A Short History of Patti Smith

Patti Smith, to a certain extent, changed the boundaries of what was acceptable for female rock artists and what was not. Some people may have thought that she entered rock by the backdoor as she was a published poet and writer before become an influential singer. However she did all this, so legend has it, on her own terms. She helped to empower women in a male dominated workplace and she did so without playing the 'image' game. Well, without playing the acceptable image game of appealing directly to a male-dominated consumer audience. It wasn't simply because she was a good singer that she gained acceptance from her fellow musicians. She served her 'apprentiship' on the road before she started recording her first album. She 'suffered' like the rest of them. She was also a major player at CBGB's right from the off. Her trademark spoken-word meanderings both on record and live came directly from her poetic writer background. She brought 'high-art' (poetry) into an andrenaline focused punk scene. The idea seems normal now with the likes of Henry Rollins and John Cooper Clarke using spoken-word pieces and poetry within a rock setting. She also influenced the young Michael Stipe in terms or word-tumbling gymnastics. Yet it is what she is seen to stand for, and not what she actually stands for, that is regarded as key to her influence and longevity. A strong, intelligent woman doing things her own way. Like that should be radical! Yet it still is. And is she doing things her own way? Maybe she has just made more intelligent compromises than most.

Patti Smith was born in Chicago. After leaving school she worked 9-5 in a factory just like millions of other people do. She had an early pregnancy and gave the baby up for adoption. She became interested in symbolist poetry and painting at the same time she met a friend of Bob Dylan, Bobby Neuwirth, which was quite lucky. He invited her to New York where she happened upon a conversation with a rock critic who also happened to be a guitarist, Lenny Kaye, which was also quite lucky. The two formed a band. Having released some of her poetry she released a single called 'Piss Factory'. It was about her previous job in the factory and apparently it was smelly there. Just like the kind of places where millions work day in and day out and fail to turn their experience of it into a commodity. Instead they get on with life, knowing factory life sucks, knowing its simply a means to an end - some un-saleable ode to the human condition which artists fail to see the dignity in, only the dollar. The single brought her to the attention of Lou Reed, which must have been nice. He told an Arista Records exec called Clive Davis that she was very good and he should sign her. He did. Inside a year she was recording her stuff at Electric Lady studios in New York with Velvet Underground's very own Mr. John Cale. Which was also nice.

Her debut was 'Horses'. It's her best record. She shows her grasp on the power of rhythmic words in the rock setting. At the center of the album is the song 'Land' and it tells the unsavory tale of a man being raped in a US college. The groove of the song is based on 'Land Of A 1000 Dances' by Wilson Pickett, which is a shame for someone who is supposed to be genuinely original. The power of the track lies at the start, where Smith uses her spoken-word trick to great effect as the music builds and builds into a, er, orgasm of sound and fury as the boy in the story seems to float away in a dream of fiery horses for some reason. I'm sure the boy would not have been so poetic about his experiences. It's the point where she sings 'And then he saw, horses, horses, horses, horses...' which sets the solid foundations of the house that Smith built - her career simply couldn't fail after such a genuinely thrilling 'rock moment'. All on the back of a story about male rape. Ah, the strange workings of the artistic mind. It's a good job the song wasn't by the Carpenters. As the album continues with a version of Them's 'Gloria' Smith serves up another 'rock moment' in the line 'Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine' before the band kick in and the listener can feel cool about repenting his or her guilt over the death of Jesus. Seriously, it's a great line.

The whole album is full of sex, death and religion. Very traditional concerns for any aspiring underground (or overground) guru. A safe bet when it comes to poetic license within rock. There are lesbian suicides, dreamtime visits to dead parents and letters to Hendrix. Its all very shamanic. And it fits her image like a glove. Into any artistic equation comes the question - how do i want my audience to view me? It effects the content of the art and the context of the art. It is predetermined by the artist herself. It is like a mini advertising campaign. Question: who to sell the product to? Answer: anyone you can get to listen to the message. Question: Is there a message? Answer: Oh yes. The 'message' with Patti Smith has always been about death, sex and religion. The universal themes. There are no audience demographic constraints for that kind of message.

In the following years, Patti Smith went on to make many more albums. The most commercially successful was 'Easter' which included the hit single 'Because The Night', the track she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen. That sort of sets her artistic career into some sort of context. Her biggest commercial success was co-written by the very embodiment of commercial rock success. Her own songs, poems and writing have sold well enough for anyone destined to spend the rest of their life in a factory. Her work is also commendable and 'politically' worthy. She is widely regarded as an honest artist who writes from the heart. Such qualities are valuable when it comes to anyone who makes a career out of the arts. Yet they must be tempered with the fact that all artists, whether good or bad, take their audience into consideration. That 'honesty' is a diluted honesty. Art is a 'diluted' profession, making products to be consumed. Just like those people Patti Smith left behind when she was younger. Those people still working in that normal factory.