50 years ago next week, Patti Smith released her debut album, ‘Horses,’ ushering in a new era of rock and roll. We’re listening back to portions of our interviews with Smith, from 1996 and 2010. She talks about her early days in New York City, when she was trying to find her way as a poet, performer and later songwriter. When it came to ‘Horses,’ she says, “I thought I would do this record and then go back to my writing and my drawing and return to my somewhat abnormal normal life. But ‘Horses’ took me on a whole different path.” And Ken Tucker reviews the new anniversary edition of the album. Also, we remember actress Diane Ladd in an excerpt of an interview with her daughter, Laura Dern. And David Bianculli reviews ‘Pluribus,’ the new series from ‘Breaking Bad’ creator Vince Gilligan.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bianculli. Patti Smith is now considered one of the wise women of rock and roll, an eloquent chronicler of her life in music and in a series of acclaimed memoirs. But 50 years ago, she was a scrounging poet who wanted to be a rock star on her own very literary terms, and her debut album, Horses, announced a unique artist.
Today, we're going to listen back to portions of two of Terry's interviews with Patti Smith about her early days as a poet and performer. But first, rock critic Ken Tucker takes a look back and tells us about the new anniversary edition of Horses, which is supplemented with previously unreleased music.
Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. Milne, part thieves, wild card on my sleeve.
Fifty years on, Patti Smith's Horses still sounds like nothing else before or since its arrival in 1975. At the time, Smith had one foot in poetry, the other in rock and roll. Her spirit animals were the French surrealist Arthur Rimbaud and the Doors demigod Jim Morrison. both bad boys who died young, they inspired Patty as self-mythologizing, rebellious innovators.
But they also served as warning lessons in the self-control and discipline necessary to be a long-lasting, prolific artist, which the 78-year-old Smith has indeed become. Consider, however, what it was like to see for the first time the 28-year-old Smith as she struck an androgynous pose in a white shirt and black tie cover photo by pal Robert Mapplethorpe.
and consider what it must have been like to first hear her tremulous croon on a song like Free Money.
Every night before I go to sleep Find a ticket, win a lottery Scoop the pearls up from the sea Cash them in and buy you all the things you need. Every night before I rest my head, I see those dollar bills squirreling in my bed. I know they're stolen, but I don't feel bad. I'd take that money, buy you things you never had. Oh baby, it would mean so much to me.
Music critics write about 1970s downtown Manhattan Patti Smith performing at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, but they ignore or aren't aware of the true crucible of her talent, St. Mark's in the Bowery, the Lower East Side Church, and Ground Zero for the New York School of Poetry.
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