Patti Smith is amazing. She’s pretty much written the path for women singer-songwriters, artists and poets and she has done it so well that men even want to be her. Because who doesn’t want to be Patti Smith, she’s humble and wise and brilliant and tough and compassionate? More than anything though, Smith proved rock and roll could be poetry.
Smith has been highly influential in the punk scene since the release of her iconic album, Horses in 1975. Having had a consistently successful career, by 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and also named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. Famous for her incredibly close friendship with a man and fellow artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, she later wrote a memoir about their friendship that won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Smith also has a long history as an activist for causes ranging from AIDS fundraising and awareness to protesting the Iraq war, and has said one of my favourite feminist things ever about the sexualisation of little girls.
This weekend there’s a wonderful series of interviews with musicians – Martha Wainwright, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Marr, Ana Matronic, Ed Harcourt, Shirley Manson, Patrick Wolf and Emmy the Great – about the importance of Smith for their work and what they love best about her. You should definitely go read that over at The Guardian.
Patti Smith taught me I can draw my own door and walk right through. When I feel the weight of ageism and the weight of sexism pushing down on my shoulders, I think of her and try to negotiate my life in the same way she has hers.
I love this song of Smith’s, Dancing Barefoot about the terrible loss of control that happens when you are falling in love – “Oh God, I fell for you”.
She is benediction
She is addicted to thee
She is the root connection
She is connecting with heHere I go and I don’t know why
I fell so ceaselessly
Could it be he’s taking over meI’m dancing barefoot
Heading for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come on like some heroineShe is sublimation
She is the essence of thee
She is concentrating on he
Chosen by sheHere I go and I don’t know why
I spin so ceaselessly
Could it be he’s taking over meI’m dancing barefoot
Heading for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come on like some heroineShe is re-creation
She, intoxicated by Thee
She has the slow sensation that
He is levitating with sheHere I go and I don’t know why
I spin so ceaselessly
Till I lose my sense of gravityI’m dancing barefoot
Heading for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come on like some heroineOh God, I fell for you
The plot of our life sweats in the dark like a face
The mystery of childbirth, of childhood itself
Grave visitations
What is it that calls to us?Why must we pray screaming?
Why must not death be redefined?
We shut our eyes, we stretch out our arms
And whirl on a pane of glassAn afixiation, a fix on anything
The line of life, the limb of a tree
The hands of he and the promise that she
Is blessed among womenOh God, I fell for you
Oh God, I fell for you
Oh God, I fell for you
Dancing barefoot has to be in my top ten of favourite songs ever.
As this video demonstrates, she is clearly awesome.