1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:10,391 --> 00:00:13,833 Freedom is inside of me, it means that I'm not hung 5 00:00:13,857 --> 00:00:17,054 up with like anybody's idea of how I should be. 6 00:00:17,211 --> 00:00:21,609 I'm outside of society, I'm an artist, rock and roll is my art 7 00:00:21,805 --> 00:00:26,710 and I'm free because I can leap up and scream, I can put my fist up in the air. 8 00:00:26,773 --> 00:00:28,373 I don't give a shit. 9 00:00:29,422 --> 00:00:34,179 In 1975, the rock scene was completely shaken up by an extraordinary woman, 10 00:00:34,204 --> 00:00:35,564 unlike any other. 11 00:00:37,421 --> 00:00:40,367 Personifying the '70s New York underground scene, 12 00:00:40,392 --> 00:00:45,257 Patti Smith revolutionized rock through her poetry as well as her style. 13 00:00:45,500 --> 00:00:49,835 If you have the balls or the conceit to call yourself a poet, 14 00:00:49,860 --> 00:00:53,171 then you should only want to be as great as the greats. 15 00:00:53,242 --> 00:00:57,445 Punk in her soul, she blurred the boundaries of the genre, wielding art 16 00:00:57,508 --> 00:00:58,992 as a political weapon. 17 00:00:59,055 --> 00:01:02,476 Patti Smith according to a lot of rock critics is unique 18 00:01:02,501 --> 00:01:04,976 among female rockers for an awful lot of reasons. 19 00:01:05,063 --> 00:01:08,171 One of them is that, unlike most female rock singers, 20 00:01:08,258 --> 00:01:10,656 she doesn't play the vamp and she doesn't play the victim. 21 00:01:10,695 --> 00:01:15,140 Take me now, baby, here as I am, 22 00:01:15,499 --> 00:01:19,148 pull me close try and understand. 23 00:01:19,219 --> 00:01:22,359 During her fifty-year career, with only one commercial hit, 24 00:01:22,469 --> 00:01:24,851 Patti Smith managed to become a living legend 25 00:01:24,938 --> 00:01:27,304 without ever minimizing her fringe spirit. 26 00:01:27,329 --> 00:01:29,203 On which we feed. 27 00:01:29,228 --> 00:01:32,876 Because the night belongs to lovers, 28 00:01:32,901 --> 00:01:35,265 Because the night belongs to lust. 29 00:01:35,313 --> 00:01:41,841 A complex, introverted, electrifying personality, she represents the ultimate essence of the artist. 30 00:01:43,382 --> 00:01:48,031 It's the story of a free woman who shaped her life into how she'd dreamed it. 31 00:01:49,625 --> 00:01:51,601 Kids Are People Too MPC - ABC, 1979 32 00:01:51,648 --> 00:01:53,609 What did you want to be when you were a kid? 33 00:01:53,664 --> 00:01:56,796 I always wanted to be something special most, most of all. 34 00:02:08,937 --> 00:02:11,750 I just generally felt estranged, 35 00:02:11,867 --> 00:02:17,328 but not only from the other kids, I felt estranged from the planet. 36 00:02:21,742 --> 00:02:24,093 Well, I felt sort of like an ugly duckling, 37 00:02:24,141 --> 00:02:27,917 I spent most of my childhood believing that I was an alien. 38 00:02:30,273 --> 00:02:34,945 I used to walk through forests and feel completely free. 39 00:02:35,499 --> 00:02:40,210 It's like a pony would walk up out of, out of a field and talk to me. 40 00:02:40,336 --> 00:02:42,859 I just felt telepathic with everything. 41 00:02:42,930 --> 00:02:45,273 I felt like in tune with the universe. 42 00:02:47,585 --> 00:02:51,914 All my life, I've been trying to like, get back to that freedom. 43 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:56,695 PATTI SMITH ELECTRIC POET 44 00:03:13,234 --> 00:03:18,914 Summer 1967: That year, it was all happening on the American West Coast. 45 00:03:20,375 --> 00:03:23,390 Flower power overran San Francisco. 46 00:03:23,601 --> 00:03:27,765 The musical cream of the crop flocked to the Monterey Pop Festival, 47 00:03:28,008 --> 00:03:31,601 which epitomized the values of the growing counterculture. 48 00:03:33,016 --> 00:03:36,515 While the young generation dreamed of peace and love, 49 00:03:36,813 --> 00:03:39,710 the government escalated its presence in Vietnam, 50 00:03:39,992 --> 00:03:42,726 and capital cities erupted in race riots. 51 00:03:46,351 --> 00:03:49,710 {\an8}The incandescent Jim Morrison turned the heat up a notch with “Light My Fire,” 52 00:03:49,750 --> 00:03:51,483 {\an8}The Ed Sullivan Show Sullivan Productions - CBS, 1967 53 00:03:51,507 --> 00:03:54,742 the perfect soundtrack for a country on the verge of imploding. 54 00:03:54,883 --> 00:03:58,585 Come on baby light my fire. 55 00:03:58,750 --> 00:04:03,389 Try to set the night on fire. 56 00:04:06,617 --> 00:04:09,879 Landing in Manhattan, 20-year-old Patricia Lee Smith 57 00:04:09,922 --> 00:04:12,930 was about to experience another Summer of Love. 58 00:04:16,021 --> 00:04:19,435 Having left rural New Jersey with only a few bucks in her pocket, 59 00:04:19,633 --> 00:04:22,361 she'd packed up her most precious possessions: 60 00:04:22,788 --> 00:04:25,120 a copy of Rimbaud's Illuminations, 61 00:04:25,349 --> 00:04:28,106 a few colored pencils and a notebook. 62 00:04:31,502 --> 00:04:33,713 I had no money, no friends. 63 00:04:33,762 --> 00:04:36,778 I slept in sidewalks, I slept on the subways. 64 00:04:36,875 --> 00:04:42,542 The cops beat me up. I had no food, but like, I was so happy, you know, because like, 65 00:04:43,077 --> 00:04:46,057 well, I guess I was romantic, but I read all these books 66 00:04:46,196 --> 00:04:48,515 about Brancusi, Modigliani, 67 00:04:48,576 --> 00:04:52,096 Rimbaud, all of them. None of them had money, all poor. 68 00:04:55,559 --> 00:05:01,628 In 1964, I found a book of Illum inations, and I opened it up. 69 00:05:02,536 --> 00:05:07,560 The beautiful face of Rimbaud, the language in it just totally seduced me and 70 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:09,717 I fell in love. 71 00:05:11,346 --> 00:05:14,212 Relationship stuff was in your head anyway 72 00:05:14,297 --> 00:05:17,608 so what was the difference whether I had a crush on some boy 73 00:05:17,734 --> 00:05:21,129 in class who ignored me or Rimbaud, who, 74 00:05:21,214 --> 00:05:24,114 so that I could pretend he didn't ignore me? 75 00:05:27,530 --> 00:05:30,594 With its oppressive heat and through-the-roof crime rates, 76 00:05:30,721 --> 00:05:33,413 families were fleeing drug-riddled New York City as, 77 00:05:33,461 --> 00:05:37,475 for many, the metropolis resembled a kind of hell. 78 00:05:38,371 --> 00:05:41,229 They robbed me, they robbed me and if you don't think I'm gonna do it, 79 00:05:41,302 --> 00:05:43,363 I'm gonna kill them up my fist. 80 00:05:43,387 --> 00:05:45,598 In that setting of chaos and grime, 81 00:05:45,641 --> 00:05:48,507 Patti-by contrast-was in heaven. 82 00:05:49,583 --> 00:05:52,503 I didn't have any dough. Maybe I'd have 50 cents, 83 00:05:52,642 --> 00:05:56,836 so 50 cents on 42nd Street, you can be there all day. 84 00:05:56,951 --> 00:06:01,623 You can hang out and play land, watch the real slick dudes shoot pinball. 85 00:06:02,275 --> 00:06:05,785 When you have trouble with your bosses, remember one thing: 86 00:06:05,845 --> 00:06:09,198 there's one big boss for all of us, oh my god, 87 00:06:09,253 --> 00:06:12,491 Squalid slum or realm of all possibilities, 88 00:06:12,516 --> 00:06:15,797 New York was the perfect place for reinvention. 89 00:06:15,851 --> 00:06:19,372 The first time I came to New York, he camerized me. 90 00:06:19,577 --> 00:06:21,638 Filmed me with nothing. 91 00:06:21,777 --> 00:06:24,450 ''I'm going to put you in my Rip Van Winkle movie'', and I went, 92 00:06:24,493 --> 00:06:27,179 ''Oh, rocket to stardom.'' 93 00:06:28,063 --> 00:06:32,606 It was here, amidst this backdrop, that Patti felt she could transform. 