Rich-n-Texas
03-30-2007, 09:01 PM
If I had my own website, this babelog would be the front and center page. I don't have one so I hope no one minds that I use Rave Recordings to tell my story (Mods, feel free to move it if you so choose.)
A year ago I was perusing through Rhapsody, which I used to be subscribed to, while in front of my computer listening to tunes through my Z5500's, cranked up to ear-splitting levels :thumbsup: While looking at the Bruce Springsteen album selection page, I saw at the bottom of his album list a "if you like this artist, you may like..." which contained Patti Smith's "Horses" album, so clicked on it. It brought up the album's contents as well as showing all of her albums.
At this point a flood of memories rushed into my conciousness. I was looking through my eyes while standing in the record department of Two Guy's discount department store in Cherry Hill NJ in 1979 holding "Horses" in my hand and looking at her picture (which I found out later was taken by Robert Maplethorpe). This mental image was so vivid that made me feel like I had just experienced that vision a day earlier. It was crystal clear in my mind. I remember that the next thing I did was put that album back on the shelf and then I picked up "Easter". A critisism about Patti at the time was that she was either androgenous or a flat out dyke, which those of us familiar with the 70's will recall was a curse. Yeah, she hadn't shaved her underarms, but she wasn't wearing a bra either, so I wasn't confused. The next thing I did was put that album down before anybody saw me oggling her womanhood and experiencing the natural, 19 year-old male reaction. At that point I walked away. That decision, I realized almost thirty years later was the biggest mistake I had ever made.
Patti Smith, in every sense of the word, is a poet.She, before becoming a musician, could be found at college auditoriums, theaters, and anywhere anyone would listen, reading poetry based on Aurthur Rimbaud's writings. In the months that followed my epifany I became obsessed with learning more about her. I'd spend my Friday nights following any link that had interviews, music, pictures, whatever, absorbing everything she said and did. In one recorded interview she was asked how she felt about being labelled the queen of punk. She said "punk is a derogetory term" and she seemed annoyed with the interviewer. Ca't say I blame her. Again, she's a poet.
She was born in Detroit, and when she was very young, her family moved to Philly, and finally to Woodbury Heights in South Jersey. I grew up in Westmont NJ, which was about 45 minutes away from where she grew up. Her high school, Deptford High, played my high school's football team while I was a student there in the 70's, and she went on to attend Glassboro College until she dropped out. Rumor has it she dropped out because she got pregnant. Later in life Robert Maplethorpe and her became lovers, but she ultimately married Fred (sonic) Smith, who was the lead guitarist for The MC5 (Kick Out the Jams!). Fred later died of heart disease, but the song she wrote, declaring her love for him: "Frederick", was a very prolific song and became ingrained in my subconciousness, which came to the forefront of my psyche last year when I found the album on Rhapsody, which of course I recorded. Bits of this song has played in my mind off and on throughout my life, and because of this, my weekends since last year, and for the rest of my life start with Frederick, Gloria, 'Til Victory, Because The Night (which she co-wrote with Springsteen), and everything she sung that was important in the 70's.
Patti Smith enjoys recognition throughout the world for her groundbreaking efforts in advancing women's roles in the musical arts (she received an award in recent years from a French cultural society group honoring her efforts), but unfortunately she receives little recognition here at home. Nevertheless, I will always consider her contributions an important part of everything I value in the music that I listen to.
Long live the queen!
A year ago I was perusing through Rhapsody, which I used to be subscribed to, while in front of my computer listening to tunes through my Z5500's, cranked up to ear-splitting levels :thumbsup: While looking at the Bruce Springsteen album selection page, I saw at the bottom of his album list a "if you like this artist, you may like..." which contained Patti Smith's "Horses" album, so clicked on it. It brought up the album's contents as well as showing all of her albums.
At this point a flood of memories rushed into my conciousness. I was looking through my eyes while standing in the record department of Two Guy's discount department store in Cherry Hill NJ in 1979 holding "Horses" in my hand and looking at her picture (which I found out later was taken by Robert Maplethorpe). This mental image was so vivid that made me feel like I had just experienced that vision a day earlier. It was crystal clear in my mind. I remember that the next thing I did was put that album back on the shelf and then I picked up "Easter". A critisism about Patti at the time was that she was either androgenous or a flat out dyke, which those of us familiar with the 70's will recall was a curse. Yeah, she hadn't shaved her underarms, but she wasn't wearing a bra either, so I wasn't confused. The next thing I did was put that album down before anybody saw me oggling her womanhood and experiencing the natural, 19 year-old male reaction. At that point I walked away. That decision, I realized almost thirty years later was the biggest mistake I had ever made.
Patti Smith, in every sense of the word, is a poet.She, before becoming a musician, could be found at college auditoriums, theaters, and anywhere anyone would listen, reading poetry based on Aurthur Rimbaud's writings. In the months that followed my epifany I became obsessed with learning more about her. I'd spend my Friday nights following any link that had interviews, music, pictures, whatever, absorbing everything she said and did. In one recorded interview she was asked how she felt about being labelled the queen of punk. She said "punk is a derogetory term" and she seemed annoyed with the interviewer. Ca't say I blame her. Again, she's a poet.
She was born in Detroit, and when she was very young, her family moved to Philly, and finally to Woodbury Heights in South Jersey. I grew up in Westmont NJ, which was about 45 minutes away from where she grew up. Her high school, Deptford High, played my high school's football team while I was a student there in the 70's, and she went on to attend Glassboro College until she dropped out. Rumor has it she dropped out because she got pregnant. Later in life Robert Maplethorpe and her became lovers, but she ultimately married Fred (sonic) Smith, who was the lead guitarist for The MC5 (Kick Out the Jams!). Fred later died of heart disease, but the song she wrote, declaring her love for him: "Frederick", was a very prolific song and became ingrained in my subconciousness, which came to the forefront of my psyche last year when I found the album on Rhapsody, which of course I recorded. Bits of this song has played in my mind off and on throughout my life, and because of this, my weekends since last year, and for the rest of my life start with Frederick, Gloria, 'Til Victory, Because The Night (which she co-wrote with Springsteen), and everything she sung that was important in the 70's.
Patti Smith enjoys recognition throughout the world for her groundbreaking efforts in advancing women's roles in the musical arts (she received an award in recent years from a French cultural society group honoring her efforts), but unfortunately she receives little recognition here at home. Nevertheless, I will always consider her contributions an important part of everything I value in the music that I listen to.
Long live the queen!