MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
‘Patti The Punk Rocker’
U2 have had some pretty cool acts playing with them during 2005 but none as legendary or influential as Patti Smith who will support them at Madison Square Garden early next week.
It was thirty years ago this month that Patti’s debut album Horses was released, an album that was to have a seminal influence on four teenage musicians in Dublin – and thousands of others worldwide. As long ago as 1988 U2 covered ‘Dancing Barefoot’ for a b-side release and during Vertigo ’05 shows they’ve interjected snatches of her songs ‘Rock’n’Roll ******’ into Vertigo and ‘The People Have The Power’ into Bad. Earlier this week, Bono dedicated Wild Horses to ‘Patti the punk rocker’.
A remastered version of Horses has just been released, complete with a live version performed at the Meltdown Festival in London in the summer. You can find out more about what she is up to here.
U2.Com caught up with Patti on the US West Coast earlier this week and discovered how Michael Stipe surprised her by taking her along to a U2 show last month, why she thought they sound ‘like a punk rock band’, which member of the band she met as a teenager and how ‘art is meant for the people’.
U2.Com: Are you touring with the band at present or doing poetry readings?
Right now I’m doing a little tour with Lenny Kaye to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of our record Horses. Since Lenny and I developed most of the songs together we thought it would be nice to visit some of those place where we first performed those songs. So we’ve been performing acoustically on the West Coast and then I’ve also been doing some readings because I have a new book of poetry coming out.
Even though I have been around for a long time, I still feel that I have something to contribute and I think next year we will do a cover album, songs that have taught and inspired me through the years. We’ll sit down and look at the whole canon of rock’n’roll and choose some songs where writers have spoken for me.
U2.Com: Does the thirtieth anniversary of Horses give you pause for reflection?
I was surprised when I realised it would be thirty years. I hadn’t really realised it and I am actually quite proud because I feel I am still in touch with the songs. I feel very healthy and I still feel able to project the songs. I feel very good about where we are right now but I am also proud to have done a body of work which has proved meaningful to people.
To mark the thirtieth anniversary we started out performing Horses live in sequence at the Meltdown Festival in the summer with Tom Verlaine and with Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and that was exciting so we will do the same at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on November 30th . We will have celebrated in London, on the West Coast and then in New York.
U2.Com: Did you ever imagine that album would prove so influential - and for so long?
No. I was just hoping the record would inspire people. When I recorded Horses I wanted to make a record for people like myself, who were outside society, who felt disenfranchised. I really never imagined that it would have any big impact, but I thought some people might find it helpful so it is really quite amazing and a wonderful feeling that it still means something to people thirty years later.
U2.Com: At the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame Awards earlier this year, Larry noted your influence on U2 as a young band and said that you were in U2’s Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Is that kind of recognition rewarding?
That means more to me than the recognition of the Hall of Fame itself, because the recognition of one’s peers and fellow musicians is what really counts, It is an honour to be recognised by such institutions but I have say to be in ‘U2’s Hall of Fame’ is really special, to be in the People’s Hall of Fame is all one needs. I feel very touched by that.
One doesn’t really realise this impact at the time or think about it. I never realised truthfully that we had any impact on these younger groups and when I listen to them, they are so strong and have such unique qualities that I certainly see no comparison but I think that if we did anything to inspire these groups or to give them courage or to help them feel not alone then we did our job.
U2.Com: It seems improbable but when you support U2 next week it will be the first time you have ever played Madison Square Garden.
Yes, our first time! Even though our band is American we are still a fairly marginalised band and I have to say that probably we would have never gotten an opportunity to play at MSG if someone didn’t give us a chance. In my thirty-plus years this is the first time I have been invited by a band to play so it is great. Not only are we going to experience being a New York band playing at the Garden - which is a dream - but we are doing it with people who share our beliefs and who are such an important part of the current cultural voice.
U2.Com: Were you surprised at the invitation?