94 00:06:32,792 --> 00:06:37,233 Empowered by poetry and words, she dreamed of becoming an artist. 95 00:06:37,288 --> 00:06:39,288 I was very poor when I was young, 96 00:06:39,361 --> 00:06:43,555 and what always concerned me was like 97 00:06:43,892 --> 00:06:46,199 the richness of my imagination. 98 00:06:46,290 --> 00:06:49,985 I mean, material things, they just didn't matter. 99 00:06:50,034 --> 00:06:52,901 What mattered to me was developing my mind. 100 00:06:53,766 --> 00:06:58,206 She'd no sooner arrived when an encounter changed the course of her life. 101 00:06:59,223 --> 00:07:03,206 His name was Robert Mapplethorpe: he was devilishly handsome 102 00:07:03,309 --> 00:07:05,436 and exuded bad-boy allure. 103 00:07:05,575 --> 00:07:10,268 An arts school graduate, he'd cut ties with his family and was hanging out in Brooklyn. 104 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,441 They became lovers, and were inseparable. 105 00:07:13,491 --> 00:07:15,558 We were both 20 years old 106 00:07:15,727 --> 00:07:21,640 and we were both struggling, idealistic, somewhat misfit. 107 00:07:25,673 --> 00:07:29,302 She could tell him anything, even the toughest confessions. 108 00:07:29,639 --> 00:07:33,382 Like how she'd gotten pregnant and had a baby just three months earlier; 109 00:07:33,707 --> 00:07:36,087 and had given the child up for adoption. 110 00:07:36,147 --> 00:07:38,719 I just wasn't ready as a human being, 111 00:07:38,966 --> 00:07:43,070 and that although I knew that I would be responsible and loving, 112 00:07:43,635 --> 00:07:48,491 that I just was not equipped to embark on that path. 113 00:07:49,218 --> 00:07:52,156 It would have been difficult for everyone, I think. 114 00:07:53,545 --> 00:07:57,601 This was a widespread phenomenon amongst young women in the '60s. 115 00:07:57,626 --> 00:08:00,257 Consequently, Patti made a promise to herself: 116 00:08:01,298 --> 00:08:04,471 she'd make her dreams come true, without regrets. 117 00:08:04,495 --> 00:08:07,781 In just the same story that could be in any country. 118 00:08:08,395 --> 00:08:10,690 But I never stopped believing. 119 00:08:11,063 --> 00:08:14,993 I felt the desire to live. And like, I rose up. 120 00:08:16,478 --> 00:08:20,360 This secret sealed the intimacy of her relationship with Robert. 121 00:08:20,588 --> 00:08:23,617 When he later came out regarding his attraction to men, 122 00:08:23,737 --> 00:08:27,321 their romance evolved into an indestructible friendship. 123 00:08:27,908 --> 00:08:30,179 We both felt we had a calling. 124 00:08:30,342 --> 00:08:33,322 And both of us magnified one another. 125 00:08:36,939 --> 00:08:41,272 In 1969, they decided to share a room at the Chelsea Hotel, 126 00:08:41,369 --> 00:08:43,520 the den of counterculture. 127 00:08:46,283 --> 00:08:50,443 It was both an artistic residency and utopian nest. 128 00:08:50,468 --> 00:08:53,946 Here, you could spend one night or several years. 129 00:08:54,818 --> 00:08:58,261 It was a very heightened time at the Chelsea. 130 00:08:58,412 --> 00:09:03,003 If one was sitting in the lobby of the Chelsea, one might encounter 131 00:09:03,087 --> 00:09:06,434 in one evening, Janis Joplin, 132 00:09:06,489 --> 00:09:11,200 Jimi Hendrix, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. 133 00:09:12,198 --> 00:09:15,569 All of these people were trying to 134 00:09:15,900 --> 00:09:19,427 make enough money to pay their bill at the Chelsea Hotel. 135 00:09:19,607 --> 00:09:23,267 A lot of people think that the Chelsea is full of freaks mixed with the bohemian, - 136 00:09:23,292 --> 00:09:24,980 STANLEY BARD MANAGER OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL 137 00:09:25,004 --> 00:09:29,097 It was the avant garde, the Chelsea was the avant garde, the forefront of every, every kind of creative. 138 00:09:29,121 --> 00:09:31,501 Why do you think it all took place? Because the cheap rooms, no? 139 00:09:31,525 --> 00:09:33,205 Cheap rooms, fun people. 140 00:09:37,006 --> 00:09:40,857 In Room 1017, the hotel's smallest living quarters, 141 00:09:41,032 --> 00:09:43,357 Patti spent hours writing. 142 00:09:46,627 --> 00:09:49,980 She pinned up sources of inspiration onto the walls: 143 00:09:50,166 --> 00:09:53,272 Jean Genet alongside James Dean, 144 00:09:53,712 --> 00:09:59,902 Albert Camus, Brian Jones, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Bob Dylan... 145 00:10:01,489 --> 00:10:03,892 Whether high culture or pop culture, 146 00:10:03,953 --> 00:10:07,409 they all had pride of place on Patti's personal altar. 147 00:10:10,212 --> 00:10:13,255 She added a drawing practice to her writing practice, 148 00:10:13,340 --> 00:10:15,940 but her poetry quickly took precedence. 149 00:10:17,643 --> 00:10:20,142 New York is the thing that seduced me. 150 00:10:20,287 --> 00:10:24,986 New York is the thing that formed me. New York is the thing that deformed me. 151 00:10:25,094 --> 00:10:27,588 New York is the thing that perverted me. 152 00:10:27,655 --> 00:10:30,286 New York is the thing that converted me. 153 00:10:30,954 --> 00:10:33,814 And New York is the thing I love too. 154 00:10:39,962 --> 00:10:43,802 Living here brought Patti and Robert closer to the artistic avant-garde. 155 00:10:44,024 --> 00:10:47,545 To partake in it, this was where you had to be, which is to say: 156 00:10:47,708 --> 00:10:51,740 downtown, where the rebellious heart of the metropolis beat, 157 00:10:52,618 --> 00:10:58,579 ever since the maestro of Pop Art and his Factory had moved in a few black away. 158 00:11:01,055 --> 00:11:05,754 A hybrid establishment-part gallery, film studio and concert hall... 159 00:11:06,308 --> 00:11:09,078 Andy Warhol's Factory gathered together 160 00:11:09,144 --> 00:11:13,477 New York's artists, eccentrics, druggies and jet-setters. 161 00:11:19,095 --> 00:11:22,646 We're sponsoring a new band, it's called The Velvet Underground, 162 00:11:23,368 --> 00:11:28,873 and we have this chance to combine music and art 163 00:11:29,264 --> 00:11:31,367 and films all together. 164 00:11:34,913 --> 00:11:36,734 Acting as a benefactor, 165 00:11:36,788 --> 00:11:41,175 Warhol also produced the soundtrack that accompanied this subversive subculture. 166 00:11:42,954 --> 00:11:47,082 The Velvet Underground crystallized a dissonant, dark sound: 167 00:11:47,357 --> 00:11:49,581 one of heroin and amphetamines, 168 00:11:50,184 --> 00:11:53,669 an urban reality in which one longed for their drug dealer 169 00:11:54,348 --> 00:11:56,313 as one would a lover. 170 00:11:57,479 --> 00:12:01,331 This fascinating, intimidating world was walled off from the rest; 171 00:12:01,421 --> 00:12:03,975 Robert and Patti were determined to vanquish it. 172 00:12:04,018 --> 00:12:07,900 The first place they conquered was Max's Kansas City. 173 00:12:12,498 --> 00:12:16,039 Max's Kansas City, a restaurant near the factory, 174 00:12:16,078 --> 00:12:19,138 is the gathering place for New York's underground. 175 00:12:19,802 --> 00:12:23,526 Almost every evening, Warhol's clan can be found here. 176 00:12:23,551 --> 00:12:27,191 Kansas City functions as both an unofficial casting agency 177 00:12:27,296 --> 00:12:29,190 and a public playground. 178 00:12:29,594 --> 00:12:33,910 It's here that Warhol's films continue on in real life. 179 00:12:34,210 --> 00:12:39,266 While they weren't in the foreground yet, it wouldn't be long before they were. 180 00:12:40,055 --> 00:12:43,099 Robert and I, we were both outsiders, 181 00:12:43,123 --> 00:12:45,231 kind of wallflowers. 