Patti Smith and Me…
To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom.
Horses (1975) signed by Patti
You know, everybody can't paint or write a poem or achieve...certain intellectual success. But rock and roll is a very simple art form. It's based on a few chords, on a sense of revolution, on a sense of sexuality. It opens its doors to anyone.
Within the singing, there's a line, probably the second part of the lyric, a line about a little boy's face lit up with such naked joy. 'And his eyes were like two white opals, seeing everything just a little bit too clearly.' And that's when I was hooked. That was for me the dervish moment. That's when I felt transformed by rock and roll and by art and by music and by poetry and by some projection of who this woman was and what she was saying to me. She wasn't saying it to anyone else, it was just to me. I think I've been trying to rewrite those words as a lyricist...for most of my adult life.
Michael Stipe on "Birdland" from Horses
Radio Ethiopia (1976) signed by Patti
Well, when I improvise, I don’t polish them at all. I mean, like on my albums, there’s a lot of improvisation — on Horses, “Birdland” – it’s an improvisation. “Radio Ethiopia” was an improvisation. “Radio Baghdad.” “Gandhi.” “Memento Mori.” Almost on every album – “Wave” is an improvisation. I don’t clean up or edit or polish improvisations. I leave them as they stand – because they represent a moment where we’re struggling to channel something. And it’s not about perfection. It’s about communication.
Patti Smith
Easter (1978) signed by Patti
Born in Chicago, raised in New Jersey, Patti Smith is a punk rock icon and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To paraphrase Frank, she's been a pauper, a poet, a painter, an author, an artist, an actor, a rock star, a muse, and a king. She's been up and down and over and out...and all those things. And I love her madly.
I saw Patti Smith open for the Grateful Dead at the University of Massachusetts' Alumni Stadium on May 12, 1979. It was an interesting juxtaposition of disparate audiences and tastes. Patti represented New Wave and Punk Rock, three or four minute staccato bursts of high energy, while the Grateful Dead would tune their guitars for two or three minutes before embarking on a plodding ten minute jam which segued into another ten or twenty minute jam. Both rich and enduring musical experiences, but their approaches could not have been more different.
Patti was touring in support of her (then) new release Wave, and she was not well received by the audience of Dead Heads. Greeted with a smattering of boos, and worse, disinterest, as several Dead Heads in the front row turned their backs to her, Patti responded with a tight, incendiary set which was astonishing in its force and energy. From the initial salvo of her reworked version of Van Morrison's "Gloria", with one of the great opening lines in rock 'n' roll - "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine..." - through the reggae infected beats of "Redondo Beach" to the blistering guitar attack of The Byrd's "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star", the Patti Smith Group was a flight in full ferocity.
Wave (1979) signed by Patti
As an introduction to her eleven minute opus "Birdland", Patti gave a rambling and meandering speech on how she saw the Grateful Dead at The Fillmore East when she lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in the late 1960s. She said that she was amazed at the length of the Dead's songs, how they would go on and on and on. And on and on. With no end. Patti said that their singing inspired her, that if the Grateful Dead could sing (and they were never known for their exquisite harmonies), then anybody could sing, including her. She didn't care how ragged and raw she sounded. It all made perfect sense to me, but most of the Dead Heads seemed oblivious to her observations, which were heartfelt and sincere yet barbed with a stinging rebuke. Me, I didn't really care, the guitars were angry and loud. It was a remarkable performance. I was a fan then, and remain a bigger fan today.
In the late 1990s, I met Patti at Tower Records on lower Broadway in New York City. She was doing an in-store signing for her latest CD release, and there was a long line of Lower East side hipsters waiting to meet her. A sign was posted that said Patti would not be signing any memorabilia, only her recent CD. To steal a line from Woody Guthrie (who stole from everyone), but on the other side (of the sign), it didn't say nothin', that side was made for you and me.