Yes and I was excited. We had to make some last minute adjustments but we did everything we could in order to do the job and we’ll do the best we can to provide a good energy. Not that they need it but it has always been my policy, whether opening for Bob Dylan or Neil Young or any young group we admire, that our job is to create a good atmosphere on stage so that when the headliner walks on stage they feel a positive spirit. We’ll do our best!
U2.Com: You saw the band play on the current tour, in New York last month. What did you make of the show?
I was actually on my way to Africa but Michael Stipe called me and picked me up and said, ‘I know you have a plane to catch in a few hours but I am whisking you off to Madison Square Garden.’ And it was so great, such fun to attend the show with U2 and dance all night with Michael.
Of course their older songs are thrilling but they played Vertigo which is one of my favourite songs, such a fresh energy. In fact as they were playing I was thinking, ‘Gees, they sound like a punk rock band, they sound like our band… in fact I think we make the grade, that we could play this song just as good as them…’ Then I realised that they were doing our song, Rock’n’Roll ******, so no wonder they sounded just like us! I was laughing when I realised they were playing one of our songs.
But the strength of the show took me right back to CBGB’s in the 1970’s, I was so moved by the whole thing: everything you want in rock’n’roll, the sexual energy, the emotional energy, the political concerns… but music you can dance to and express yourself in. It was all there.
U2.Com: You’ve met the band over the years, as well as seen them play before.
I had seen them before this last show and it’s always a great experience: great singer and lyricist, great to hear that Edge clarion call, and one of the greatest rhythm sections in rock’n‘roll. They’ve also been to our concerts and I always find them very supportive and friendly.
The story I remember most is from the 1970’s, when our band weren’t allowed to travel to Ireland because of the unrest so I went with just my piano player. We visited a church, and there were a lot of poor kids and struggling kids and I read poems and talked and sang songs with an old upright piano and we talked about rock’n’roll as something from the grassroots that didn’t belong to the rich or to business but something that was the people’s art. We talked about how everyone in that room was capable and deserving of expressing themselves. And one of the people who was there was Larry, he was just a young boy, and he has told me about that since and we talked about Africa, about Ethiopia and all the things you can do through music – artistically, poetically. And that was my first contact with Larry. I think that’s what made it so much more amazing for him to say those words about me when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He comes by where he is very honestly so I am very proud to see where he has risen to.
U2.Com: What do you find in U2’s music?
When I first heard U2 in the eighties I was living in Michigan and had withdrawn from the public arena. There was something in their music that deeply touched me, even when I knew nothing about them. I felt whoever this band was, these were our people, their music had such a merging of tradition with the new, r’n’b with 70’s aspects..but all new.
And there was always this political concern as well, a human concern, whether songs about love or self-exploration or the state of their own country or revolution. It’s the things that our band always sought, and still does, but what U2 has is something far beyond what I was able to do myself – to take these aspects and to really communicate with the public consciousness, to create songs that people really respond to.
I don’t think that one has to be obscure or marginalised to be a true artist. Art is meant for the people and political awareness is meant for the people and I am so happy to see one of the biggest bands in the world not only creating music the people respond to, but music that encourages them and teaches them.
U2.Com: In recent shows U2 have been marrying your song ‘The People Have The Power’ with their song ‘Bad’.
I still believe that the people have the power but they have forgotten how to exercise that power and it’s important to remind and encourage people of that. My late husband Fred Sonic Smith wrote it with me and we wrote it for the people to have it, for people to be inspired by it and certainly U2 is going to connect with more people than I ever could, so I am really grateful that they have chosen to do that.
There is a lot of similarity in our bands, our motivations are similar, humanistic, concerned about our people, our environment and we both like to have fun. Spiritual concerns, political concerns, poetic concerns … and a lot of dancing.’
Patti Smith will play with U2 at Madison Square Garden on November 21st and 22nd.
U2 have had some pretty cool acts playing with them during 2005 but none as legendary or influential as Patti Smith who will support them at Madison Square Garden early next week.
