History Music / PattiSmith

* KindheartedCatLover: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the color of the Pyramids). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urps next to her pillow]].[[note]][[CatsAreSnarkers On her birthday, yet.]][[/note]]Cairo Smith lived to be almost 22 years old, the equivalent of 104 in human years, departing September 23, 2023. She made frequent appearances in Patti's Substack films, and Patti and her daughter Jesse say they still sense a wisp of her presence.[[/note]]

* KindheartedCatLover: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the same color as the Great Pyramid). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urps next to her pillow]].[[note]][[CatsAreSnarkers On her birthday, yet.]][[/note]] As of 2023, Cairo is still alive and makes frequent appearances in Patti's Substack films.

* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles: "Redondo Beach"

* CoverVersion: "Music/MyGeneration", "Hey Joe", "Gloria", "Land of a Thousand Dances" from "Land" (omitting the song's famous "na na na na" hook), "[[Music/TheByrds So You Want to Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star)]]"

* ShoutOut: "Radio Ethiopia" supposedly refers to poet Arthur Rimbaud's dying wishes. Patti has felt a connection with Rimbaud since she was 16, when she stole a copy of ''Illuminations'' since she couldn't afford the 99c it cost (about $8.50 today).[[note]]Legend has it that Rimbaud buried a case with unpublished work outside Diri Dawa, Ethiopia, while he was working as a coffee exporter there. In 1973, still an unknown, impoverished artist, Patti dreamed of the case and possibly the exact tree it was buried under. Unfortunately, no publisher cared enough to finance her proposed expedition to find it and bring it back. She did buy a replica of his childhood home in 2017, though.[[/note]] "Piss Factory" mentions Music/JamesBrown. "About a Boy"'s title references Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "About a Girl".

She has several books out, including some early poetry chapbooks and the monumental ''Babel'' from 1978. Her brief 1992 memoir, ''Woolgathering'', is about her childhood mystical experiences, and ''The Coral Sea'' from 1996 is a tribute to her lifelong friend and artistic collaborator Robert Mapplethorpe. 2005's ''Auguries of Innocence'' is also a poetry collection, including themes of current events and tragedies. In 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir ''Just Kids''. A sequel, ''M Train'', appeared in 2015, followed by ''Year of the Monkey'' in 2017. Also in 2017, ''Devotion'' is about how and why she writes. ''The New Jerusalem'' (2018) is a Creator/WilliamBlake - like epic prose poem about the relationship between art and faith, illustrated with her art and photos.

* CoolOldLady: She is in her seventies now and still going strong.
--> [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/22/popandrock1 From a 2005 interview]]: ''I'm 58 years old, but I haven't lost anything, 'cos I've learnt to take good care of myself. I want to be around a really long time. I want to be a thorn in the side of everything as long as possible.''

* FeverDreamEpisode, OrWasItADream, RecursiveReality: Patti had scarlet fever and other illnesses as a child during which she had visions and experiences she related to her siblings later. This happened with her non-illness dreams as well. (It's in ''Woolgathering.'') As an older adult (''M Train'', ''Year of the Monkey'') she seems to have become hypersomniac (thus the MustHaveCaffeine she describes), dozing off anytime, anywhere, and sometimes unsure if an experience she's having is a dream, reality, or both. She specifically references ''Alice'' and DownTheRabbitHole a few times, and she occasionally has conversations with [[AnimateInanimateObject Animate Inanimate Objects]].
--> [After seeing innumerable promos for ''Series/{{Cracker}}'' (which has Creator/RobbieColtrane) on ITV, then running into Coltrane in a hotel lobby:] —Can you imagine the odds of such an encounter? I say to my floral bedspread.

* KindheartedCatLover and EverythingsCuterWithKittens: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the same color as the Great Pyramid). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urps next to her pillow]].[[note]][[CatsAreSnarkers On her birthday, yet.]][[/note]] As of 2022, Cairo is still alive and makes frequent appearances in Patti's Substack films.

