Patti Smith
Patti Smith: Poet and Trailblazer
Among her many monikers, Patti Smith has most often been called the “godmother of punk.” Despite resisting the label, she has had a wide-ranging influence on punk, post-punk, alternative, and mainstream rock artists including U2, The Smiths, REM, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna. Her seminal first album, Horses, was released in 1975 and began a career that would lead to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Patti Smith group up largely in New Jersey and received a very religious upbringing. After college, she moved to Manhattan where she met and fell in love with the famous photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She became heavily involved in poetry writing, performance art, and painting. With Mapplethorpe, they were frequent visitors of the now-legendary CBGB and …show more content…
Max’s Kansas City. She began writing lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and published several articles on rock music. In 1974, Patti Smith (who sang and played guitar) put a band together with Lenny Kaye on guitar, Ivan Kral on bass, Richard Sohl on piano, and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums. After releasing a single (a cover of “Hey Joe”), Smith was signed to Arista records. The groundbreaking Horses album was produced by John Cale (Velvet Underground) and released in 1975. The album combines elements of punk, art rock, and spoken word. Though it achieved only modest commercial success, it has been called “the first significant punk album” by Rolling Stone which ranked at #44 on their 500 greatest albums of all time.
Patti Smith recorded two more albums in the 1970s: Easter, containing “Because the Night,” and Wave, which included “Dancing Barefoot.” For most of the 1980s, Smith lived in Detroit starting a new family with former MC5 guitarist, Fred Smith. After his death from a heart attack, Smith was encouraged to keep recording and performing by personal friends Allen Ginsberg and Michael Stipe (REM). She has made six albums since 1996, and her career has seen an incredible resurgence. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the National Book Award for Just Kids, a memoir of her Manhattan days. Patti Smith was instrumental to the New York punk scene and has continued to inspire many artists, particularly in the alternative rock and post-punk genres.
Pinning down Patti Smith’s viewpoints on her role and identity as a woman in rock is challenging.
When asked her view on feminism, she told British newspaper The Independent that, "…people always talk to me about feminism and women's rights, but I have a son too - I believe in human rights.” However, she does explain her struggles as a female musician. In her memoir, she noted that it was hard to find musician willing to work with a female lead. Smith responded to this by detaching herself from her gender and refusing to let her gender define her. In a PBS interview she explains her hopes: “I really look for to a time where we don't have to - where I don't have to pick up a book and read that this person is a - a gay poet, a black artist, a female artist. You know, I think if - if people's work is heightened to where it should be, if a person has a calling and really truly articulates that calling, there - there needs to be no label, no matter what that particular calling is. And I look forward to a time when people are - relate to each other in terms of their -the - how they exemplify themselves, how they carry themselves as a human
being.”
Patti Smith is pioneering poet and artist who emerged at just the right time and place: New York in the mid-late 1970s. She hung around with Andy Warhol, Joey Ramone, Lou Reed, and Robert Mapplethorpe. With her guts and vision, she stood tall among such luminaries and did one thing they couldn’t: she survived. Patti Smith is a living legend in rock who still performs with power and artistry.
Among her many monikers, Patti Smith has most often been called the “godmother of punk.” Despite resisting the label, she has had a wide-ranging influence on punk, post-punk, alternative, and mainstream rock artists including U2, The Smiths, REM, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna. Her seminal first album, Horses, was released in 1975 and began a career that would lead to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Patti Smith group up largely in New Jersey and received a very religious upbringing. After college, she moved to Manhattan where she met and fell in love with the famous photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She became heavily involved in poetry writing, performance art, and painting. With Mapplethorpe, they were frequent visitors of the now-legendary CBGB and …show more content…
Max’s Kansas City. She began writing lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and published several articles on rock music. In 1974, Patti Smith (who sang and played guitar) put a band together with Lenny Kaye on guitar, Ivan Kral on bass, Richard Sohl on piano, and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums. After releasing a single (a cover of “Hey Joe”), Smith was signed to Arista records. The groundbreaking Horses album was produced by John Cale (Velvet Underground) and released in 1975. The album combines elements of punk, art rock, and spoken word. Though it achieved only modest commercial success, it has been called “the first significant punk album” by Rolling Stone which ranked at #44 on their 500 greatest albums of all time.
Patti Smith recorded two more albums in the 1970s: Easter, containing “Because the Night,” and Wave, which included “Dancing Barefoot.” For most of the 1980s, Smith lived in Detroit starting a new family with former MC5 guitarist, Fred Smith. After his death from a heart attack, Smith was encouraged to keep recording and performing by personal friends Allen Ginsberg and Michael Stipe (REM). She has made six albums since 1996, and her career has seen an incredible resurgence. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the National Book Award for Just Kids, a memoir of her Manhattan days. Patti Smith was instrumental to the New York punk scene and has continued to inspire many artists, particularly in the alternative rock and post-punk genres.
Pinning down Patti Smith’s viewpoints on her role and identity as a woman in rock is challenging.
When asked her view on feminism, she told British newspaper The Independent that, "…people always talk to me about feminism and women's rights, but I have a son too - I believe in human rights.” However, she does explain her struggles as a female musician. In her memoir, she noted that it was hard to find musician willing to work with a female lead. Smith responded to this by detaching herself from her gender and refusing to let her gender define her. In a PBS interview she explains her hopes: “I really look for to a time where we don't have to - where I don't have to pick up a book and read that this person is a - a gay poet, a black artist, a female artist. You know, I think if - if people's work is heightened to where it should be, if a person has a calling and really truly articulates that calling, there - there needs to be no label, no matter what that particular calling is. And I look forward to a time when people are - relate to each other in terms of their -the - how they exemplify themselves, how they carry themselves as a human
being.”
Patti Smith is pioneering poet and artist who emerged at just the right time and place: New York in the mid-late 1970s. She hung around with Andy Warhol, Joey Ramone, Lou Reed, and Robert Mapplethorpe. With her guts and vision, she stood tall among such luminaries and did one thing they couldn’t: she survived. Patti Smith is a living legend in rock who still performs with power and artistry.