and Flea, both of whom have been joining her for live performances lately.)