Clinton Heylin:"Bob Dylan: Behind The Shades, a Biography"
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 14:56:08 GMT From: Dan McGuire (djm@NUCLEUS.HO.ATT.COM) Subject: Re: Patti Smith ... Patti Smith was one of the founders of punk rock, a CBGB denizen along with the Ramones, Television, and Talking Heads. Her first album _Horses_ still makes it onto many, many "top 10 albums of all time" lists. Many musicians today stand on her shoulders, just as she stood on the shoulders of the Velvets, the Stones, and -- yes -- Dylan. She's been inactive for many years; a double bill with her and Dylan could be a truly memorable event.
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 15:02:07 -0500 From: "Andreas, Margaret A" (U0A75@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU) Subject: Re: Who's Patti Smith? @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Patti Smith is another poet and prophet, following in much the same line as Bob Dylan himself. She is one of my favorite writers, critics and performers. Used to write for CREAM magazine in the early 70s. She was married to the late Fred "Sonic" Smith (they had 2 children) and played with musicians as varied as Bruce Springsteen, the Blue Oyster Cult, and Bob Dylan! She's written with Sam Shepherd and posed for Robert Mapplethorpe. In 1973, she formed the Patti Smith Group with Lenny Kaye, the late Richard Sohl, Ivan Kral, and Jay Dee Dougherty. They were a raw, punky rock'n'roll band that took rock back to the roots and took the rock lyrics into the stratosphere. Her poetry books include: _Seventh Heaven_ (1972), _WITT_ (1973), _Babel_ (1974), and _Ha!Ha!Houdini_ (1977). The Patti Smith Group albums include: _Horses_ (1975), _Radio Ethiopia_(1976), _Easter_ (1978), _Set Free_(England, 1978), and _Wave_(1979). Patti's favorite poet is Arthur Rimbaud, who has oft been mentioned as one of Dylan's great influences. Rimbaud was a French poet in the 1850s who pioneered several dramatic changes in poetry. Patti is very much a child of rock and roll. Her poems are about the rock world, Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Keith Richards, Edie Sedgewick, Marianne Faithful, Little Richard, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Sringsteen, the entire Philly sound of the '50s...etc. Her rock criticism is some of the greatest contemporary journalism written. She is older now....in her 40s, I believe...and her perspective has been deepened by the many recent deaths of people close to her--her brother and her husband dying within the same year. She works for many charities and has been doing fund-raisers for Buddhists and Christian causes, among others. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, Patti "fell in love with God," and has never fallen out. She's very down-to-earth, though...and when she wants to say something she just SAYS it. And when she needs to spit, she just spits. Since the age of 4 (when she contracted scarlet fever and malaria) she has had periods of uncontrollable hallucinations. "you should have seen me fail as a waitress, i dropped about ten plates of spaghetti on people, i was at a party once, and suddenly a lily came out of my mouth." Lots of her songs are about the visions she sees. They can be strange visions, too--as at a recent concert, she spoke of seeing a vision of Bob Barker!! Patti can be a clown, too--and the jokes are mostly on herself. To me, she's beautiful...although it is not the usual 20th century ideal of feminine beauty. I've been in love with Patti ever since I read the first poem.... Here's some quotes from Patti: "i want every night to remember, every night to transport people...i feel real honor to have to prove myself. you gotta prove yourself..." "i know how happy rock and roll has made me all my life, from the time i listened to Little Richard, and if i can give that same kind of thing into other people's lives, to me its like i'm only paying my debts." "it was Sam Shepard who taught me about writing. i said: Sam, i hate to tell you this, but i went in the bathroom and this song is being sung to me, and he said: 'write it down, and it will go away'--and it was as simple as that, whole poems would come and i'd write them down." "one thing that knocks the ego out of a woman is childbirth. its the heaviest experience, you become a common denominator with the soil. i remember i was like a wolf, it goes into another realm because the pain is so excruciating that you no longer feel like a hot-shit guitar player or a great artist in the middle of that. i never forgot that." "art totally freed me, i was skinny and awkward, but i found Modigliani, i discovered Picasso's blue period, and i thought: 'look at this, these are the great masters, and the women are all built like i am.' i started ripping pictures out of the books and taking them home to pose in front of the mirror, and to this day i can still do almost any Modigliani pose." "'fuck' and 'shit'...it's American slang!" "i tried to get into Islam and i love the Koran and i love the Morrocan. i love their aesthetics. i love their mosques, but everytime i get into the beauty of a religion, well, their dogmas, they pull the shade down, you know...religion is always to the exclusion of other people and that's why on my record, or on everything id o, i try not to exclude anybody..." "i'd rather stop a song, and we do stop songs and tell people 'listen, we're not doing this right,' or 'this is a drag,' or 'i feel stupid now', or 'i feel like shit!' can you give me a minute?" "Nigger no invented for the color it was made for the plague...the artist, the mutant, the rock'n'roll mulatto, outside logic, beyond mathematics and self torture and poli-tricks, rise up niggers and reign with your instruments of fortune!" And here's a quote from Arthur Rimbaud: "These poets will exist. When the endless servitude of women is broken, when she lives for and by herself, man--heretofore-- having given her release, she too will be a poet! Women will find some of the unknown! Will her world differ from ours? She will find strange, unfathomable, repulsive, delicious things; we will understand them." -- Marguerita P.S. You can find some stuff about Patti Smith at this Web Page: A Patti Smith babelogue
