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SMITH_RETRO

                                                  June 11, 2010     
It's clear now, in retrospect, that                                
in the mid-to-late 70s, 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
   attendence numbers.

And in retrospect, there's now a glow of
reverence, even respectability about what        "The Rock n' Roll
Patti Smith was doing back then.                 Hall of Fame", heh.

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 had only       
                                             been 2 years before-- though     
         But then, the young                 that was technically a           
         Elvis Costello's act                "poetry reading" at              
         of rebellion                        St. Marks Church, but with       
         collected on the                    Lenny Kaye accompanying her      
         same disk looks a                   on guitar.                       
         little clumsy and                                                   
         calculated, also.                                              
                                                                        
             (He starts out playing                                     
             one song, and then          
             dramatically cuts it off    
             and goes off into           
             "Radio, Radio",             
             supposedly over his         
             label's objections.)        
                                         
                                         
                                        


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