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and published poet who helped form a foundation for the ''American'' version of PunkRock with her ambitious 1975 album ''Music/{{Horses}}''. This distinction has to be made here, as on a tour to Britain in 1976, what might otherwise have been a [[DreamTeam fruitful collaboration]] was scuppered by [[Music/JohnLydon Johnny Rotten]] of the Music/SexPistols' sneering on-stage reference to ''[[NoTrueScotsman Horses, horses, fucking horses!]]'' It had been envisaged that the British and American versions of Punk be brought together with Patti fronting the Pistols in a few covers, but Rotten's clear disdain for what he saw as pretentious twaddle, combined with Smith's reciprocal criticism of the Pistols' lack of basic musical talent, killed that nice sentiment and entrenched the separation between the two schools of Punk.[[note]]Two years later, Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious, out on bail for the murder of his friend Nancy Spungen, assaulted Patti's brother Todd at a New York club. His bail was revoked and he was hauled back to Rikers Island.[[/note]]

[[NamesTheSame Not to be confused with '80s singer Patty Smyth]] of Scandal.

* RefrainFromAssuming: The "[[AlbumTitleDrop Horses! Horses! Horses! Horses!]]" song on ''Horses'' is actually called "Land." To further confuse matters, the song "Distant Fingers" on ''Music/RadioEthiopia'' has the chorus "Land, land, land." It's about [[InterspeciesRomance having romance with an alien]] and [[StayWithTheAliens leaving with him in his spaceship]].
--> ''All my earthly dreams are shattered/ I'm so tired, I quit/ Take me forever, it doesn't matter/ Deep inside of your ship.''

** ''Banga'' is a series of portraits of historical and fictional people and events, including Emperor Constantine, Amerigo Vespucci, and [[Literature/TheHungerGames Katniss Everdeen]].

* KindheartedCatLover and EverythingsCuterWithKittens: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the same color as the Great Pyramid). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urps next to her pillow]].[[note]][[CatsAreSnarkers On her birthday, yet.]][[/note]]

** Also her whole CoverAlbum ''Twelve'', which includes [[Music/TheRollingStones "Gimme Shelter"]], [[Music/{{Nirvana}} "Smells Like Teen Spirit"]], [[Music/JimiHendrix "Are You Experienced?"]], [[Music/TheDoors "Soul Kitchen"]], [[Music/BobDylan "Changing of the Guards"]], [[Music/TheBeatles "Within You Without You"]], [[Music/TearsForFears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"]] (really), [[Music/{{REM}} "Everybody Hurts"]], [[Music/PaulSimon "The Boy in the Bubble"]] [[Music/NeilYoung "After The Gold Rush"]] , and so on.

* TheLancer: Lenny Kaye, son of Creator/DannyKaye, who's been her guitarist since her very first gig in 1971.

* KindheartedCatLover and EverythingsCuterWithKittens: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the same color as the Great Pyramid). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urps next to her pillow]].[[note]][[CatsAreSnarkers On her birthday, yet.]]

* KindheartedCatLover and EverythingsCuterWithKittens: Patti's beloved cats are all through her book ''M Train'', especially Cairo, a runt Abyssinian (her name comes from the fact that she's the same color as the Great Pyramid). She even [[TooMuchInformation tells us when Cairo throws a hairball in the middle of the night or urped next to her pillow]].

She was named a Commander of the ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' by the French Ministry of Culture in 2005. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She received the PEN Literary Service Award in 2020, given to "an important writer whose critically acclaimed work has drawn a wide audience and who helps us to understand the human condition in original and powerful ways."

* NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: She may ''technically'' be a PunkRock artist, but she's touched on and/or been influenced by Beat Poetry / Spoken Word, ProtoPunk, {{Reggae}}, Folk, CountryMusic, {{Funk}} and {{Soul}}-influenced Rock, borderline-[[NewWaveMusic New Wave Pop]], GarageRock, NoiseRock and PsychedelicRock, among others. She recorded a version of the Willard Robison torch song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUor4ottfQ Don't Smoke in Bed]]" and used to play Debussy's "Syrinx" on clarinet in the middle of shows, reminding the inevitable hecklers that "punk" is an art form that lets you do, or use, anything you want, especially if it's different. Playing classical music at a rock concert qualifies.

* [[HeAlsoDid She Also Did]]: Patti started as a graphic artist and has had many exhibitions of her drawings and paintings. She has also written numerous poems, four memoirs (a fifth, ''The Melting'', about global warming and the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic that left her unable to travel as she usually does, is being serialized for subscribers on her Substack newsletter) and is working on a detective novel.