Song of the Day 9/25: Patti Smith, “People Have the Power”

I’m looking to dispel the air of doomed gloom that pervades progressive spaces these days, so here’s an anthem by Patti Smith and Fred “Sonic” Smith from her 1988 LP “Dream of Life.”

The tune has special resonance today, because U2 covered it on their 2015-16 tour — and at their Paris concert, they invited the Eagles of Death Metal on stage to perform it. It was EDM’s first public appearance after the terrorist attack on their concert at the Bataclan club in Paris the previous November. Muslim terrorists struck Paris again today, injuring four people, two seriously, in a meat-cleaver attack outside what used to the the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlJoI8CZ04