When I got to the counter where Patti was ensconced, I told her how much I loved her work. I mentioned that I saw her open for the Grateful Dead some twenty years ago. She smiled warmly. "You blew them off the stage!" I added. "Well, thank you, that was quite an interesting show," she replied. "I have all your stuff on vinyl, would you mind signing a couple?" "Sure" came the quick response. I quickly slid the albums toward her under the watchful gaze of the Tower Records border patrol. She was very gracious and signed each album much to their dismay. These were the first five albums of her career, beautifully photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, her roommate from their early days when they lived together in the Chelsea Hotel as artists, best friends, and lovers. Their relationship and artistic exploits were chronicled in Patti's National Book Award winning memoir Just Kids (released in 2010), a deft and revealing examination of their time together as nascent, struggling artists.
Dream Of Life (1988) signed by Patti, all album photography by Robert Mapplethorpe
She smiled when she signed Horses, her 1975 debut and a punk rock masterpiece. It is an iconic album cover taken by a young (and not yet controversial) Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti is wearing a men's monogrammed white shirt (bought at a thrift store) with her jacket thrown over her shoulder with a Sinatra insouciance. On her lapel, she is wearing a horse pin which was a gift from her then paramour, Allen Lanier, guitarist and keyboardist for Blue Oyster Cult (BOC). Lanier produced and played on "Kimberly" while the rest of Horses was produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale. In fact, Patti Smith was considered and, even auditioned for the BOC lead singer in the early 1970s and she contributed several lyrics to the Blue Oyster Cult songbook through the years, including "Career Of Evil", "The Revenge Of Vera Gemini" and "Shooting Shark." How the music gods smiled beneficently and we rejoice that Patti did not join Blue Oyster Cult!
In her own inimitable words: "I believe that we, that this planet, hasn't seen its Golden Age. Everybody says its finished ... art's finished, rock and roll is dead, God is dead. Fuck that! This is my chance in the world. I didn't live back there in Mesopotamia, I wasn't there in the Garden of Eden, I wasn't there with Emperor Han, I'm right here right now and I want now to be the Golden Age ...if only each generation would realize that the time for greatness is right now when they're alive ... the time to flower is now."
Words, truth, and respect from Patti Smith, an artist of uncompromising strength and talent. All hail...
Choice Cuts (per BK's request)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL2I1krvhIE
"Gloria" - Horses 1975
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VfUZFPAC5k&list=RD5VfUZFPAC5k
“When Doves Cry" - Patti Sings Prince!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH8nsquhPqo
"The Revenge Of Vera Gemini" Patti Sings Blue Oyster Cult!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0peTfMOdDoo
"Because The Night" co-written by Bruce Springsteen - Live 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNnC8hYOmlw
“Rock 'n' Roll N...er" - Live 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EoHJ30qZTU
"Land > Hey Joe" - Live 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e469wZERcYg
"People Have The Power" - Live with U2, Paris 2015
Patti Smith addendum:
We were blessed to see Patti Smith on November 4, 2024 at Joe’s Pub, an intimate club in NYC with a capacity of less than two hundred patrons. It was a celebration of her husband Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith on the 30th anniversary of his untimely passing and the 78th birthday of the master photographer Robert Mapplethorpe whose photographs grace many of Patti’s records including the transcendent Horses, where Patti, jacket slung over her shoulder, channels Sinatra with a give no f*cks insouciance. Her music have been staples in our household since I first saw her perform at UMass in 1979 opening for the Grateful Dead. Her set then was revelatory and blistering and she blew the Dead off the stage with her energy and ferocity.
Forty-five years later, her show was no less satisfying. She was accompanied by her longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye, bassist extraordinaire Tony Shanahan, her daughter Jesse on piano and special guest Ben Harper on percussion and guitar. It was an extraordinary night of music curated by Patti and Jesse, including remembrances, a Kerouac poetry reading, and Patti’s uncompromising music. What made it especially gratifying for Erin and I was that we got to share the event with our two daughters who love Patti’s books as much as her music. Patti is a consummate and inter generational artist in every sense, and she is as vital and as au courant now as when she started. Her fires still burn bright.
Special thanks to Tony Shanahan for being so gracious and spending time with us after the show, our family is brimming with gratitude.
All pics including the set list taken by me
Easter signed by Patti, People Have The Power