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Patti Smith - The Time Is Now - Millennium Music Profile

This page is an introduction to Patti Smith whose music was used during the Millennium episode The Time Is Now. A complete list of all music by Patti Smith that was used throughout Millennium is also listed below.

Our Millennium Music Guide is based on detailed profiles for each artist, band or composer and their music which was used in a specific episode (sometimes more than one). Here you can learn more about the music and the people that created the music, including where available a description of the scenes in which their music can be heard.

You can learn more and discuss the music heard in Millennium within the dedicated music section of our This is who we are - Millennium community forums.


 

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Music Profile Info

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Artist Details

Artist:

Patti Smith.



Origin:

December 30, 1946 - Chicago, Illinois, USA


Genre:

  • Rock
  • Punk Rock
  • Singer/Songwriter

Active:

1974 - Present.



Millennium Episode Details

Episode Title:

 The Time Is Now



MLM Code:

#MLM-223


Production Code:

5C23


Season:

2


Original Airdate:

1998-05-15

Episode Summary

As Trust representative Richard Gilbert dies under tragic circumstances, Frank Black is given a lecture by Millennium Group superiors that only intensifies his fears regarding the now apparent cult-like organization. Peter Watts fights back against the Group he followed so loyally for so many years. Lara Means, confronted with the knowledge and sights of the coming doomsday, finds herself spiraling into insanity. As the bloody plague spreads far and wide, killing many, Frank, Jordan, and Catherine retreat into the woods of Washington to escape a grim end to the world as they know it.

Main Crew

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by James Coblentz

Still images from The Time Is Now

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There are a total of 195 images for The Time Is Now which are available in our Episode Image Gallery.

 

Music by Patti Smith used in the Millennium episode The Time Is Now

 
An image related to Patti Smith whose music was used in Millennium.

Patricia Lee ("Patti") Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American musician, singer, and poet.

Smith came to prominence during the punk movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called "punk rock's poet laureate", she brought a feminist and intellectual take to punk music and became one of rock and roll's most influential musicians.

Although Smith's success has been limited in commercial terms (she has never had an RIAA certified record and has had just one Top 20 single), she is often regarded as one of the most influential artists in rock history: Rolling Stone magazine placed her at #47 in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On March 12, 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha.


 

Where Patti Smith can be heard in The Time Is Now

The Millennium episode The Time Is Now contains the following music by Patti Smith:

  • Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de)

    Heard during the intense motel cabin scene where Lara Means, (depicted through the use of various montages, imagery and stock photography) slips into insanity after failing to come to terms with the knowledge revealed to her by the Millennium Group.


Patti Smith - additional music heard in Millennium

Millennium's producers would occasionally use additional music from the same artist, band or composer. Sometimes a track or song could be heard in more than one episode of the series.

Music from Patti Smith was used in a total of 2 episode/s of Millennium. Below is a complete list of all music by Patti Smith heard throughout the series and the episodes in which it was used, including links to the relevant music and episode profiles:



Song 1: Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de)


Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de) by Patti Smith.

Album Title:
Horses (LP 1975)
Horses/Horses (CD 2005)


Scene:
Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de) can be heard during the following scenes in the Millennium episode The Time Is Now:

Heard during the intense motel cabin scene where Lara Means, (depicted through the use of various montages, imagery and stock photography) slips into insanity after failing to come to terms with the knowledge revealed to her by the Millennium Group.


Details:

Horses is the debut album by Patti Smith released in November 1975, produced by John Cale. The innovative track, Land, is a radical reworking of Chris Kenner's "Land of a Thousand Dances".

Land of a Thousand Dances is a soul song originally recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962, though its most popular and recognizable version was recorded by soul singer Wilson Pickett in 1966. Famous for its "na na na na na" hook, which was added by Cannibal & the Headhunters in 1965, it has been covered by various other bands and artists including the Thee Midniters (1965), J. Geils Band (1983), Guy, Sam & Dave, Rezillos, The Action, The Residents, Patti Smith, and Bill Haley & His Comets who scored a 1966 hit with the song in Latin America. Vinnie Jones also covered the song on his 2002 album Respect, which covered many classic blues and soul songs.

Despite the title, in the original recording by Chris Kenner only sixteen dances are specifically mentioned: the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish and The Popeye.

Horses/Horses is an album recorded by Patti Smith. Released in 2005 this is a double CD, with the a remastered version of her original 1975 album Horses on the first CD, and a live recording of the entire album on the second CD. The live album was recorded as part of the "30th Anniversary" (2005) at the Meltdown Festival, which Smith curated. It follows the same running order as the 1975 release, and features Michael Balzary (Flea) from Red Hot Chili Peppers playing bass. Both CD's end with live versions of Pete Townshend's "My Generation".