182 00:12:46,384 --> 00:12:48,701 But it was a very creative atmosphere, 183 00:12:48,747 --> 00:12:53,109 everyone exchanging ideas and very competitive atmosphere. 184 00:12:53,422 --> 00:12:57,888 And, I found it very inspiring. 185 00:12:59,548 --> 00:13:02,263 That night, back at the Chelsea Hotel, 186 00:13:02,341 --> 00:13:04,489 Patti made a radical decision. 187 00:13:05,108 --> 00:13:07,653 She vowed to stop being a wallflower. 188 00:13:07,678 --> 00:13:09,502 She grabbed a pair of scissors, 189 00:13:09,594 --> 00:13:13,382 and an hour later, Keith Richards' little sister materialized. 190 00:13:13,586 --> 00:13:17,875 Patti decided to embraced her androgynous side, and it worked for her. 191 00:13:18,064 --> 00:13:20,207 She was cast in Femme Fatale, 192 00:13:20,232 --> 00:13:22,705 a play written by and starring Jackie Curtis, 193 00:13:22,803 --> 00:13:25,700 Andy Warhol's transgender leading lady. 194 00:13:26,085 --> 00:13:29,444 I carried his baby. 195 00:13:30,141 --> 00:13:32,250 And then I ditched him. 196 00:13:32,973 --> 00:13:34,756 In a church in the Bowery. 197 00:13:34,809 --> 00:13:35,809 No! 198 00:13:36,117 --> 00:13:37,868 I hate him! 199 00:13:38,669 --> 00:13:40,121 Oh oh, here she comes! 200 00:13:43,350 --> 00:13:45,987 Hey Cabrini, any mail today? 201 00:13:47,478 --> 00:13:50,036 At experimental theater La Mama, 202 00:13:50,061 --> 00:13:54,183 Patti replaced a male actor at last minute, in the role of a junkie. 203 00:13:54,399 --> 00:13:59,281 Boy or girl, it didn't matter; in this queer scene where trash mixed with glamor, 204 00:13:59,314 --> 00:14:03,695 one thing was certain: everyone was free to be who they wanted. 205 00:14:03,891 --> 00:14:06,748 The excitement of waiting for the curtain to open, 206 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:08,421 when you're in front of the curtain, 207 00:14:08,617 --> 00:14:13,200 it's like a surge power you feel when people are applauding for you. 208 00:14:13,369 --> 00:14:14,990 Man, what a great feeling. 209 00:14:15,055 --> 00:14:18,597 I have to admit it's even better than being with a man, 210 00:14:18,767 --> 00:14:20,700 it's almost better than that. 211 00:14:22,165 --> 00:14:25,537 A man: Patti was madly in love with one, 212 00:14:25,707 --> 00:14:27,823 actor/playwright Sam Shepard, 213 00:14:27,934 --> 00:14:31,175 with whom she continued her foray into the world of theater. 214 00:14:31,378 --> 00:14:34,821 Together, they wrote and performed Cowboy Mouth. 215 00:14:35,473 --> 00:14:38,903 I was still a fledgling writer. 216 00:14:39,411 --> 00:14:42,992 He encouraged me and was one of the people that 217 00:14:43,181 --> 00:14:45,655 got me in motion to perform. 218 00:14:47,335 --> 00:14:50,049 It was a meta-play featuring their passion. 219 00:14:50,323 --> 00:14:51,918 But at the third performance, 220 00:14:51,957 --> 00:14:55,596 Sam took off to rejoin the wife and child he'd left behind in Canada. 221 00:14:55,811 --> 00:14:58,526 The play was canceled. Patti didn't let it break her; 222 00:14:58,552 --> 00:15:01,816 she was undeterred in pursuing her artistic future. 223 00:15:01,918 --> 00:15:05,082 I found a fairy land right inside myself here, 224 00:15:05,107 --> 00:15:08,772 because when I lived in South Jersey or whatever, life was simpler there. 225 00:15:08,961 --> 00:15:11,090 Life was simpler because, you know, we worked, 226 00:15:11,162 --> 00:15:14,755 we slopped the hogs, you know, we picked the peaches and all that stuff. 227 00:15:14,899 --> 00:15:20,126 And then you came in and you ate your supper, and you thanked the Lord, and then you went to bed. 228 00:15:20,576 --> 00:15:24,612 But that's all there was. There was no chance for extension. 229 00:15:24,658 --> 00:15:28,056 There was no chance to be destroyed or really be creative there. 230 00:15:28,466 --> 00:15:29,495 You just lived. 231 00:15:29,630 --> 00:15:35,006 And that's OK for some people, but I always felt something different stirring in me. 232 00:15:37,703 --> 00:15:40,880 Ever since she'd met William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg 233 00:15:40,974 --> 00:15:45,203 and Gregory Corso-the giants of the Beat Generation at the Chelsea Hotel. 234 00:15:45,323 --> 00:15:48,088 Patti no longer had doubts about her calling. 235 00:15:48,401 --> 00:15:53,052 She too wanted to update poetry, make it less snobby and refined. 236 00:15:53,413 --> 00:15:55,213 Brilliant and provocative, 237 00:15:55,266 --> 00:15:57,599 the Beats were literary bad boys 238 00:15:57,651 --> 00:15:59,906 who spurred the protest movements of the '60s, 239 00:16:00,016 --> 00:16:02,495 with their rejection of the American way of life 240 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:04,653 and politically-fueled writings. 241 00:16:05,094 --> 00:16:07,885 The young poets rise 242 00:16:07,910 --> 00:16:11,349 to kiss the soul of the revolution 243 00:16:11,829 --> 00:16:15,812 in Vietnam the body is burned 244 00:16:15,841 --> 00:16:19,677 to show the truth of only the body... 245 00:16:20,063 --> 00:16:24,807 In my train seat I renounce 246 00:16:24,832 --> 00:16:28,807 my power, so that I do 247 00:16:28,832 --> 00:16:32,151 live I will die. 248 00:16:36,278 --> 00:16:39,658 Ex-cons, druggies, broke or gay, 249 00:16:39,820 --> 00:16:41,945 Patti loved everything about them; 250 00:16:42,086 --> 00:16:44,486 they would soon serve as her guides. 251 00:16:46,752 --> 00:16:51,168 On February 10, 1971, Patti turned a corner. 252 00:16:51,357 --> 00:16:53,997 At the Holy of Holies of avant-garde poetry, 253 00:16:54,044 --> 00:16:57,075 namely the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, 254 00:16:57,180 --> 00:16:59,257 she opened for Gerard Malanga, 255 00:16:59,282 --> 00:17:02,226 an artist and Warhol's personal assistant. 256 00:17:02,492 --> 00:17:05,570 It was the first time she'd performed under her own name. 257 00:17:08,799 --> 00:17:12,511 Tonight, Patti Smith, she's a terrific poet. 258 00:17:13,206 --> 00:17:14,559 Patti Smith. 259 00:17:17,060 --> 00:17:19,059 She felt enormous pressure. 260 00:17:19,107 --> 00:17:23,361 Every Factory hipster and Beat Generation luminary was in attendance. 261 00:17:23,456 --> 00:17:26,963 The murdered boy, the murdered boy. Oh I was bad. 262 00:17:26,987 --> 00:17:30,262 I got to do something special because if I don't do something special, 263 00:17:30,305 --> 00:17:34,762 Gregory Corso, who was mentoring me not to be a boring poet, 264 00:17:34,820 --> 00:17:37,971 is gonna, you know, throw tomatoes at me or something. 265 00:17:37,996 --> 00:17:39,676 She shoved me in a hole. 266 00:17:42,763 --> 00:17:46,726 With a small lamp, a humble little set-up, 267 00:17:46,779 --> 00:17:49,955 I wanted to perform my poetry. 268 00:17:51,086 --> 00:17:56,184 I had just met Lenny and I asked him if he would do some electric guitar 269 00:17:56,398 --> 00:17:59,028 in a poem about a car crash. 270 00:18:07,543 --> 00:18:09,556 No one had ever done that. 271 00:18:09,635 --> 00:18:12,753 No one had brought an electric guitar in the church before. 272 00:18:12,796 --> 00:18:14,476 Certainly not a girl. 273 00:18:18,847 --> 00:18:20,938 The audience was wowed by her writings, 274 00:18:20,987 --> 00:18:24,187 which she performed with the fervor of a preacher. 275 00:18:24,448 --> 00:18:28,691 I've been reading the bible since I was a child and 276 00:18:28,716 --> 00:18:34,730 always found it inspiring, not only spiritually but poetically. 