Letters
Knit to This: Patti Smith on Here’s the Thing
Dear Ann,
At the end of 2016, Alec Baldwin interviewed Patti Smith onstage for his podcast, Here’s the Thing. It’s wonderful to hear her talk with such humility and grace about her extraordinary life. Here’s the link to Here’s the Thing.
While you’re at it, and in case you missed it, watch Patti Smith’s performance of A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall when she accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of Bob Dylan, in the YouTube above.
Happy knitting, all.
Love,
Kay
I feel so stupid, but I have no idea who Patti Smith is, even after looking her up on Wikipedia. All this, even though I have lived enough years on the planet to qualify for the “senior” coffee at McDonald’s. Oh well, back to the #7’s (I’m currently working on a dishcloth, some intermezzo knitting).
Its not too late to discover her music and poetry. She is an angel.
Thanks.
I remember sticking a safety pin I my cheek (not nearly as painful as it sounds) to try to look punk, listening to ‘Because the Night’,and wishing that I could be as cool as Patti Smith and that I was old enough to get into CBGB (I lived in NYC in high school). Thank for bringing those memories back!
My heart skipped a beat when she made a mistake (two). Patti was so graceful in her apology and the committee and audience was terrific to applaud. It was nice to actually hear all the words, which I could never do when Dylan sang it. If you are interested, “Just Kids” was Patti’s first book of prose. It is about Patti in the Mapplethorpe years in the Chelsea Hotel. Thanks for the link and the video.
Oh oh Kay. I’ve got a weak spot for Patti. I used to go as a studentin the 70s to poetry readings at St Marks in the Bowerie just to hear her. Later on in my chef days I’d donate soup to help fund the New Years day 24 hr readings in the church’s parlor and Nils and Jens would sell it to her and the band along with Eric Bogosian, Jim Carroll, William Burroughs and other folks, I used to take the boys to see her, sneaked them into the Bowery Ballroom for her pre-new year birthday concerts, we let them skip school at 11 and 15 to wait on line at CBGBs for the last show starring Patti and her band. I even knit her a koigu fan and feather scarf..i think it was too colorful, alas.
A friend and i were at the recording of the podcast in Morristown… even though we love Alex we wanted him to just let her talk more.
I do not know enough Patti Smith; I must learn more… hear more. But her “because the night” has been a part of the soundtrack to my life for decades. I suspect that will be on loop play for much of today.
We used to see Patti at the punk rock bar, Bookies, in Detroit in the early 80’s. Her husband Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and his band Sonic Rendevous used to play. We were completely star struck and couldn’t believe she was in our midst. She never performed. She was there for the band and Fred. She was so sweet and shy and tolerated us staring at her, always giving us a smile. I love her books and her music.
I’m a huge Patti Smith fan and thank you for sharing the link. While I’m not a bucket list type person, if I had a bucket list the top item would be attend one of Patti’s concerts with my daughter (age 32 and lives in NYC).
Great to see the Patti Smith tribute; I’m reading one of her books right now!
No matter what age you are, I recommend Just Kids, an amazing tale of her early life, arrival in NYC and life as a “starving artist”, friendship with Mapplethorpe (and her outlook on his work) and other artists, and quest for education and expression. I’m not a fan of her music, but she’s a wonderful writer, and the book is a window to an era and a place. Thanks for the tip about the interview! (Will listen as I continue to work on hats…)