Patti- Smith - Just Kids

I think it was Johnny (Rotten) Lydon then of the Sex Pistols who referred to Patti Smith and her band as those hippies when they toured England  at the height of the punk scene in the mid to late 1970's. After reading about 60 pages of her book Just Kids (Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe), I can see  the 1960's flower child influences, but I also see the  bluecollar -working class  grittiness that she had in common with English punk rockers.

I'm  aware of how Mapplethorpe's art  and it's connection to NEA funding caused  such a ruckus, but I knew little about him and his art.

The transition from songwriting and poetry to writing a biography doesn't always go smoothly for Patti, but I suspect  the writing will improve as I read further.

Jim Carroll definitely used Mapplethorpe as a reference when creating the composite character Billy Wolfram in his final book Petting Zoo.

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Jan 15, 2013: .Some famous folks  are light on  details about their familes. The focus remains on their public persona . While I'm not  that curious about their private lives, a few more details could give a fuller picture.

Mar 4, 2013: The writing picked up and I'm sure if she wanted to she could pen another book or two about famous artists she hung out with at the Chelsea Hotel. She glossed over how she co-wrote Because the night with Springsteen. Apparently, they shared the same producer, Jimmy Iovine , at the time.

May 20, 2013

  Here's a tune from Jim Carroll about Patti Smith fall from a Tampa stage in 1977. Crow

July 31, 2013

 It didn't occur to me until yesterday while reading an item  on  the band Blondie's possible retirement until yesterday that Debbie Harry's (Blondie)  was closer to  Patti's age 67 than my age 54.

Dec 2, 2013

 Amusing line from Patti:

 My sunglasses are like my guitar.

7/15/14

Immigration ain't a new problem.  Patti's tune addressed it almost 40 years ago.  Obviously she's taking one of many views:  citizen ship

Stateless, they got shame.Cast adrift from the citizen ship, lifeline denied, exiled this castaway.

8/16/14

Continuing with the Jersey/NYC theme.   Jim Carroll  city drops into the night

 It's when the sky over Jersey That sky starts to drain from view

11/16/14

I'm bemused that Patti is playing the Vatican Xmas FestivalSpirituality has shown throiugh in many of Patti's  tunes, but this is still the same lass who sang rock & roll nigger, with N-word  referring to artists Jackson Pollack, Jimi H) of various skin tones as outcasts.  I  recall trying to explain to a party-mate (also a Catholic boy) in the late 70's that she had a type of reverence, not hatred, for for Jimi Hendrix. She has been a  populist for some time campaigning for Nader and singing tunes like WTO blues. I get  that  she and the Pope have some similar geo-political goals.

1/24/15

Dear Patti Smith, please bang on the Pope's ear  about his recent comments : "you can not insult the faith of others". You've carved out a career expressing freely.

8/13/15

Patti  Smith will collaborate with John Logan, creator of Penny Dreadful on a limited Showtime series based on Just Kids . Characters based on Mapplethrope and Patti will be the leads but I wonder if they find a cameo role for the Jim Carroll character.

7/3/16

 Debbie Harry hosted a tea party at a London hotel in 1980. The conversations between and among these chick musicians- Chrissie Hynde , Siouxsie,  Viv Albertine (Slits). Pauline Black (The Selecter), and Poly Styrene ( X-Ray Spex)- was probably noteworthy.

5/28/17

#pattismith performed some public readings of #jonesbo 's Blood on Snow in 2015 , and Jo  slipped in a mention of #justkids in his latest #harryHole book, #TheThirst. 

8/13/17

#protests are the news cycle soup de jour today. I've been to a few over the years including reaching  an area near the Pentagon in a protest over US involvement in El Salvador (circa 1981). My takeaway was DC traffic sucks on Sundays, too. Quite a few folks including #jimcarroll have mentioned that attending  the Vietnam war protests was an easy way to  get laid. Yes, I know everyone is so serious and their concerns  rule the day.

10/13/18

#pattismith keeps getting ink  and its more apparent that #johnnyrotten nailed it when he said this about The Patti Smith Group during their visit to England in the late 70s: who are these F'n hippies. BTW,  I like Patti and Johnny.

april 11 2020   

“I sat up all night listening to it(Patti Smith – Horses) on a very tiny stereo, and I couldn’t stop."Quote from Morrissey who bumped into future bandmate, Johnny Marr, at an August, 1978 Patti Smith concert at the Manchester Apollo. 

oct 24, 2020

Patti Smith and Jimi Hendrix  each released "Hey Joe" as a first single. I discovered this while doing a crossword puzzle after answering a few of the surrounding clues. Smith added her own lyrics to the tune penned by #Tim Rose  and her tune was mostly about Patty Hearst.

Nov 12, 2022

Patti Smith sang “You Light Up My Life” with composer Joe Brooks on 1979 on the show Kids Are People Too. Years later in 2009 Brooks was indicted on 91 counts of rape  However, Brooks committed suicide on May 22, 2011, before he could be tried. I wonder if anyone interviewed Debby Boone about any of this?