277 00:18:35,577 --> 00:18:39,081 I was a Jehovah witness, and in those days, 278 00:18:39,394 --> 00:18:42,278 Jehovah witnesses were stricter 279 00:18:42,441 --> 00:18:46,690 about one's pursuits outside of... 280 00:18:48,036 --> 00:18:49,851 being a witness. 281 00:18:51,482 --> 00:18:57,010 I was about 12, I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my father and 282 00:18:57,113 --> 00:19:01,854 saw art in person and immediately wanted to become an artist. 283 00:19:04,060 --> 00:19:07,551 My desires sort of collided with their teachings, 284 00:19:07,588 --> 00:19:11,109 so I left the witnesses to become an artist. 285 00:19:13,092 --> 00:19:16,818 At age 25, enriched by various influences, 286 00:19:16,854 --> 00:19:21,355 Patti was honing her own voice, somewhere between poetry and song. 287 00:19:21,572 --> 00:19:25,844 With the musical touch of Lenny Kaye to boot, she had something unique. 288 00:19:25,869 --> 00:19:28,621 The hype that surrounded Patti from that point on 289 00:19:28,699 --> 00:19:30,604 opened new doors for her. 290 00:19:30,683 --> 00:19:32,966 She published her first collection of poems, 291 00:19:33,026 --> 00:19:37,094 Seventh Heaven, immediately followed by Kodak, then Witt. 292 00:19:38,519 --> 00:19:42,407 When I started writing the poems, I used to put the Rolling Stones on, 293 00:19:42,576 --> 00:19:47,858 to be able to get me into a rhythm where my word and my body connected. 294 00:19:48,038 --> 00:19:50,111 And I was writing poetry. 295 00:19:51,187 --> 00:19:54,426 Get in my typewriter, get into a rhythm, 296 00:19:54,607 --> 00:19:56,547 you know, and start writing, you know, 297 00:19:56,686 --> 00:20:00,646 start writing in the rhythm of the Rolling Stones, but I'd write my own language. 298 00:20:00,844 --> 00:20:05,352 Poetry was the most releasing drug for me. 299 00:20:10,135 --> 00:20:14,865 More and more convinced that the rhythm of her writing would be sublimated through music, 300 00:20:14,961 --> 00:20:20,796 she decided to record two songs at Jimi Hendrix's famous Electric Lady Studios. 301 00:20:20,863 --> 00:20:24,474 Thanks to money from Robert, the single was an immediate hit. 302 00:20:24,559 --> 00:20:29,576 In the wake of this, she did a series of live performances with her fledgling group. 303 00:20:32,347 --> 00:20:35,376 Alright, this is my guys: Richard Sohl on piano, 304 00:20:35,436 --> 00:20:41,271 Lenny Kaye on guitar, and me Patti, this is our single, it's called Piss Factory. 305 00:20:42,804 --> 00:20:46,259 She took her androgynous look up a notch with a shirt and tie, 306 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:50,171 borrowing a boyish wardrobe-and attitude. 307 00:20:50,532 --> 00:20:53,038 Sixteen and time to pay off 308 00:20:53,063 --> 00:20:56,199 I got this job in a piss factory inspecting pipe 309 00:20:56,279 --> 00:20:59,240 Forty hours a week, thirty-six bucks it's real bullshit 310 00:20:59,265 --> 00:21:01,031 But you know it's a paycheck, Jack. 311 00:21:01,056 --> 00:21:03,956 It's really hot in here too, hot like Sahara 312 00:21:03,981 --> 00:21:06,836 But all these bitches are just too lame to understand 313 00:21:06,861 --> 00:21:09,026 They're just too grateful to get this job to realize 314 00:21:09,051 --> 00:21:11,171 they're getting screwed up the ass 315 00:21:11,512 --> 00:21:13,749 Through both her body and her lyrics, 316 00:21:13,816 --> 00:21:15,558 Patti firmed up her style. 317 00:21:15,619 --> 00:21:18,966 With “Piss Factory” she exorcized her demons, 318 00:21:19,110 --> 00:21:23,341 recounting the ordeal of working a summer job in a factory in her native New Jersey. 319 00:21:23,413 --> 00:21:25,504 Floor boss comes up to me and he says 320 00:21:25,529 --> 00:21:27,209 ''Hey Smith, come here 321 00:21:27,234 --> 00:21:29,951 You know you're doin' your piece work too fast, 322 00:21:29,976 --> 00:21:31,580 You screwin' up the quota, 323 00:21:31,605 --> 00:21:33,672 You get off your mustang sally 324 00:21:33,697 --> 00:21:37,902 ''Cause you ain't goin' nowhere, you ain't goin' nowhere.'' 325 00:21:38,209 --> 00:21:40,676 I lay back. I take a swig of Romilar 326 00:21:40,727 --> 00:21:44,110 Patti's juxtaposition of poetry and music were working, 327 00:21:44,303 --> 00:21:47,887 all that she was missing was a place she'd feel at home. 328 00:21:48,419 --> 00:21:52,181 CBGB's was a little bar down in the Bowery, 329 00:21:52,241 --> 00:21:55,047 right near where William Burroughs lived, 330 00:21:55,096 --> 00:21:58,539 where the winos and the bums slept on the streets, 331 00:21:58,594 --> 00:22:01,712 you know, were dogs peed in front of and 332 00:22:02,385 --> 00:22:06,328 it was just a little bar that nobody cared about. 333 00:22:08,565 --> 00:22:11,349 In this seedy setting, the band Television 334 00:22:11,377 --> 00:22:14,219 was experimenting with songs several nights a week. 335 00:22:14,243 --> 00:22:19,299 The emerging group played experimental rock, without compromising or posturing. 336 00:22:20,108 --> 00:22:22,986 I was so excited to see this band. 337 00:22:23,065 --> 00:22:25,793 Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, both being poets, 338 00:22:25,876 --> 00:22:29,266 they were doing a lot of what we were doing. 339 00:22:30,312 --> 00:22:34,044 A little wild raggedy, like ourselves. 340 00:22:34,597 --> 00:22:38,501 And I saw a real future, I felt a real brotherhood with them. 341 00:22:42,428 --> 00:22:44,141 The attraction was mutual. Television's band members recognized within Patti's masculine, experimental vibe a bit of their own intellectual rage and deconstructive spirit. They soon suggested sharing a bill. 342 00:22:44,165 --> 00:22:48,707 Television's band members recognized within Patti's masculine, experimental vibe 343 00:22:48,798 --> 00:22:52,229 a bit of their own intellectual rage and deconstructive spirit. 344 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,243 They soon suggested sharing a bill. 345 00:22:54,369 --> 00:22:56,863 Crashing his head against the locker 346 00:22:57,705 --> 00:23:00,631 It was an opportunity for Patti and her band to test their songs 347 00:23:00,674 --> 00:23:02,614 in front of a young, cynical audience 348 00:23:02,681 --> 00:23:04,814 who rejected established values. 349 00:23:04,877 --> 00:23:10,165 When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by 350 00:23:11,001 --> 00:23:14,678 We played there for weeks and weeks and months, and young people started coming from all over to come to CBGB's because at last we had a place. 351 00:23:14,702 --> 00:23:17,737 And young people started coming from all over to come to CBGB's because at last we had a place. 352 00:23:17,761 --> 00:23:21,205 To come to CBGB's because at last we had a place. 353 00:23:22,203 --> 00:23:25,586 I think what's happening, we're at a big transitional period. I think that rock'n'roll was down and was sleeping, and I feel that all these new bands and my band saw this, we're doing our best to say 'wake up'. 354 00:23:25,610 --> 00:23:30,665 I think that rock'n'roll was down and was sleeping, and I feel that 355 00:23:30,895 --> 00:23:36,971 all these new bands and my band saw this, we're doing our best to say 'wake up'. 356 00:23:39,566 --> 00:23:43,528 The wake-up call was intense, electric and highly charged. 357 00:23:43,746 --> 00:23:48,628 Within a few months, CBGB became an incubator of the New York punk movement. 358 00:23:48,653 --> 00:23:51,391 It encompassed not only the birth of a music scene, 359 00:23:51,475 --> 00:23:54,008 but also a state of mind, a community. 