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SMITH_RETRO

                                          June 11, 2010

In the mid-to-late 70s, it's clear in
retrospect that Patti Smith was one of
the best things happening with music.

   I was certainly a big enough fan at the time.
   I didn't gush about it, but if you look over the
   live concerts I attended in the late-70s, the
   Patti Smith Group was the clear winner in terms
   of sheer numbers attended.

And in retrospect, there's now a glow of
reverence, even respectability about what
Patti Smith was doing back then.

But having actually lived through that time
I can tell you that at the time, Patti Smith's
reputation was by no means assured.

None of the Smart People could talk about
Patti Smith without a bit of eye-rolling...

There was always a certain
sense of reservation, a
feeling of "Yeah, I can            The Toadkeeper, for example,
listen to this... but come         complained about her verbal
on, is she serious?"               tics like using the word
                                   "cranium" when anyone else
   Patti Smith's "Horses"          would say "head" or "brain".
   immediately spawned now
   nearly forgotten                                   He dimissed this
   parodies: "Horseshit!                              as "bad poetry".
   Horseshit!".

      In her biographical work,
      "Just Kids", she mentions
      seeing the Doors play, and
      having a feeling something
      like "Yeah, but *I* could        It could be there was something
      do that".                        like that going on with Patti
                                       Smith's own reception.
         She did a live performance
         on the Saturday Night               This is the kind of thing
         Live show that I've seen            that encourages imitators,
         on DVD recently, and                and it may very well be her
         while I wouldn't say there's        biggest legacy.
         anything *wrong* with it,
         it's true that her posturing                    FIRST_PUNKS
         lacks a certain sense of
         authority... there's a feeling
         that she's putting it on.           That was in '76, and her
                                             first performance
                                             (technically a "reading"
         But then, the young                 at St. Marks Church, but
         Elvis Costello's act                with Lenny Kaye on guitar)
         of rebellion                        had only been 2 years
         collected on the                    before.
         same disk looks a
         little clumsy and
         calculated, also.

             (He starts out
             playing one song,
             and then cuts it
             off and goes into
             "Radio, Radio",
             supposedly over
             his label's
             objections.)


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