Patti Smith performing at Provinssirock festival, Seinäjoki, Finland, June 2007.
photograph by Beni Köhler
Patricia Lee Smith (b. 12/30/46) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
Called the “punk poet laureate”, Smith fused rock and poetry in her work. Her most widely known song is “Because the Night“, which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five in the U.K.
In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She placed 47th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Artists published in December 2010.
Discography and Bibliography:
Studio albums: 11
Book/poem titles: 25
There are also no less than 8 books written by others about Patti.
Some things to share:
Patti was born at Grant Hospital of Chicago in Chicago to Beverly Smith, a jazz singer turned waitress, and Grant Smith, a machinist at a Honeywell plant. The family was of part Irish ancestry and Patti was the eldest of four children, with siblings Linda, Kimberly, and Todd. When Smith was 4, the family moved from Chicago to Germantown, Philadelphia, before heading to … New Jersey.
At this early age Smith was exposed to her first records, including Shrimp Boats by Harry Belafonte, Patience and Prudence’s The Money Tree, and Another Side of Bob Dylan, which her mother gave to her. Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and placed her for adoption.
On November 17, 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids, a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. The book is reported to have fulfilled a promise she had made to Robert to write.
In 2015, Adult Swim offered Smith the opportunity to perform a song to commemorate the series finale of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Smith, an avowed fan of the series, recorded the song “Aqua Teen Dream” with the help of her children and band. The vocal track was recorded in a hotel overlooking Lerici’s Bay of Poets.
Official website: here
Looking for a youtube I came across this one just done as a Benefit for Ukraine. Patti sings with Eugene Hutz, who I recognized from, “Everything is Illuminated,” a movie I just reviewed last week in Movies, Movies, Movies!, which is set in Ukraine.
Source: wikipedia where there is a BUNCH of additional information about Patti’s musical and poetic excellence and the influence she has had in the world of music.
Tao Talk 
Have you read Just Kids? Definitely worth checking out. (K)
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No I haven’t, K. Is that a group or an album?
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Her book. I was given it as a gift, and found it both fascinating and delightful. A complicated human is Patti. I read her follow up book too, which I also liked, but not as much as the first one.
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Oops, right, the one about her time with Mapplethorpe. I thought that sounded like it would be a good one. Adding it to the list.
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Firs thing I heard from her was Because the Night… She is her own person…no doubt about that. I like a lot of what I’ve heard from her. I need to listen to more though.
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I agree with all, including needing to listen to more of her. So many artists too little time…
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Yes…that is the truth.
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great
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Thank you.
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Because the Night is one of my all time favourite songs!
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❤
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Admittedly, I mostly know Patti Smith by name and because of “Because the Night” – loved that song from the get-go. And just like with some other Springsteen songs he wrote/co-wrote, such as “Spirits in the Night”, “Blinded by the Light” and “Fire”, only years later after had heard the tunes by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and The Pointer Sisters did I learn about Springsteen’s involvement.
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I’ve seen her here and there but don’t know much about her. I was surprised at her writing so many books and her being a poet.
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So many people love Patti Smith but I never really got it. Sure, Because the Night is pretty much iconic but I dunno. I had no idea she wrote so much, though. (I was once so insulted when a guy I know told me I looked like her. What? He thought it was a compliment. I, however, did not.)
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I hear you on all of that. Maybe he was thinking of her when she was younger (and less rough looking?)
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That’s what he said… but even then… sorry, but no… I’ll take Liza Minelli over her (which was another I was compared to when I have short hair…)
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🙂
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😉
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‘Because the Night’ is an outstanding song. Other than that, I’m not all that fired up about what I’ve heard of hers but I certainly respect her for being a ground-breaker and doing art her own way. Plus she’s almost the favorite artist ever of Michael Stipe’s so that’s something… it was cool both she and REM were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame at the same time.
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I’m not well-informed/listened with her music. If Stipe loves her she must have some substance. And yes it is cool they were both inducted at the same time.
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