Patti Smith on Patti Smith includes some of Smith’s most
iconic moments in the media, and some that have never appeared in
print, each as insightful as they are unrehearsed
From the moment Patti Smith burst onto the scene, chanting "Jesus
died for somebody's sins, but not mine," the irreverent opening
line to Horses, her 1975 debut album, the punk movement had found its
dissident intellectual voice. Yet outside the recording studio—Smith
has released eleven studio albums—the punk poet laureate has been
perhaps just as revelatory and rhapsodic in interviews, delivering
off-the-cuff jeremiads that emboldened a generation of disaffected
youth and imparting hard-earned life lessons. With her characteristic
blend of bohemian intellectualism, antiauthoritarian poetry, and
unflagging optimism, Smith gave them hope in the transcendent power
of art. In interviews, Smith is unfiltered and startlingly present,
and prescient, preaching a gospel bound to shock or inspire. Each
interview is part confession, part call-and-response sermon with the
interviewer. And there have been some legendary interviewers: William
S. Burroughs, Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth), and novelist Jonathan
Lethem. Her interview archive serves as a compelling counternarrative
to the albums and books. Initially, interviewing Patti Smith was a
censorship liability. Contemptuous of staid rules of decorum, no one
knew what she might say, whether they were getting the romantic,
swooning for Lorca and Blake, or the firebrand with no respect for an
on-air seven-second delay. Patti Smith on Patti Smith is a
compendium of profound and reflective moments in the life of one of
the most insightful and provocative artists working today.
