Iconic punk poet Patti Smith, who found fame 30 years ago mixing poetry, rock and free jazz, now said she now prefers her rock straight up with a politico twist.
Just back from the European-leg of her current tour–promoting her recent Columbia release “Trampin'” (2004)– named “because we tramped a lot of miles in protest against the strike on Iraq”–where Smith played to crowds of upwards of 57,000, the singer said she was most impressed by the worries of the people she encountered there.
“We were very strong and I think it was a good tour,” Smith said in a recent interview. “But the people were really concerned about Iraq and our elections. People are very worried that Bush will get re-elected.”
And Smith knows that the only way to defeat our current president is at the voting booths. “I find it astounding that for the year 2000 election, over 100,000,000 people did not vote,” she said. “People wonder how he got into office illegally, but when millions of Democrats did not vote, that to me is a crime–something as a country, we have to reassess. I feel it’s taken our country quite a while to wake up to the fact that the Bush administration has caused fear, misinformation and heartache and a lot of cost both human and financial. We have to do better, like my song ‘Ghandi’ says*to awake from slumber and get ’em with the numbers. There is a direct relationship to this election, here.”
Smith is using her current tour to promote voter registration and mobilize audiences against Pres. Bush, a theme she explores on her new release, which she ties to more personal struggles from the loss of her mother and seizing personal strength on several tracks.
The concerns on ‘Trampin’ are the human condition, according to the vocalist. “I’m most concerned with an anti-war stance and inspiring people to unite,” she said. “I’m concerned about the children of our world. Not so much in the past. I’m more empathetic now, because I have four children of my own. And I just lost my mom before writing the album, so the role of the mother infiltrates the album with the role of the strong female in ‘Jubilee,’ ‘Mother Rose’ was for her, and in ‘Radio Baghdad’ it’s from the point of view of an Iraqi mother during a night of bombing. There is also the idea of us unifying as people within ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Ghandi’ and there is the basic strength of the record through ‘My Blakean Year.'”
Since Smith’s mother first introduced the singer to poet William Blake as a young girl, the Smith-penned “My Blakean Year” about triumphing over adversity was especially poignant for the singer. “We have to look at the whole picture, and I love being alive and all the possibilities of life, because I have great children, a calling, and great ways to express myself, nature, friends and work,” she said. “I have bookshelves filled with books to read and great opportunities. Blake is a perfect example of this, because he was ridiculed in his life, wasn’t appreciated as an artist and activist and ended up dying poverty-stricken. But even at the end, while he was sitting in bed in pain from his diseases, he was drawing pictures, illustrating Dante, and seeing angels.”
San Francisco fans will soon get a taste of this and other tracks from “Trampin'” when the singer hits the Fillmore for two dates, Sunday and Monday.
“Say ‘Hello’ to San Francisco,” Smith said. “I’m looking forward to coming. And the two shows are always different, I can promise that. There are also technical differences, and a sense of evolution, but when I’m on stage, I still get an anarchistic energy. I still have a lot of excitement. We evolve and of course make certain changes, but I don’t think I’ve lost any abilities. I feel strong as a performer. I’m hoping my evolution is a positive one. I’m certainly not exactly the person that gave one ‘Horses.’ But I can still access that part of me. If I have to sing ‘Gloria,’ I can still sing it. But if I can’t authentically sing a song, then I don’t do it. But there will be a mix of ‘Trampin’, a lot from ‘Horses,’ and whatever anybody wants.”
Smith’s egalitarianism can be traced back to the Chicago native, whose family moved twice by the time she was nine, finally settling in Woodbury, NJ’s impoverished childhood.
“But things are by degrees,” Smith explained. “Mom always taught me that as a little kid. There was a time when dad was on strike and mom was doing ironing to support us, and we’d be eating butter sandwiches. Mom would say, ‘Look at that great sandwich’ and talk about parts of the world where people went days without food, clean water and shelter. But not in corny ways, she would really talk about it, and say, ‘We have a nice piece of fresh bread and slab of butter here.'”
An outcast in high school, Smith found solace in the writings of fellow outcasts: poet Arthur Rimbaud, the Beats, and the music of James Brown, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, and Bob Dylan.
Dropping out of college due to an unplanned pregnancy, she gave the baby up for adoption and took a factory job to save enough money to move to Manhattan in 1967.
After meeting art student/future photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, the two became lovers and
moved into the Chelsea Hotel for a brief period, before Smith became involved with underground theater and poetry.