It was thirty years ago this month that Patti’s debut album Horses was released, an album that was to have a seminal influence on four teenage musicians in Dublin – and thousands of others worldwide. As long ago as 1988 U2 covered ‘Dancing Barefoot’ for a b-side release and during Vertigo ’05 shows they’ve interjected snatches of her songs ‘Rock’n’Roll ******’ into Vertigo and ‘The People Have The Power’ into Bad. Earlier this week, Bono dedicated Wild Horses to ‘Patti the punk rocker’.
A remastered version of Horses has just been released, complete with a live version performed at the Meltdown Festival in London in the summer. You can find out more about what she is up to here.
U2.Com caught up with Patti on the US West Coast earlier this week and discovered how Michael Stipe surprised her by taking her along to a U2 show last month, why she thought they sound ‘like a punk rock band’, which member of the band she met as a teenager and how ‘art is meant for the people’.
U2.Com: Are you touring with the band at present or doing poetry readings?
Right now I’m doing a little tour with Lenny Kaye to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of our record Horses. Since Lenny and I developed most of the songs together we thought it would be nice to visit some of those place where we first performed those songs. So we’ve been performing acoustically on the West Coast and then I’ve also been doing some readings because I have a new book of poetry coming out.
Even though I have been around for a long time, I still feel that I have something to contribute and I think next year we will do a cover album, songs that have taught and inspired me through the years. We’ll sit down and look at the whole canon of rock’n’roll and choose some songs where writers have spoken for me.
U2.Com: Does the thirtieth anniversary of Horses give you pause for reflection?
I was surprised when I realised it would be thirty years. I hadn’t really realised it and I am actually quite proud because I feel I am still in touch with the songs. I feel very healthy and I still feel able to project the songs. I feel very good about where we are right now but I am also proud to have done a body of work which has proved meaningful to people.
To mark the thirtieth anniversary we started out performing Horses live in sequence at the Meltdown Festival in the summer with Tom Verlaine and with Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and that was exciting so we will do the same at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on November 30th . We will have celebrated in London, on the West Coast and then in New York.
U2.Com: Did you ever imagine that album would prove so influential - and for so long?
No. I was just hoping the record would inspire people. When I recorded Horses I wanted to make a record for people like myself, who were outside society, who felt disenfranchised. I really never imagined that it would have any big impact, but I thought some people might find it helpful so it is really quite amazing and a wonderful feeling that it still means something to people thirty years later.
U2.Com: At the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame Awards earlier this year, Larry noted your influence on U2 as a young band and said that you were in U2’s Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Is that kind of recognition rewarding?
That means more to me than the recognition of the Hall of Fame itself, because the recognition of one’s peers and fellow musicians is what really counts, It is an honour to be recognised by such institutions but I have say to be in ‘U2’s Hall of Fame’ is really special, to be in the People’s Hall of Fame is all one needs. I feel very touched by that.
One doesn’t really realise this impact at the time or think about it. I never realised truthfully that we had any impact on these younger groups and when I listen to them, they are so strong and have such unique qualities that I certainly see no comparison but I think that if we did anything to inspire these groups or to give them courage or to help them feel not alone then we did our job.
U2.Com: It seems improbable but when you support U2 next week it will be the first time you have ever played Madison Square Garden.
Yes, our first time! Even though our band is American we are still a fairly marginalised band and I have to say that probably we would have never gotten an opportunity to play at MSG if someone didn’t give us a chance. In my thirty-plus years this is the first time I have been invited by a band to play so it is great. Not only are we going to experience being a New York band playing at the Garden - which is a dream - but we are doing it with people who share our beliefs and who are such an important part of the current cultural voice.
U2.Com: Were you surprised at the invitation?
Yes and I was excited. We had to make some last minute adjustments but we did everything we could in order to do the job and we’ll do the best we can to provide a good energy. Not that they need it but it has always been my policy, whether opening for Bob Dylan or Neil Young or any young group we admire, that our job is to create a good atmosphere on stage so that when the headliner walks on stage they feel a positive spirit. We’ll do our best!
