11. Cat PowerNude As The News
Cat Power is someone who I knew the name, I remember seeing posters up in the city when she was playing in the clubs, but I never got turned onto and I never saw the shows. Then I was shooting a Sopranos episode [‘Luxury Lounge’] in LA. It was the episode with Ben Kingsley and Lauren Bacall. There used to be a great record store on the promenade in Santa Monica, which is where I was staying. I forget the name of it, See Hear maybe, something like that. I went in, put on some headphones and put that song on, ‘Nude As The News’, and it just blew my mind. It knocked my socks off. Her voice, her songwriting, her lyrics, and the tension and the build in it, and the chorus. I loved it, and I bought the CD. I had this really nice suite at the Viceroy Hotel that had a great stereo system, and I feel really bad for whoever was next to me, because I blasted the shit out of that album. I remember standing in front of these two big speakers, and just listening to it really loud and letting it kind of just sweep through me, into my cells and molecules.
I’ve been a fan ever since. I saw her live shortly after that, on the tour for the The Greatest album. She’s a great performer and songwriter like her music. This song mentions Jackson and Jesse which are the names of Patti Smith’s children, and Cat I think is a big fan of Patti’s.
