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Patti Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an United States musician, singer and poet. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in New Jersey, the daughter of an atheist father and a devout Jehovah's Witness mother, and these opposing influences have informed much of her work since.
She spent the early 1970s painting, writing and performing both poetry and a play, Cowboy Mouth (a collaboration with Sam Shepard), a career path subsidised by rock journalismJournalism is a discipline of collecting, verifying, reporting and analyzing information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people. It is sometimes defined more broadly as the pursuit of the truth. Those who practice journalis, especially within the pages of CreemCreem is a rock and roll magazine started in 1969 by Barry Kramer. It shut down production in 1988, but has resumed printing as of 2003. The music journalist Lester Bangs was employed by Creem. magazine. She also wrote songs during this period in connection with Allen Lanier of the Blue Öyster CultBlue Oyster Cult is a psychedelic/ heavy metal band probably best known for their 1976 single "Don't Fear The Reaper" from Agents Of Fortune 1981 single "Burning For You" from Fire of Unknown Origin and appearing on the "Heavy Metal" movie soundtrack with, who recorded several songs to which Smith contributed, including Career of Evil, A Fire of Unknown Origin, The Revenge of Vera Gemini, and Shooting Shark.
By 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped, however, she was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarnylon strings. steel strings and more guide dots on the fretboard. A guitar is a stringed musical instrument played with the fingers or a plectrum ( guitar pick). The sound is produced by vibrating strings. Guitars have a body (which is hollow for acoustiist and rock archivist Lenny KayeGuitarist, composer and writer Lenny Kaye was a member of the Patti Smith Group and has been Smith's most frequent collaborator. He wrote the liner notes for Nuggets ( 1972), which included one of the first uses of the term " punk rock". He was also a clo and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral ( guitarnylon strings. steel strings and more guide dots on the fretboard. A guitar is a stringed musical instrument played with the fingers or a plectrum ( guitar pick). The sound is produced by vibrating strings. Guitars have a body (which is hollow for acousti), Jay Dee Daugherty ( drums) and Richard Sohl ( piano). Financed by money from Smith's friend and former lover Robert Mapplethorpe the band recorded a first single in 1974. The A side of "Piss Factory / Hey Joe" featured a story describing abuse received in an early job in an assembly line in New Jersey, with the flipside a version of the blues standard with the addition of a spoken piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst.
1975 saw the release of their first album Horses, produced amidst some tension by John Cale, formerly of The Velvet Underground. The record fused rock and roll, proto- punk rock with spoken poetry and is widely considered one of rock's greatest debuts. The cover photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, then her roommate, also became one of rock 'n roll's classics. As Smith toured the United States and Europe, with the newly christened Patti Smith Group, punk's popularity grew and the second album Radio Ethiopia reflected this with a rawer sound, although the murky production contributed to its poor reviews.While touring in support of the record, Smith fell from a stage in Tampa, Florida, falling 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit and severely damaging a number of neck vertebrae. The injury required a period of rest, and an intensive round of physical therapy, during which time she was able to reassess, re-energise and reorganise her life, a luxury which had been denied her in her early rise to fame.
The group produced two further albums before the end of the 1970s, and while neither could match the first two records, Easter contained the hit single " Because The Night " which had been co-written with Bruce Springsteen.
In the 1980s she appeared to be in semi-retirement from music, recording only the album Dream Of Life in 1988, with her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith formerly of early punk agitprop stars, the MC5. Following Fred's death in 1994, 1995's Gone Again featured tributes to him and Kurt Cobain.
Smith has also published a number of books of poetry, including 1980's Babel; Complete Works, a collection of her lyrics; Early Work, collecting a number of the small poetry volumes and broadsides she published in the early 1970s; and The Coral Sea, an extended elegy to Mapplethorpe.
Marilyn Manson covered the Patti Smith song "Rock and Roll Nigger" on his 1995 album Smells Like Children.