U2.Com: You saw the band play on the current tour, in New York last month. What did you make of the show?
I was actually on my way to Africa but Michael Stipe called me and picked me up and said, ‘I know you have a plane to catch in a few hours but I am whisking you off to Madison Square Garden.’ And it was so great, such fun to attend the show with U2 and dance all night with Michael.
Of course their older songs are thrilling but they played Vertigo which is one of my favourite songs, such a fresh energy. In fact as they were playing I was thinking, ‘Gees, they sound like a punk rock band, they sound like our band… in fact I think we make the grade, that we could play this song just as good as them…’ Then I realised that they were doing our song, Rock’n’Roll ******, so no wonder they sounded just like us! I was laughing when I realised they were playing one of our songs.
But the strength of the show took me right back to CBGB’s in the 1970’s, I was so moved by the whole thing: everything you want in rock’n’roll, the sexual energy, the emotional energy, the political concerns… but music you can dance to and express yourself in. It was all there.
U2.Com: You’ve met the band over the years, as well as seen them play before.
I had seen them before this last show and it’s always a great experience: great singer and lyricist, great to hear that Edge clarion call, and one of the greatest rhythm sections in rock’n‘roll. They’ve also been to our concerts and I always find them very supportive and friendly.
The story I remember most is from the 1970’s, when our band weren’t allowed to travel to Ireland because of the unrest so I went with just my piano player. We visited a church, and there were a lot of poor kids and struggling kids and I read poems and talked and sang songs with an old upright piano and we talked about rock’n’roll as something from the grassroots that didn’t belong to the rich or to business but something that was the people’s art. We talked about how everyone in that room was capable and deserving of expressing themselves. And one of the people who was there was Larry, he was just a young boy, and he has told me about that since and we talked about Africa, about Ethiopia and all the things you can do through music – artistically, poetically. And that was my first contact with Larry. I think that’s what made it so much more amazing for him to say those words about me when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He comes by where he is very honestly so I am very proud to see where he has risen to.
U2.Com: What do you find in U2’s music?
When I first heard U2 in the eighties I was living in Michigan and had withdrawn from the public arena. There was something in their music that deeply touched me, even when I knew nothing about them. I felt whoever this band was, these were our people, their music had such a merging of tradition with the new, r’n’b with 70’s aspects..but all new.
And there was always this political concern as well, a human concern, whether songs about love or self-exploration or the state of their own country or revolution. It’s the things that our band always sought, and still does, but what U2 has is something far beyond what I was able to do myself – to take these aspects and to really communicate with the public consciousness, to create songs that people really respond to.
I don’t think that one has to be obscure or marginalised to be a true artist. Art is meant for the people and political awareness is meant for the people and I am so happy to see one of the biggest bands in the world not only creating music the people respond to, but music that encourages them and teaches them.
U2.Com: In recent shows U2 have been marrying your song ‘The People Have The Power’ with their song ‘Bad’.
I still believe that the people have the power but they have forgotten how to exercise that power and it’s important to remind and encourage people of that. My late husband Fred Sonic Smith wrote it with me and we wrote it for the people to have it, for people to be inspired by it and certainly U2 is going to connect with more people than I ever could, so I am really grateful that they have chosen to do that.
There is a lot of similarity in our bands, our motivations are similar, humanistic, concerned about our people, our environment and we both like to have fun. Spiritual concerns, political concerns, poetic concerns … and a lot of dancing.’
Patti Smith will play with U2 at Madison Square Garden on November 21st and 22nd.
I'm so looking forward to the show next Monday! I think it'll be a very special two nights.
I'm glad to see she's changed her mind.
As I recall, a predictable misunderstanding of that exchange led to a classic EYKIW lynch mob thread awhile back, complete with Patti being called "fucking cunt" etc. etc. by the usual shoot-first-ask-questions-later pack of hysterical morons.
