Patti Smith

true music
by Patti Smith
From Early Works 1970-1979

Time is expressed
in the heart
of an instrument
Something that stops
in the heart of a man
Time is the wall and the space around
Time is the tree a life that resounds
Time to adore and time to go
To give to the fisherman
the slippers of Rome
the whirling embrace
the arms of the fold
to gather together
the swirl of the leaves
turning and falling
returning as thee
to the clay of creation
tho' your children will hold
the wave of your hand
the smile of your soul


About Patti Smith:

Punk rock's poet laureate, Patti Smith ranks among the most influential rock & rollers of all time. Ambitious, unconventional, and challenging, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan's heyday. If that hybrid remained distinctly uncommercial for much of her career, it wasn't a statement against accessibility so much as the simple fact that Smith followed her own muse wherever it took her -- from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism, or even completely out of music at times. Her most avant-garde outings drew a sense of improvisation and interplay from free jazz, though they remained firmly rooted in noisy, primitive three-chord rock & roll. She was a powerful concert presence, singing and chanting her lyrics in an untrained but expressive voice, whirling around the stage like an ecstatic shaman delivering incantations. A regular at CBGB's during the early days of New York punk, she was the first artist of the bunch to land a record deal and release an album, even beating the Ramones to the punch. The artiness and the amateurish musicianship of her work both had a major impact on the punk movement, whether in New York or England, whether among her contemporaries (Television, Richard Hell) or followers. What was more, Smith became an icon to subsequent generations of female rockers. She never relied on sex appeal for her success -- she was unabashedly intellectual and creatively uncompromising, and her appearance was usually lean, hard, and androgynous. She also never made an issue of her gender, calling attention to herself as an artist, not a woman; she simply dressed and performed in the spirit of her aggressive, male rock role models, as if no alternative had ever occurred to her. In the process, she obliterated the expectations of what was possible for women in rock, and stretched the boundaries of how artists of any gender could express themselves.

Official Web Site: pattismith.net

Suggested Listening:

• Horses 1975
• Easter 1978
• Land: 1975-2002
• Gone Again 1996
• Trampin’ 2004

Suggested Reading:

• Early Works: 1970-1979
• Patti Smith : Complete lyrics, reflections, and notes for the future

It is a travesty that Patti Smith, one of the founders of Punk Rock, has not been inducted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Write the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and demand that Patti Smith be inducted in 2006:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104