The Coral Sea

The Coral Sea is Patti Smith's posthumous homage to her friend and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the title to her 1997 book. Kevin Shields accompanies her on guitars and effects and creates a haunting backdrop to the spoken prose. The 'love recordings' were made June 22nd 2005 and September 12th 2006 respectively at sold-out performances at the QEH in London. The set runs almost two hours with a different stylistic approach to each performance. The UK's Guardian upon reviewing the 2005 performance gave it 5 stars and called it "magical." A kind of screaming requiem, The Coral Sea describes Mapplethorpe's terminal illness. Intense, layered electronics surged to a discordant climax as Patti Smith read her poem, the words sailing over the noise like an ocean liner, with the black and white video showing the ocean, the liner and the gray twilight of grief. The poem tells the story of M (Mapplethorpe) on a final voyage to see the stars of the Southern Cross before he dies.