Extended Information:

Lara Means - Descent into madness

Presented below is an extract from the The Time is Now episode transcript, describing the motel cabin scene where Lara Means slips into insanity to the tune of Patti Smith's Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de).

During the weeks leading up to her induction into the Millennium Group, Lara's angel abandoned her in fear of a higher power and she was left without its guidance. Alone and faced with the responsibility of being a Group member, Lara's sanity quickly diminished. Her final act was giving her Marburg Virus vaccine to Frank, who then gave it to Jordan. She was hospitalized as a result of her mental condition.

Excerpt:

[Frank's study. Frank presses a button on his answermachine. Beep.]

LARA'S RECORDED VOICE: (quick, feverish) Why now? Why now, Frank? Why were we born now? Do you realize the probability - the probability of even being born at all? The chances of any life being here - let alone you and me? If it ends - when it will end - we'll be amongst the 10% of all humans who ever lived. Do you understand the odds of being born at the time it ends? And since the time is now, since the end is here - we're all old. But compared to all the life - of all the life on earth, of all the life in the universe - we're infants. And that's all we'll ever be - all we ever were. Can you calculate the odds of being both - I'm so lucky, Frank, to be born now. The things they've told me. The responsibility, Frank, just to know is enough. To see it happen - a chance to witness. I'm so frightened - to have the chance to watch it happen. But we'll be all right we, we can't be born just to die - we knew this was coming, right? We've known for two millennia. (quoting) Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near.

If you were a fan of Lara Means' character, it was a difficult scene to watch, extending over a mammoth 7 minutes of the episode:

[Morgan Creek Hotel - night. The log cabins, silence.]

[Cabin - night Lara is staring at two red dice on a brown/white patterned table. Next to the dice is a large white mug. Lara just stares. The mug is full of boiling water. Lara places a teabag inside the mug. Patti Smith's "Land" song begins to play. It plays throughout these scenes. Lara looks sad. She watches the mug, her eyes staring. Fixedly staring. The boiling water. Eyes almost hypnotized by the sight, watching. Lara begins to break into tears as the music swells. The area fills with white light.

The boiling mug begins to move, travelling slowly backwards. Lara watches in silent fascination. Flash on: A stampede of white horses running across a beach. An orange sunset on the horizon. Sand being kicked up. The mug continues to glide backwards, reaches the edge of the table and tips off. Flash on: a distorted image of the Legion demon. The mug crashes to the floor. Flash on: a volcano erupting, lightning streaking across storm clouds, the inside of an office block shaking in an earthquake.

Lara collapses into bed; kicking and thrashing. Now she is staring quietly. Flash on: the luminous jungle scene, flying above the trees, inside the luminous jungle, the tall trees, men running through the jungle, a monkey screeches. Lara (in black and white) lets out a silent scream. Flash on: a microscopic view of a blood system inside a vein; the blood cells pumping down. Lara (in black and white) hugging herself. Replay the action. Her body spinning round with a time-lapse delay effect. She's now on her bed, then starts grabbing and thrashing on the covers. Strobe lighting effect as she continues to thrash. Flash on: another distorted Legion creature.

Lara (in black and white) grimacing straight ahead, upset. Flash on: a thin tornado travelling across the countryside. Lara silent, then wails in agony. Flash on: a blue lightning bolt. Lara, walking around the room, confused. A blue lighting bolt. Lara continues to walk, dazed. A blue lightning bolt. Then a volcano erupts. Lara, holding her head, collapses onto her bed. A city street being engulfed by volcanic lava. Lara is turning, crying. A blue lightning bolt. Lara turning again. Flash on a bolt of lighting. Another streak of lightning travels around the funnel of a mighty tornado.

Lara again. Flash on: sheet lightning across clouds. Lara is now sat silently at her table. A bright white light fills the room and an angel appears floating in her cabin. Lara just watches, unemotional. The angel has 7 small glowing orbs in its face. Lara screams. The angel has blood appearing on its chest. Lara screams again. The blood on the angel is larger, spreading. Lara screams at the blood on the angelic figure. Now Lara has a lamp in her hand, throws it across the room, it smashes in the corner. Insects pour out of the sink plug-hole. Lara is looking at herself in a mirror, silently. She watches herself. Flash on: Lara's face painted black and white in a macabre mask. As Lara watches herself, she begins to tremble, then leaves the mirror looking pitifully vacant.

