Patti Smith is a musician, songwriter, and poet. She was influential in the birth of the punk movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. One of rock’s great female icons, Smith is perhaps most widely known for the song Because the Night, which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen, who also had a successful recording of the song.
Her allusions introduced 19th-century French poetry to American teens, while her androgynous public persona and unladylike language defied the Disco era. Her most recent album, Twelve, is a compilation of a dozen classic covers, by artists ranging from The Rolling Stones and Jimmy Hendrix, to Nirvana and REM.
Rolling Stone magazine counted her #47 in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On March 12, 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Smith’s disdain for the traditional song structure which left such an impression on the rock scene owed much to the jazz recitations of Kerouac and the rhythmic chants of Allen Ginsberg.
In her interview for One Fast Move, Smith captured the essence of Jack eloquently: “He wasn’t a perfect man, but he had moments of perfect clarity.”