At this time, she met guitarist Lenny Kaye, who started accompanying Smith on electric guitar for performances between Smith’s magazine-writing gigs and lyrical contributions to the metal band Blue Oyster Cult.
Adding pianist/keyboardist Richard Sohl, their improvised poetic performances and oldies covers around New York became legendary and in June 1974, Mapplethorpe funded the band’s debut single, “Hey Joe,” featuring Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, who briefly became Smith’s lover.
With guitarist/bassist Ivan Kral on board, the band took part in the emerging new-rock scene at New York’s CBGB bar the following year.
On stage, Smith was powerful, singing, chanting and dancing expressively. But never relying on sex appeal for her success, her appearance was always lean, hard, and androgynous, stretching the boundaries for future female artists like Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and Courtney Love.
Adding drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, the quintet garnered a record deal from Arista Records. Entering the studio with ex-Velvet Underground member-turned producer John Cale, they released the critically-acclaimed album, “Horses” (1975), the first punk album. “Horses”offered off-the-wall covers of rock tunes “Gloria” and “Land of 1000 Dances,” which Smith opened with the classic line: “Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine,” as well as a mix of original songs and spoken word pieces. Even without airplay, the album climbed into the Top 50.
“The biggest difference in doing ‘Horses,’ was my sense of vision,” the vocalist said. “The things I was concerned with were less humanistic, but weren’t without caring about the human situation: ‘Break it Up’ was for Jim Morrison, ‘Land’ and ‘Elegy’ were for Jimi Hendrix, and I was concerned with expressing the fact that we existed. I was more concerned with censorship and certain things that were really important then and are still important.”
Her follow-up, “Radio Ethiopia” (1976), with the Patti Smith Group, included rock songs “Ask the Angels” and “Pumping (My Heart)” and the more experimental, free-form title track.
The more accessible top-20-selling “Easter” (1978) paired Smith with Bruce Springsteen, on “Because the Night,” which climbed to number 13. “Easter” also contained Smith’s most notorious cut, “Rock n Roll Nigger,” an attempt to redefine the word as a badge of honor for the anti-establishment.
“‘Rock n Roll’ had a political, artistic and poetic voice,” she said in the song’s defense. “I thought disenfranchised people, maverick people would be listening to it. I had no idea that it would be heard by so many people.”
After “Wave” (1979) fared poorly, Smith married MC5 guitarist Fred Smith and took time off to raise two children with her husband.
Smith re-emerged for a one-off album, “Dream of Life” (1988) on which her husband co-wrote all the material and also played guitar, with backing by Smith Group members Sohl and Daugherty.
But in the span of a few years, Smith’s marital bliss turned into painful loss when she lost some of her dearest loved ones: first her longtime friend Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989, followed a year later by pianist Richard Sohl. In 1994, both her husband and her brother, Todd died of heart failure.
“But human beings are very resilient and we prove over and over again that we can continue,” she said. “I know this for myself, since I lost my best friend, piano player, husband and brother. It was a very dark period.”
Returning to music as a means of therapy, Smith re-formed the Patti Smith Group — with Kaye, Daugherty, and new bassist Tony Shanahan — for a few small-scale tours and the surprisingly optimistic album “Gone Again” (1996) which featured new second guitarist Oliver Ray.
Following closely on its heels, the grammy-nominated “Peace and Noise” (1997) was much darker, focusing on the deaths of two of Smith’s inspirations, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.
Smith took a more political stance with the grammy-nominated “Gung Ho” (2000), the most aggressive-sounding and socially conscious album of her comeback, before parting ways with Arista in 2002.
Now on Columbia, Smith said she keeps herself busy working inside and outside the recording studio. Expect a new poetry book, a Mapplethorpe memoir, a worldwide art exhibit and several AIDS charity functions in memory of Mapplethorpe in the near future. “But coming West is my current project,” she said. “On our web site, we have links for the League of Women’s Voters. At shows, we always have a table to register people to vote. I don’t think San Francisco lacks registered voters. It’s a very active city. But if 100,000,000 people didn’t vote, there are a lot of areas that need assistance.”
Still, Smith remains hopeful about our future. “People are starting to wake up and artists are starting to embrace responsibility and speak out about certain things,” she said. “I hope people will register and vote and exercise the power, because they have the power to make change. But I don’t think it’s necessary to be polarized. We’re all human beings, and all want a safe world and a clean world, so there is no reason for Republicans and Democrats. We’re all human, and all must find a way to unify, not only to rebuild our own infrastructure, but also Iraq.”