The lock on the cabin door is opened by Lara and she pulls open the wooden door to reveal a view of deep space - nothing but black sky and stars. Wind blows Lara's hair. A comet travels across sky. We notice the small speck of Lara's open doorway in the heavens above. The comet flies into the sun, then disappears. The sun explodes, growing bigger. Flash on: a nuclear bomb detonation. A nuclear bomb exploding in the ocean. Lara again. Flash on: a huge mushroom cloud post-explosion. A row of trees bend under the blast. A huge smoky mushroom cloud.

Lara grimaces on her bed. Now a blue sky appears, white clouds fly past overhead. A blue horse gallops across the sky. Brief glimpse of a naked leg in red petals. A red horse gallops across the sky, flashes in the sky, bomb blasts, a naked body covered in red petals, a black horse runs across the sky, the image of an empty riverbed, two thin African children, back to the naked body in petals, a yellow horse gallops across the sky, a monkey screeches,. blood vessels, Lara is naked in a bed of rose petals.

Now a huge ocean is crashing its waves on a rocky beach. Horses running through the water. Lara has a knife to her wrist, cross-legged on the floor. The waves of the ocean. Some blood vessels Lara's face. Flash on: a distorted image of the Legion demon. Lara is floating across a white background. A body glimpses through a glass shower cubicle, half full of water. Lara sat on the floor. Now sat in the corner. She has her head in her hands. Now Lara is near the cabin wall, gyrating in agitation. Lara screaming. Lara writes brutishly on a piece of paper with a pen. She is now taking the drawers out of a chest and dropping them, searching. Lara huddled on the floor. Lara is now searching her bed.

She grabs her handbag and searches inside. Drops contents to the floor. Lara notices the ouroboros symbol on a computer's laptop screen. She grabs the computer and smashes it. The graphic of the ouroboros symbol smashes apart into tiny pieces. The naked body in the shower cubicle, water rising. The cabin door - someone knocking on it. Lara watches in blue light. The door knocking, Lara loads a handgun and points it at the knocking door. The door opens slowly. Lara shoots. Her bullets crack into a mirror, which bleeds. Another bleeding wound appears in the mirror. Another wound appears. The naked body in the shower, water level higher. Frank Black enters through the cabin door.

Lara sees him as the Legion/Gehenna creature, and shoots hitting the door frame. Frank ducks out of the way. Lara shoots. Flash on: a distorted image of Legion. Frank enters quickly and struggle with Lara for her gun. Flash on: distorted Legion demon. Lara fights Frank, hysterical. Frank stops her hitting him. Lara crying. The body in the shower is Lara, the cubicle is almost full of water which now is mixed with black oil. Lara, extremely upset, with Frank. Lara in the shower, the water almost full of oil. The water sloshes over her face. Flash on: an oily black macabre makeup on Lara's face. Lara stops fighting Frank. Red-faced.]

[Lara is being held down by two paramedics, and Frank. She just stares ahead. paramedic #1 brushes her arm, preparing to inject.] LARA: No! No! No! No! No! No!

[The needle is inserted. Lara begins hitching her words, the drug taking effect. Still staring, silent.]

[Lara's naked body in the shower cubicle, now full of black oil. The needle is redrawn. Lara simply stares. The shower cubicle, only segments of Lara' body seen against the glass. Lara now staring upwards from her bed of red petals. The real Lara has an oxygen mask placed over her face. She's on a stretcher, held by the paramedics. They take her out. Frank is left standing in the cabin. He sits in a wooden chair, thinking, stunned by what he witnessed. He picks up some objects from the floor, and finds a paper envelope with the words 'FRANK BLACK' scribbled on it in pen. Frank thinks. He places the envelope in his jacket pocket, then throws Lara's coat on Lara's bed. He collects Lara's belongings, placed them in the coat, wraps the contents together and then, carrying them, goes to the door. Looking back he surveys the demolished cabin: broken and smashed objects, upturned furniture. Frank closes the cabin door. We see the two dice on the brown/white patterned table: a 4 and a 6. The Patti Smith song ends.]

[fade out. ]



Listen to Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de)

The following video clip relates to Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de) by Patti Smith:



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Lyrics for Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de):

The following lyrics are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. The lyrics to Land: Horses/Land of 1000 Dances/La Mer(de) are provided for educational and research purposes only. Please support Patti Smith by purchasing relevant CD's or legal music downloads.