360 00:23:54,805 --> 00:23:57,657 You call them punk because you got nothing else to say about them. 361 00:23:57,836 --> 00:23:59,319 No other way to link them. 362 00:23:59,343 --> 00:24:02,847 But it's like the heartbeat that links them. You know, the beat. 363 00:24:04,773 --> 00:24:09,326 With her weekly appearances, Patti quickly became the club's figurehead. 364 00:24:09,996 --> 00:24:12,713 She was soon joined by the Ramones; 365 00:24:13,104 --> 00:24:16,463 Blondie and the band's alluring lead singer, Debbie Harry, 366 00:24:16,642 --> 00:24:18,388 and the Talking Heads. 367 00:24:18,573 --> 00:24:20,766 It didn't matter if you knew how to play well; 368 00:24:20,855 --> 00:24:24,136 energy and attitude mattered above all else. 369 00:24:26,101 --> 00:24:28,723 The buzz around Patti continued to grow. 370 00:24:28,752 --> 00:24:33,076 Her unconventional magnetism drew people from all corners of the city. 371 00:24:34,522 --> 00:24:38,534 It took only one night for Clive Davis, who had discovered Janis Joplin, 372 00:24:38,646 --> 00:24:41,653 to sign her to his new label, Arista. 373 00:24:45,549 --> 00:24:48,149 With a contract worth several thousand dollars, 374 00:24:48,249 --> 00:24:50,303 Patti was now in the big leagues. 375 00:24:50,348 --> 00:24:52,914 She could afford a studio session with John Cale, 376 00:24:52,987 --> 00:24:56,571 the genius producer once part of the Velvet Underground. 377 00:25:00,353 --> 00:25:04,214 That collaboration led to the creation of a unique album. 378 00:25:04,332 --> 00:25:08,913 Rimbaud's self-appointed kid sister turned every code upside down. 379 00:25:09,036 --> 00:25:11,988 The standard verse/chorus template was knocked aside, 380 00:25:12,105 --> 00:25:17,094 singing and sermon coexisted, the urban and the mystical intertwined. 381 00:25:17,212 --> 00:25:21,692 The lyrics were intimate, political manifestos. It was groundbreaking. 382 00:25:21,877 --> 00:25:25,297 I was consciously trying to make a record 383 00:25:25,398 --> 00:25:29,371 that would make a certain type of person not feel alone. 384 00:25:29,857 --> 00:25:33,986 People like me, different since they were a kid. 385 00:25:34,527 --> 00:25:38,506 I wasn't targeting the whole world, I wasn't trying to make a hit record, 386 00:25:38,531 --> 00:25:42,172 but I thought if a hundred people liked it, that would be great. 387 00:25:43,778 --> 00:25:45,118 {\an8}Saturday Night Live NBC, 1976 388 00:25:45,143 --> 00:25:46,787 On November 10, 1975, 389 00:25:46,820 --> 00:25:48,991 the album Horses was released. 390 00:25:49,064 --> 00:25:52,914 The very first track, “Gloria,” set the tone right away. 391 00:25:53,350 --> 00:26:00,480 Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. 392 00:26:04,235 --> 00:26:08,767 Meltin' in a pot of thieves 393 00:26:10,002 --> 00:26:13,644 Wild card up my sleeve 394 00:26:15,696 --> 00:26:19,168 Thick heart of stone 395 00:26:19,263 --> 00:26:21,758 My sins my own 396 00:26:21,783 --> 00:26:27,344 They belong to me, me 397 00:26:27,461 --> 00:26:29,263 I ain't afraid to say anything like that, 398 00:26:29,303 --> 00:26:31,512 I'm not afraid of being struck down by lightning, 399 00:26:31,574 --> 00:26:34,436 and if I do, I know it'll be an ecstatic experience. 400 00:26:34,461 --> 00:26:36,598 So maybe some people can alleviate 401 00:26:36,853 --> 00:26:40,117 guilt through me, you know, let me be bad for them. 402 00:26:41,317 --> 00:26:43,482 In addition to competing with God, 403 00:26:43,507 --> 00:26:46,853 she took up Van Morrison's song and his masculine refrain, 404 00:26:46,897 --> 00:26:48,848 addressed to the titular Gloria. 405 00:26:48,873 --> 00:26:53,033 Patti took his place, bellowing out her desire for another woman. 406 00:26:53,940 --> 00:26:56,691 When you came to my room 407 00:26:57,235 --> 00:27:00,850 And you whispered to me and I took the big plunge 408 00:27:00,875 --> 00:27:06,457 And oh, you were so good, oh, you were so fine 409 00:27:06,482 --> 00:27:08,891 And I gotta tell the world 410 00:27:09,702 --> 00:27:14,353 that I make her mine, make her mine, make her mine... 411 00:27:14,408 --> 00:27:18,674 G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A 412 00:27:18,699 --> 00:27:21,232 NOT EVERY BOY DREAMS OF BEING A MARINE 413 00:27:21,686 --> 00:27:24,606 Providing a platform for marginalized communities, 414 00:27:24,631 --> 00:27:26,938 Patti echoed the demands of the gay community, 415 00:27:26,986 --> 00:27:29,450 which was mobilizing and becoming visible. 416 00:27:29,528 --> 00:27:32,665 She pushed back against voices of the conservative majority, 417 00:27:32,731 --> 00:27:34,865 which dominated television sets. 418 00:27:37,088 --> 00:27:41,499 If we were going to go on a crusade across the nation and try to do away with the homosexuals... 419 00:27:42,599 --> 00:27:44,660 Let's pray for him right now, Anita. 420 00:27:44,685 --> 00:27:47,490 Father, we wanted to ask that you forgive him 421 00:27:47,515 --> 00:27:50,760 and that we're praying for him, and I just... 422 00:27:52,701 --> 00:27:57,809 If you are male and choose other than female, 423 00:27:58,338 --> 00:28:06,338 you must take the responsibility of holding the key to freedom 424 00:28:14,588 --> 00:28:16,962 Equally disturbing and fascinating, 425 00:28:16,986 --> 00:28:20,459 the album received both critical and popular success. 426 00:28:21,295 --> 00:28:25,531 It sold 200,000 copies and placed at the top of the charts. 427 00:28:27,864 --> 00:28:31,415 The impact was both musical and visual. 428 00:28:32,442 --> 00:28:38,386 Photographed by her best friend Robert Mapplethorpe, the album cover blurred the boundaries of gender. 429 00:28:38,519 --> 00:28:42,424 Patti posed in a man's shirt and tie, a blazer flung over her shoulder. 430 00:28:42,491 --> 00:28:46,829 No makeup, no hairstyling, and a clearly visible downy mustache: 431 00:28:46,854 --> 00:28:51,607 She looked like no one else, and certainly not what anyone expected of a woman. 432 00:28:52,527 --> 00:28:56,715 My record company, they wanted to doctor the picture, 433 00:28:56,740 --> 00:29:00,189 hairbrush my hair to make it look a little better, 434 00:29:00,382 --> 00:29:03,771 and they were trying to improve me. But that wasn't what I wanted. 435 00:29:03,795 --> 00:29:06,841 So the shot stands as it was shot. 436 00:29:10,009 --> 00:29:14,017 Patti had no interest whatsoever in performing the female gender. 437 00:29:14,113 --> 00:29:16,950 She'd been unclassifiable for a long time. 438 00:29:17,130 --> 00:29:21,162 So when it came to finding role models, she followed her heart. 439 00:29:23,807 --> 00:29:30,310 I think that all the performers that affected me have basically, all they've been male. 440 00:29:32,496 --> 00:29:36,271 I loved Rimbaud so much, but Bob Dylan was alive. 441 00:29:37,641 --> 00:29:41,620 I was so smitten with him aesthetically, 442 00:29:42,606 --> 00:29:44,967 he influenced me in the way I walk, 443 00:29:45,100 --> 00:29:50,382 sometimes the way I dress or the way I wear pants, you know, 444 00:29:50,406 --> 00:29:53,278 it's just, I adored him. 445 00:30:04,854 --> 00:30:09,447 She was sixteen when Bob Dylan participated, in August 1963, 446 00:30:09,510 --> 00:30:11,345 in the March on Washington. 447 00:30:12,252 --> 00:30:15,259 The '60s spawned the fight for civil rights. 448 00:30:15,519 --> 00:30:16,906 I have a dream. 449 00:30:16,931 --> 00:30:19,798 There was opposition to the Vietnam War and, more broadly, 450 00:30:19,869 --> 00:30:22,337 a demand for a new social order. 451 00:30:27,643 --> 00:30:30,252 Criticism is very patriotic. 452 00:30:31,847 --> 00:30:37,510 It is this our duty to protest if we think that things are unjust. 