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JUST_KIDS

                                             May 5, 2010

  Just read "Just Kids", the Patti
  Smith book, an autobiography this             "Just Kids"
  time: the story of her relationship           (2010)
  with Robert Maplethorpe.

  It fills in some details I'd missed
  in my various other readings (e.g.
  the Bockris bio), and paints a slightly
  different portrait than I had before...
  but only slightly different.

  My impression was that these were a pair
  of star-obsessed kids, driven to become     It's always seemed
  famous; working the underground for all     to me that all of
  it's worth, more by default than by         the 70s punks were
  inclination.                                nursing dreams of
                                              becoming the next
                                              Rolling Stones.

  The image one gets from reading                 DIY, die-before-you-sign...
  this (which after all, may only be              that stuff came later.
  Patti's side of the story) is that
  Maplethorpe was the one driven to
  play the game: there's some irony
  in the fact Patti was the one to           There's an early interview
  break through first.                       I've read where Patti Smith
                                             was posing as a clueless
     Maplethorpe thought it would            kid from NJ who knew naught
     be a good idea to cultivate             of the Velvet Underground
     Warhol's crowd, which is why            until Lenny taught her.
     they started hanging around
     at Max's.                               This book describes a scene
                                             where someone drags Patti--
                                             already a welcome guest at
                                             the back room round table--
     The writing is pretty tight,            upstairs at Max's to hear a
     unlike Patti's rambling                 Velvet Underground reunion
     style in answering interview            (circa 69, 70?).
     questions.  I would guess
     this is prose put through                    Perhaps no sane person
     the same wringer as her                      is entirely honest
     poetry, worked and reworked                  with journalists; and
     until it says just what it                   there's no reason to
     needs to and no more.                        expect Smith to come
                                                  clean entirely for the
                                                  likes of you and me.
         PENNYWORT_AND_DOLLAR_SHORT
                                                  It might raise a question
                                                  as to whether you trust
                                                  the older Patti more than
                                                  the younger, or vice-versa.




Small things:

Yes, she had Lenny Kaye on guitar at her early
poetry readings -- she actually *started* at
a St. Marks reading, warming up for Gerald Manga.
Starting at the top...

There were not all that many of these readings
before she started getting other attention.

There were a few more theatrical appearences
than I'd heard about, but I knew about some
of the early ones from "Please Kill Me".

The band formed a little more gradually than
I'd thought... They added Sohl on piano before
Smith saw Television at CBGBs.  I believe it
was *after* that they got a drummer. In fact       The WBAI performance (I
it was after the WBAI performance, right?          think the one I've got
                                                   on tape) was actually a
                                                   pretty early one.


(This kind of stuff matters if you care
a lot about the "first punk" question.      FIRST_PUNKS
Otherwise it's just another case study
of how the famous became famous.)



   The kind of thing that was
   once possible in New York:                        BASQUIAT

   The two of them showing up at the Chelsea Hotel,
   sick and flat busted, hoping to get a room on
   the strength of their art portfolios, but
   scoring based on prospects for future employment
   at a bookstore job she had lined up.



                                                 EAST_OF_THE_EAST



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