Aidan Levy - Patti Smith on Patti Smith

F rom the moment Patti Smith burst onto the scene, chanting Jesus died for somebodys sins, but not mine, the irreverent opening line to her 1975 debut album, Horses, the punk movement had found its dissident intellectual voice. Yet outside the recording studioSmith has released eleven studio albumsthe 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.

O THER B OOKS IN THE M USICIANS IN T HEIR O WN W ORDS S ERIES

Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie

The Clash on the Clash: Interviews and Encounters

Cobain on Cobain: Interviews and Encounters

Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews

Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton

Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters

George Harrison on George Harrison: Interview and Encounters

Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix

Joni on Joni: Interviews and Encounters with Joni Mitchell

Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters

Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews and Encounters

Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin: Interviews and Encounters

Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon

Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters

Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis

Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters

Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters

The Who on the Who: Interviews and Encounters

Copyright 2021 by Aidan Levy

All rights reserved.

Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-0-912777-00-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941426

A list of credits and copyright notices for the individual pieces in this collection can be found on .

Interior design: Jonathan Hahn

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

To Kaitlin and Diana,

The life in your fingers unwound my existence Dead to the world alive I awoke

Patti Smith was born in Chicago at Grant Hospital during a blizzard in 1946 and grew up a block from Logan Square, so Chicago Review Press is a fitting home for this book. It would not have been possible without the support of Yuval Taylor, who shepherded so many of the Musicians in Their Own Words series books and retired as senior editor at Chicago Review Press in 2019 after twenty-one years. Yuval, a venerable writer himself, edited my first book, Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, and I thank him for his ongoing support and friendship. He left the editing of this book in the capable hands of Kara Rota, who has been a joy to work with from the moment we met. The entire Chicago Review Press teampublisher Cynthia Sherry, Ben Krapohl, Alex Granato, and Jon Hahndid an impeccable job shepherding the manuscript through the editing process. I am grateful to Jeff Burger, who has edited many of the books in the series, for guidance at the outset. I would like to thank my literary agent, Russell Galen, for being a tireless advocate for my often-tireless work.

As for the contents of this book, I would first like to thank prolific author, critic, and rock advocate Barney Hoskyns, the editor of Rocks Backpages, for creating an invaluable service to researchers and rock aficionados and aiding immeasurably in the licensing process. I am grateful for the help of Janice Braun, the director of the library and special collections at the F.W. Olin Library at Mills College, who supplied scans from the Patti Smith Collection of many of the interviews as they originally appeared. This book really would not have been possible without the perceptive insights of the contributors. I came of age idolizing many of them, and I have so much respect for the body of work they have collectively producedfor spreading the rock gospel, which is sometimes a thankless job. It is a true honor to present their work in rock journalism within these pages. Since I began work on this project, two contributors have passed awayNick Tosches and Scott Timberg. Both were inspirations to me, and I am honored to reprint their work here posthumously and to keep their restless intellectual spirit alive.

Of course, this book could not exist without the wisdom of Patti Smith, who for the past five decades has helped us all think more critically, feel more deeply, live more passionately, and err with greater humanity. If I have erred here, please forgive me.

During the process of researching, compiling, and editing this book, I welcomed my first child, Diana, into the world. She has been the joy of my lifeworth losing sleep over. I would like to thank her in advance for sacrificing some of her infancy to this project. Still, I took Patti Smiths advice from the pages of this book, and worked before Diana woke up, from 5:00 to 8:00 AM , much to my cat Jodys delight. Thank you always to my family for help and solidarity in whatever I do. Finally, boundless gratitude to my partner, the brilliant, beautiful, and hilarious Dr. Kaitlin Mondello, for agreeing to come through this labyrinth with me, and for all the laughter. I worked in the morning because the night belongs to you.

I met Patti Smith only once. It was 2011, and I was working my first job after college, on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, as the construction department production assistant, affectionately known as the shop PA. Smith, a longtime watcher and first-time player, had a guest-starring role on the final season in an episode called Icarus. She played Columbia University mythology professor Cleo Alexander, who was called on by Vincent DOnofrios gimlet-eyed Detective Goren to help unravel an actors mysterious death on the fictional Broadway production Icarus: Fly to the Light. In Smiths show-stealing scene, Goren goes to Columbia to interview Alexander in her office:

Cleo Alexander: Icarusmy favorite metaphor for failed ambition! Hubris. Here it isthe clew, uh, C-L-E-W, a ball of thread or yarn.