453 00:30:37,535 --> 00:30:39,535 It's part of the American way. 454 00:30:40,617 --> 00:30:44,075 A tree in paradise 455 00:30:45,911 --> 00:30:49,200 Major figures of protest music, like Joan Baez, 456 00:30:49,278 --> 00:30:52,239 set the tempo for those activist years. 457 00:30:54,129 --> 00:30:57,856 I think that, you know, someone's going to sell five million records, 458 00:30:57,950 --> 00:31:01,114 they should be saying something within those five million records. 459 00:31:01,139 --> 00:31:06,739 They should be communicating something than just, dull wiretap. 460 00:31:06,848 --> 00:31:10,645 I mean, to me, most people that are selling that many records right now 461 00:31:10,670 --> 00:31:13,215 aren't doing anything really to communicate. 462 00:31:13,364 --> 00:31:15,840 They're just, they're just taking people's money 463 00:31:15,864 --> 00:31:19,640 and giving them sort of mediocre entertainment in exchange. 464 00:31:26,115 --> 00:31:29,255 We today have concluded an agreement 465 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:33,382 to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam. 466 00:31:33,539 --> 00:31:34,819 THE WAR IS OVER! 467 00:31:34,982 --> 00:31:37,318 Within that socio-political context, 468 00:31:37,388 --> 00:31:39,521 Patti's activism grew. 469 00:31:40,177 --> 00:31:44,988 When the end of the Vietnam War was celebrated in Central Park, in May 1975, 470 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,950 she was only just becoming a public figure. 471 00:31:48,412 --> 00:31:51,419 But it felt self-evident for her to partake in the event, 472 00:31:51,544 --> 00:31:55,448 and she took the stage alongside her teenage idol, Joan Baez. 473 00:31:57,779 --> 00:32:01,435 We're really opting for peace, especially our generation, which really 474 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,165 worked really hard to stop war. 475 00:32:04,408 --> 00:32:05,977 But we come from 476 00:32:06,165 --> 00:32:08,696 from centuries and centuries of being warriors, 477 00:32:08,721 --> 00:32:12,433 we have to do something with that physical kind of energy. 478 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,405 This is our instrument of war, 479 00:32:15,678 --> 00:32:19,319 and for my generation, this is our instrument of battle. 480 00:32:19,436 --> 00:32:22,358 This is the only instrument of battle that we want left. 481 00:32:22,468 --> 00:32:24,795 We want to get rid of all machine guns 482 00:32:24,848 --> 00:32:26,942 and all the bombs and all that shit, 483 00:32:26,975 --> 00:32:29,795 and we just want to fight each other out with sound. 484 00:32:32,311 --> 00:32:37,326 With this new weapon in hand, Patti was determined to spread the good word of rock. 485 00:32:38,751 --> 00:32:40,625 My band and myself, 486 00:32:40,876 --> 00:32:43,539 we are not a career driven band. 487 00:32:43,687 --> 00:32:49,804 We have always been driven by political, revolutionary spiritual ideas. 488 00:32:51,241 --> 00:32:55,655 The whole idea of rock and roll was that it was a revolutionary art 489 00:32:55,742 --> 00:33:01,273 and that people had a grassroots way of expressing themselves. 490 00:33:02,739 --> 00:33:07,692 Move! 491 00:33:10,239 --> 00:33:13,473 Ask the angels who they're calling, 492 00:33:13,594 --> 00:33:16,494 Go ask the angels if they're calling to thee 493 00:33:17,166 --> 00:33:20,262 Ask the angels while they're falling 494 00:33:20,602 --> 00:33:23,746 Who that person could possibly be 495 00:33:24,221 --> 00:33:27,739 And I know it's hard sometimes, 496 00:33:27,764 --> 00:33:30,965 You got accuse accuse across the floor? 497 00:33:31,112 --> 00:33:33,903 And I know it's hard sometimes 498 00:33:33,934 --> 00:33:36,246 Committed to this mission, the workaholic musician 499 00:33:36,271 --> 00:33:39,121 released a new opus less than a year after Horses, 500 00:33:39,146 --> 00:33:43,504 filled with references to Rimbaud's exile and to Rastafarianism. 501 00:33:43,825 --> 00:33:47,192 Radio Ethiopia is the name of our new record, 502 00:33:47,278 --> 00:33:49,379 and it represents to us 503 00:33:49,610 --> 00:33:52,586 a naked field where in 504 00:33:52,719 --> 00:33:56,719 anyone can express themselves, it's a free radio. 505 00:33:56,922 --> 00:33:59,094 The more people submit 506 00:33:59,359 --> 00:34:02,835 and the more I submit, the greater show it's going to be, 507 00:34:02,860 --> 00:34:04,860 the greater we're going to be. 508 00:34:05,297 --> 00:34:09,304 Do you not go to the palace of answers with me Marie? 509 00:34:09,329 --> 00:34:12,258 Backed by electric guitars and shamanic drums, 510 00:34:12,328 --> 00:34:16,015 Patti performed before audiences who awaited her like the messiah. 511 00:34:16,101 --> 00:34:19,819 On stage, she sang-screamed-in what seemed, at times, 512 00:34:19,907 --> 00:34:22,040 like a nearly trance-like state. 513 00:34:38,482 --> 00:34:41,153 Her concerts were unforgettable performances. 514 00:34:41,302 --> 00:34:43,997 She might extend a song for over 20 minutes, 515 00:34:44,022 --> 00:34:46,310 and she required her band to improvise, 516 00:34:46,335 --> 00:34:49,343 never letting them repeat their approach twice. 517 00:34:52,863 --> 00:34:55,488 Every day I want to feel some sensation, 518 00:34:55,548 --> 00:34:58,992 every day I want to create, every day I want to know that I'm alive, 519 00:34:59,024 --> 00:35:01,557 I want to know that I'm on the Planet. 520 00:35:03,287 --> 00:35:06,187 And when I'm on the stage, my time of the day 521 00:35:06,211 --> 00:35:09,111 to like go through every sensation possible. 522 00:35:09,255 --> 00:35:14,161 Performing involves so much of your, of your physical brainiac, 523 00:35:14,278 --> 00:35:19,723 moral energy, all your energies into one and you extend and expend so much of yourself 524 00:35:19,748 --> 00:35:22,364 that the idea of saving up life, you know 525 00:35:22,389 --> 00:35:26,692 for later just seems to me totally pointless. 526 00:35:26,895 --> 00:35:33,442 And it has totally made me not afraid of dying anymore. 527 00:35:45,013 --> 00:35:47,341 With their succession of promotional tour dates, 528 00:35:47,373 --> 00:35:49,435 covering the United States and Europe, 529 00:35:49,460 --> 00:35:51,140 It's Radio Ethiopia! 530 00:35:51,165 --> 00:35:54,255 Patti and her band were on the road for an entire year. 531 00:35:55,099 --> 00:35:57,685 Radio Ethiopia got mixed reviews, 532 00:35:57,724 --> 00:36:00,786 and Patti's theatrical meanderings cost her with critics, 533 00:36:00,865 --> 00:36:02,665 who didn't understand them. 534 00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:07,622 She is socially approved how the loony of rock and roll. 535 00:36:07,701 --> 00:36:12,106 She is good at times and excessive at other times. 536 00:36:13,005 --> 00:36:14,332 The pressure mounted. 537 00:36:14,357 --> 00:36:18,130 During a live radio show, Patti got carried away and said “fuck” live. 538 00:36:18,247 --> 00:36:20,466 Officially prohibited by federal law, 539 00:36:20,490 --> 00:36:23,316 this cost her an on-air ban for the rest of the tour. 540 00:36:23,341 --> 00:36:28,294 Scandalized, she published an article in which she decried this act of censorship. 541 00:36:28,410 --> 00:36:30,660 You Can't Say Fuck in Radio Free America 542 00:36:30,770 --> 00:36:33,169 They don't like me to come on the station live 543 00:36:33,380 --> 00:36:36,028 because they're afraid of what I'll say, because I talk about 544 00:36:36,076 --> 00:36:39,660 too many things that disturb the middle class, you know? 545 00:36:46,232 --> 00:36:50,497 At a press conference in London, a journalist criticized her lengthy songs. 