Patti Smith

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For the lead singer of the former band Scandal, see Patty Smyth.

Patricia Lee ("Patti") Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American musician, singer, and poet who came to eminence during the punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Dubbed "punk rock's poet laureate", she ushered 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 commercially, having none of the records certified by the RIAA and only 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[1]. On March 12, 2007, she was inducted[2] into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life and career

In Chicago and New Jersey

Though Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois, she grew up Woodbury, New Jersey.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

On Sunday, October 15, 2006 she performed the final show at CBGB in Manhattan. Her tour de force to close out CBGB's 33 year run lasted over 3½ hours, as she took the stage at 9:30 PM (EDT) and closed for the night (and forever for the venue) at a few minutes after 1:00.

Recognition

In 2005, the French culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres presented her "Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters", one of France's top cultural award, for her influence on rock music.[3]

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame March 12, 2007. Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine delivered Smith's induction speech. Smith dedicated her award to the memory of her late husband, Fred. Smith gave a performance of the Rolling Stones classic Gimme Shelter, which she considered as a great anti-war song. As the closing number of 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction evening, Smith's "People Have the Power" was used for the big celebrity jam that always ends the program. Among those playing or singing were Eddie Vedder, Stephen Stills and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. All the other inductees to the Hall that night joined: Sammy Hagar and Mike Anthony of Van Halen, the Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five and R.E.M. including Bill Berry on drums.[4]

Political engagements

Politically, Smith actively supported Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign, touring with him and playing "People Have the Power" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" before crowds of thousands at the campaign's "super-rallies." She also performed at several of Nader's subsequent "Democracy Rising" events. She nominally endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 election. While she did not participate in the Vote for Change tour, "People Have the Power" was performed at all the shows involving Bruce Springsteen. However, after the election she was discovered raising funds to help Nader's 2004 campaign, deeply in debt from lawsuits by the Democratic Party.

She also toured with Ralph Nader in late 2004 and early 2005 to hold rallies to end the Iraq war and impeach President George W. Bush. Her mentions of Nader at concerts are usually confronted boos by a substantial portion of the audience (who may blame him for Al Gore's loss to Bush in 2000), to which she responds, "They booed Thomas Paine, too."

Smith premiered two new protest songs in London in September 2006. Louise Jury, writing in The Independent characterized them as "an emotional indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy". One song ("Qana") was about the Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana, the other ("Without Chains") about the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Jury's article quotes Smith as saying, "I wrote both these songs directly in response to events that I felt outraged about. These are injustices against children and the young men and women who are being incarcerated. I'm an American, I pay taxes in my name and they are giving millions and millions of dollars to a country such as Israel and cluster bombs and defense technology and those bombs were dropped on common citizens in Qana. It's terrible. It's a human rights violation."

"Without Chains" is about Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany, detained at Guantanamo for four years. Jury quotes Smith, "He is the same age as my son, Jackson. When I read the story, I realised how I would feel as a mother if my son had been taken away at the age of 20, put into chains, without any hope of leaving, without any direct charge."[5]

Smith is also concerned about the plight of Tibetans under the oppression of People's Republic of China. In an 1996 interview she recollected that in 1959, as a child, she prayed for Dalai Lama when he disappeared during the invasion of Tibet by PRC troops.[6] She also wrote a song titled 1959 in memory of the event.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock UK
1978 "Because the Night" #13 - - #5 Easter
1978 "Privilege (Set Me Free)" - - - #72 Easter
1979 "Frederick" - - - #63 Wave
1988 "Up There Down There" - #6 - #85 Dream of Life
1988 "People Have The Power" - - #19 #97 Dream of Life

Bibliography

  • Seventh Heaven (1972)
  • A Useless Death (1972)
  • kodak (1972)
  • Early morning dream (1972)
  • WITT (1973)
  • The Night (Aloes Books 1976) Patti Smith & Tom Verlaine
  • Ha! Ha! Houdini! (1977)
  • Babel (1978)
  • Woolgathering (1992)
  • Early Work, 1970 - 1979 (1995)
  • The Coral Sea (1996)
  • Patti Smith Complete : Lyrics, Reflections and Notes for the Future (1998). The second (paperback) edition, published in 1999, contains additional material and a revised title: Patti Smith Complete : Lyrics, Notes and Reflections. The third edition published in 2006 is titled Patti Smith Complete 1975 - 2006 : Lyrics, Reflections & Notes for the Future.
  • Wild Leaves (1999)
  • Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith (2003) – the catalog for a show of Smith's artworks at the Andy Warhol Museum, compiled by Patti Smith, David Greenberg and John W. Smith
  • Foreword to An Accidental Biography: The Selected Letters of Gregory Corso (April 2005)
  • Auguries of Innocence: Poems (October 2005)

References

Citations

  1. ↑ The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone (April 15, 2004)..
  2. ↑ Ben Sisario, Jan. 8, 2007, The New York Times, "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Backs New Members", available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/arts/music/08cnd-rock.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print .
  3. ↑ Patti Smith given French honour, BBC News, July 11, 2005.
  4. ↑ Patti Smith Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction evening show
  5. ↑ Louise Jury, Patti Smith rails against Israel and US, The Independent (UK), 9 September 2006. Accessed online 7 Oct 2006.
  6. ↑ Thurston Moore, Patti Smith, Bomb, Winter 1996.

General references

External links

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