The boy was in the hallway drinking a glass of tea
From the other end of the hallway a rhythm was generating
Another boy was sliding up the hallway
He merged perfectly with the hallway,
He merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallway

The boy looked at Johnny, Johnny wanted to run,
but the movie kept moving as planned
The boy took Johnny, he pushed him against the locker,
He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny
The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees,
started crashing his head against the locker,
started crashing his head against the locker,
started laughing hysterically

When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
horses, horses, horses, horses
coming in in all directions
white shining silver studs with their nose in flames,
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.
Do you know how to pony like bony maroney
Do you know how to twist, well it goes like this, it goes like this
Baby mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligator
And you twist the twister like your baby sister
I want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, dig your baby sister
Rise up on her knees, do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee pee,
Roll down on her back, got to lose control, got to lose control,
Got to lose control and then you take control,
Then you're rolled down on your back and you like it like that,
Like it like that, like it like that, like it like that,
Then you do the watusi, yeah do the watusi
Life is filled with holes, Johnny's laying there, his sperm coffin
Angel looks down at him and says, "Oh, pretty boy,
Can't you show me nothing but surrender ?"
Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,
Taped to his chest there's the answer,
You got pen knives and jack knives and
Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred
Then he cries, then he screams, saying
Life is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brain
And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud,
Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,
And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi

There's a little place, a place called space
It's a pretty little place, it's across the tracks,
Across the tracks and the name of the place is you like it like that,
You like it like that, you like it like that, you like it like that,
And the name of the band is the
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes,
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes

Baby calm down, better calm down,
In the night, in the eye of the forest
There's a mare black and shining with yellow hair,
I put my fingers through her silken hair and found a stair,
I didn't waste time, I just walked right up and saw that
up there - there is a sea
up there - there is a sea
up there - there is a sea
the sea's the possibility
There is no land but the land


(up there is just a sea of possibilities)
There is no sea but the sea

(up there is a wall of possibilities)
There is no keeper but the key

(up there there are several walls of possibilities)
Except for one who seizes possibilities, one who seizes possibilities.

(up there)
I seize the first possibility, is the sea around me
I was standing there with my legs spread like a sailor

(in a sea of possibilities) I felt his hand on my knee

(on the screen)
And I looked at Johnny and handed him a branch of cold flame

(in the heart of man)
The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions
Gradually lapping into sea horses
He picked up the blade and he pressed it against his smooth throat

(the spoon)
And let it deep in

(the veins)
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities
It started hardening
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities
It started hardening in my hand
And I felt the arrows of desire

I put my hand inside his cranium, oh we had such a brainiac-amour
But no more, no more, I gotta move from my mind to the area


(go Rimbaud go Rimbaud go Rimbaud)
And go Johnny go and do the watusi,
Yeah do the watusi, do the watusi ...
Shined open coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encircling
Our lives are now entwined, we will fall yes we're together twining
Your nerves, your mane of the black shining horse
And my fingers all entwined through the air,
I could feel it, it was the hair going through my fingers,

(I feel it I feel it I feel it I feel it)
The hairs were like wires going through my body
I I that's how I
that's how I
I died

(at that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after)

(they knew what they were after)
[Everything on the current] moved up
I tried to stop it, but it was too warm, too unbelievably smooth,
Like playing in the sea, in the sea of possibility, the possibility
Was a blade, a shiny blade, I hold the key to the sea of possibilities
There's no land but the land

looked at my hands, and there's a red stream
that went streaming through the sands like fingers,
like arteries, like fingers

(how much fits between the eyes of a horse?)
He lay, pressing it against his throat (your eyes)
He opened his throat (your eyes)
His vocal chords started shooting like (of a horse) mad pituitary glands
The scream he made (and my heart) was so high (my heart) pitched that nobody heard,
No one heard that cry,
No one heard (Johnny) the butterfly flapping in his throat,

(His fingers)
Nobody heard, he was on that bed, it was like a sea of jelly,
And so he seized the first

(his vocal chords shot up)

(possibility)

(like mad pituitary glands)
It was a black tube, he felt himself disintegrate

(there is nothing happening at all)
and go inside the black tube, so when he looked out into the steep
saw this sweet young thing (Fender one)
Humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter

In the sheets
there was a man
dancing around
to the simple
Rock & roll
song









Official Website:

An official website for Patti Smith is listed at:

pattismith.net


Other Websites:

The following other websites are listed for Patti Smith:

Patti Smith


With grateful thanks to the following sources:

Wikipedia contributors, "Patti Smith," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti Smith

Wikipedia contributors, "Land of a Thousand Dances," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_a_Thousand_Dances