546 00:36:50,576 --> 00:36:53,177 Enraged, she threw sandwiches at him. 547 00:36:53,575 --> 00:36:55,161 The tide was turning. 548 00:36:55,341 --> 00:36:59,114 She was now being reproached for everything people had loved about her. 549 00:36:59,139 --> 00:37:00,958 They even made fun of her look on TV. 550 00:37:00,983 --> 00:37:02,975 THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, 1978 551 00:37:02,999 --> 00:37:05,224 You're wearing some of the strangest outfits on our show. 552 00:37:05,248 --> 00:37:07,458 What do you mean strange, this stuff cost a fortune. 553 00:37:07,483 --> 00:37:08,880 What are you talking about? 554 00:37:08,904 --> 00:37:10,005 Nothing matches Patti. 555 00:37:10,030 --> 00:37:11,091 Matches? 556 00:37:11,248 --> 00:37:13,950 They're all striped. Everything. 557 00:37:14,044 --> 00:37:15,888 The jacket isn't striped. 558 00:37:15,927 --> 00:37:18,419 It's like a... Well, it's all silk. 559 00:37:20,278 --> 00:37:22,192 I don't know, already I'm insulted. 560 00:37:22,216 --> 00:37:26,060 I've been on here a little three and a half minutes, I've been insulted 14 times. 561 00:37:26,669 --> 00:37:29,185 It was all happening fast-too fast. 562 00:37:29,279 --> 00:37:31,966 On January 23rd, 1977, 563 00:37:31,997 --> 00:37:35,716 dancing like a whirling dervish, Patti fell. 564 00:37:38,029 --> 00:37:42,614 Skirting a true catastrophe, she got away with just two broken vertebrae. 565 00:37:42,926 --> 00:37:45,216 Bedridden and under sedation for weeks, 566 00:37:45,241 --> 00:37:49,052 she was thrown back into a state she had known well in childhood. 567 00:37:50,425 --> 00:37:52,870 I was very sickly most of my childhood. 568 00:37:52,933 --> 00:37:56,073 I was like seven years old and I had scarlet fever and 569 00:37:56,151 --> 00:38:00,690 it stuck me in such a state like where I'd start hallucinating really early. 570 00:38:03,261 --> 00:38:05,705 I slept right next to a coal stove, 571 00:38:05,730 --> 00:38:08,471 and I was watching this blue flame and it just felt like 572 00:38:08,534 --> 00:38:12,745 I was being suffocated by comets, skulls 573 00:38:12,792 --> 00:38:17,651 and animals like foxes with like human faces coming at me real fast 574 00:38:17,909 --> 00:38:21,127 and all that kind of stuff, and it sort of never went away 575 00:38:22,041 --> 00:38:25,080 and it just made me feel alien 576 00:38:25,112 --> 00:38:28,041 from everybody because I couldn't really express it, you know? 577 00:38:29,510 --> 00:38:33,674 This reconnection with her imagination enabled her to write Babel. 578 00:38:33,729 --> 00:38:38,041 The collection of poems contained a tidal wave of hallucinations and ecstasies. 579 00:38:38,112 --> 00:38:40,565 She is unique in the rock and roll world, 580 00:38:40,589 --> 00:38:42,307 she is also a serious poet. 581 00:38:42,332 --> 00:38:45,799 Literary critics do take her very seriously and say she is a 582 00:38:45,824 --> 00:38:48,198 creative woman to be reckoned with. 583 00:38:48,229 --> 00:38:50,126 And her latest book, Babel, 584 00:38:50,151 --> 00:38:52,854 was lengthily reviewed by no lesser a publication 585 00:38:52,879 --> 00:38:55,555 than the New York Times review of books. 586 00:38:58,917 --> 00:39:03,386 The high priestess of rock made her comeback by way of literature. 587 00:39:03,411 --> 00:39:07,205 She even shared a book-signing, surrounded by her heroes. 588 00:39:10,862 --> 00:39:16,565 For an artist so fond of symbolism, a brush with death inevitably had meaning. 589 00:39:17,409 --> 00:39:20,313 I continually want to communicate with God, 590 00:39:20,337 --> 00:39:23,032 even though I know it's very dangerous territory, 591 00:39:23,079 --> 00:39:26,000 which is one of the reasons why I had my accident, 592 00:39:26,117 --> 00:39:30,093 but I don't want to die. This is my chance on the world. 593 00:39:30,118 --> 00:39:33,969 I'm here right now and I want right now to be the greatest time. 594 00:39:34,008 --> 00:39:36,961 This is my golden age, this is our golden age. 595 00:39:37,001 --> 00:39:41,484 I'm not there in the past, I'm not there in the future, I'm right here. 596 00:39:42,524 --> 00:39:45,532 You see what I mean? The time to flower is now. 597 00:39:45,734 --> 00:39:48,500 Be it divine will or fate's helping hand, 598 00:39:48,525 --> 00:39:51,820 Patti retrieved a melody sketched out by Bruce Springsteen, 599 00:39:51,845 --> 00:39:55,859 which would propel her next album, Easter, to the top of the charts. 600 00:39:55,891 --> 00:39:58,547 Take me now, baby, here as I am 601 00:39:58,629 --> 00:40:02,602 Pull me close, try and understand 602 00:40:05,376 --> 00:40:08,492 “Because the Night” became her first mainstream hit, 603 00:40:08,541 --> 00:40:11,299 released in the spring of 1978. 604 00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:15,752 Because the night belongs to lovers 605 00:40:15,777 --> 00:40:19,619 Because the night belongs to lust 606 00:40:19,644 --> 00:40:23,541 Because the night belongs to lovers 607 00:40:23,588 --> 00:40:27,634 Because the night belongs to us 608 00:40:27,658 --> 00:40:31,549 Have I doubt when I'm alone 609 00:40:31,659 --> 00:40:35,549 Love is a ring, the telephone 610 00:40:35,574 --> 00:40:37,841 Love is an angel disguised as lust 611 00:40:37,866 --> 00:40:40,291 The song rang so true because Patti was in love. 612 00:40:40,316 --> 00:40:41,791 At a concert in Detroit, 613 00:40:41,816 --> 00:40:45,150 she met the legendary Fred “Sonic” Smith of MC5, 614 00:40:45,197 --> 00:40:48,525 one of the wildest bands on the American rock scene. 615 00:40:51,557 --> 00:40:56,994 For her longtime fans, the radio-friendly romantic ballad didn't go down well. 616 00:40:57,362 --> 00:40:59,580 I was criticized, they said, ''Well'', 617 00:40:59,627 --> 00:41:03,502 you're supposed to be a punk rocker and you have a popular song'', and I said: 618 00:41:03,527 --> 00:41:07,166 punk rock does not mean not to be popular, it means freedom, 619 00:41:07,191 --> 00:41:09,220 and I'll do what I want. 620 00:41:10,901 --> 00:41:15,306 At age 31, Patti had managed to climb to the top of the charts, 621 00:41:15,346 --> 00:41:17,377 without ever compromising. 622 00:41:17,479 --> 00:41:20,869 It took her less than five years to become a rock icon, 623 00:41:20,894 --> 00:41:25,502 whose faithful following came in droves to attend her high mass. 624 00:41:26,488 --> 00:41:29,206 Every time you do a performance, you're trying to seduce 625 00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:32,535 anywhere from three hundred to three thousand strangers 626 00:41:32,583 --> 00:41:36,707 and it becomes a very intimate, you know, sexual thing, 627 00:41:36,732 --> 00:41:40,504 and not the only way to have sex is to be in bed with each other. 628 00:41:41,950 --> 00:41:44,639 Patti was playing with fire, giving everything to 629 00:41:44,663 --> 00:41:47,746 audiences who energized her yet totally consumed her. 630 00:41:47,771 --> 00:41:51,543 People even talked about it on TV, but she remained oblivious. 631 00:41:51,568 --> 00:41:54,364 THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. NBC, 1978 You have some really maniac fans, why do you 632 00:41:54,388 --> 00:41:56,543 think the kids get so crazy at your concerts? 633 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:58,811 Well, I was pretty maniac kid myself. 