First off, Madonna woulda happened Patti Smith or not. But anyway...

I remember being on the boardwalk in Virginia Beach (at night) and walking past lots of bars and cafes trying to get in, but the bars with the hair metal bands (and thus, the girls) were packed, and the only bars with a place to sit were the bars with the one person bands, usually some dude with a guitar and some effects pedals. And it was the usual suspects as far as material covered; Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Harry Chapin, Patti Smith.

One bar we settled on had a young woman come out and all we could come up with is that she was trying to sound like Bob Dylan, but an older squid, er... sailor, told us that that was a Patti Smith song, then added "I have that tape". Later on that week, I borrowed the tape (I forget which one) and I felt that the girl I saw earlier that week pretty much nailed her.

To be honest, I tried a few latter-day Patti Smith albums and she just never grabbed me. Talk about someone completely enamoured with the sound of her own voice. Is she really the mother of punk? Given that people seemed to like her despite not having a good singing voice, I'm sure she was an inspiration to anyone with less than adequate pipes.

Musically speaking, she was definately as lyrical as any of her contemporaries. The musicianship on her early releases was pretty competant, so I don't get the punk connection, except for her dissonant lyrics and beatnik-ish delivery.