634 00:41:58,882 --> 00:42:02,983 I mean, I still am. I mean, I feel that a concert, 635 00:42:03,008 --> 00:42:07,397 you know, like, like Mick Jagger said at Altamont is not just for people 636 00:42:07,475 --> 00:42:11,412 coming to see a performer, but for a mutual experience. 637 00:42:15,999 --> 00:42:20,593 Moving from an underground scene into the spotlight, Patti had her doubts. 638 00:42:20,765 --> 00:42:23,897 How do you stay true to yourself, once you've become adored? 639 00:42:28,452 --> 00:42:32,069 Covering a song by the Byrds on the emptiness of the star system, 640 00:42:32,124 --> 00:42:37,210 Patti sent out a thinly-veiled message on the irony of her own condition. 641 00:42:37,281 --> 00:42:39,866 A little insane. 642 00:42:39,961 --> 00:42:42,772 You're a little insane, 643 00:42:43,118 --> 00:42:46,054 All the things that you gain 644 00:42:46,352 --> 00:42:48,991 Is the public acclaim 645 00:42:49,556 --> 00:42:52,819 Don't forget who you are, 646 00:42:52,961 --> 00:42:55,647 Don't forget who you are, 647 00:42:55,908 --> 00:42:58,811 Don't forget who you are, 648 00:42:59,136 --> 00:43:02,311 You're a rock and roll star 649 00:43:08,453 --> 00:43:10,757 In that song, 650 00:43:10,921 --> 00:43:15,155 there's a line that you sing ''Don't forget who you are, you're a rock and roll star''. 651 00:43:15,180 --> 00:43:19,265 And I'd just like to know what that means to you now. 652 00:43:19,290 --> 00:43:23,007 Mm-hmm. I don't like how I look on that... thing. 653 00:43:29,851 --> 00:43:33,608 Her inner malaise grew in tandem with stadium capacities. 654 00:43:33,827 --> 00:43:38,849 On September 10th, 1979, in Florence, in front of more than 80,000 people, 655 00:43:39,054 --> 00:43:41,030 Patti made her decision. 656 00:43:41,249 --> 00:43:46,405 It was over. She was bowing out at the height of her career. 657 00:43:51,232 --> 00:43:55,663 The following day it was straight to the airport, destination Detroit. 658 00:43:55,906 --> 00:43:58,108 On March 1st 1980, 659 00:43:58,133 --> 00:44:02,796 Patti Smith married Fred Smith, and went off the radar for nine years. 660 00:44:09,156 --> 00:44:11,663 In 1988, to everyone surprise, 661 00:44:11,733 --> 00:44:16,709 Patti return with a new album ''Dream of life'', co-written with Fred. 662 00:44:18,070 --> 00:44:21,311 One day I was in the kitchen, cooking, 663 00:44:21,336 --> 00:44:23,561 and he looked at me and he said: 664 00:44:23,670 --> 00:44:26,390 People have the power, write it. 665 00:44:26,898 --> 00:44:28,827 And I said, ok. 666 00:44:28,852 --> 00:44:32,179 {\an8}They made only a single appearance, in March 1990, 667 00:44:32,204 --> 00:44:33,874 {\an8}for Arista's 15th anniversary. 668 00:44:33,899 --> 00:44:36,507 {\an8}That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert. CBS, 1990 669 00:44:36,531 --> 00:44:38,460 through our union 670 00:44:38,586 --> 00:44:41,686 We can turn the world around 671 00:44:41,711 --> 00:44:45,022 We can turn the earth's revolution 672 00:44:45,047 --> 00:44:47,116 We have the power 673 00:44:48,073 --> 00:44:51,179 People have the power 674 00:44:51,542 --> 00:44:54,515 The people have the power 675 00:44:55,143 --> 00:44:57,616 The people have the power 676 00:44:58,582 --> 00:45:00,819 The power to dream 677 00:45:01,647 --> 00:45:06,303 Although the song became an anthem, returning to public life was out of the question. 678 00:45:06,453 --> 00:45:09,655 After that brief detour, it was back to family life. 679 00:45:09,695 --> 00:45:10,920 People say to me, 680 00:45:10,945 --> 00:45:13,718 Gee, you didn't do any work in the eighties and I want to like 681 00:45:13,743 --> 00:45:16,624 strangle them, you have no idea how hard, 682 00:45:16,649 --> 00:45:20,600 I mean, how hard, you know, a mother works. 683 00:45:20,625 --> 00:45:23,460 I mean, I was born an artist, you know, 684 00:45:23,515 --> 00:45:27,577 I believe that I have a calling to be an artist and 685 00:45:27,609 --> 00:45:35,132 my gifts are God given. But my domestic skills, 686 00:45:35,157 --> 00:45:37,936 I had to learn from scratch. 687 00:45:38,726 --> 00:45:43,304 On November 4, 1994, unimaginable sadness: 688 00:45:43,468 --> 00:45:48,265 Fred “Sonic” Smith died of a heart attack, at the age of 46. 689 00:45:48,765 --> 00:45:52,960 After my husband died, I didn't want to do anything, 690 00:45:52,985 --> 00:45:55,108 I didn't even want to get out of bed, 691 00:45:55,133 --> 00:45:58,749 but I had children and I have work to do 692 00:45:58,774 --> 00:46:03,772 and my brother really made me get out of bed and said, 693 00:46:03,850 --> 00:46:06,397 well, instead of, you know, mourning Fred and not 694 00:46:06,437 --> 00:46:09,186 getting up, you should be writing songs for him. 695 00:46:09,421 --> 00:46:12,757 A year later, the album Gone Again was released. 696 00:46:12,851 --> 00:46:14,741 Her life had fallen apart; 697 00:46:14,835 --> 00:46:18,132 Patti leaned on self-expression to rebuild it. 698 00:46:18,328 --> 00:46:20,265 It's been a hard time 699 00:46:20,290 --> 00:46:22,156 And when it rains 700 00:46:22,181 --> 00:46:24,403 It rains on me 701 00:46:26,024 --> 00:46:28,155 The sky just opens 702 00:46:28,180 --> 00:46:29,928 And when it rains 703 00:46:29,953 --> 00:46:31,765 It pours 704 00:46:31,873 --> 00:46:35,451 It's like the checks and balances of life. 705 00:46:35,484 --> 00:46:40,288 We have beautiful things happen. We have terrible things. 706 00:46:41,140 --> 00:46:43,382 Patti encountered yet more grief. 707 00:46:43,407 --> 00:46:48,944 In under five years, she lost her best friend Robert Mapplethorpe, her husband Fred Smith, 708 00:46:48,969 --> 00:46:51,897 her pianist Richard Sohl, and her brother Todd. 709 00:46:51,929 --> 00:46:54,850 Grieving is a very complex thing. 710 00:46:55,007 --> 00:46:57,632 Some of it is very draining, 711 00:46:57,765 --> 00:47:02,194 but sometimes in the middle of grieving, for no apparent reason, 712 00:47:02,267 --> 00:47:07,470 one feels extreme joy, I think just to be alive. 713 00:47:08,697 --> 00:47:12,921 At age 49, Patti got her group back together and went on the road. 714 00:47:14,158 --> 00:47:17,294 Artists don't retire, they just shift conditions. 715 00:47:18,447 --> 00:47:22,079 After a 17-year absence, the public was still there for her. 716 00:47:22,181 --> 00:47:26,587 But there was no way Patti was going to play the game for the mainstream. 717 00:47:27,142 --> 00:47:32,556 I was told just today that the reason an artist such as myself 718 00:47:32,791 --> 00:47:36,571 can't get airplay is because I'm too issue orientated. 719 00:47:36,596 --> 00:47:39,087 What better time to 720 00:47:39,134 --> 00:47:42,368 speak about issues than at a time when people don't want to hear about them? 721 00:47:42,548 --> 00:47:46,087 And music is an excellent forum to 722 00:47:46,134 --> 00:47:51,189 talk about the things that we need to do. 723 00:47:51,392 --> 00:47:56,431 At the turn of the millennium, Patti Smith was more connected than ever to the world around her. 724 00:47:56,617 --> 00:47:59,124 It is the people that must wake up 725 00:47:59,218 --> 00:48:04,108 and take more civic duties and more responsibility. 726 00:48:04,867 --> 00:48:07,671 If you see things around you, 727 00:48:08,671 --> 00:48:12,655 unjust, unclean, that need change, 728 00:48:13,491 --> 00:48:17,600 don't seat on your ass, use your voice! 729 00:48:17,851 --> 00:48:19,975 Take it to the streets! 730 00:48:20,140 --> 00:48:27,030 And it's election year, use your voice, use your voice! 731 00:48:28,617 --> 00:48:30,413 I still get enraged, 732 00:48:30,460 --> 00:48:35,960 I imagined that I was going to return and be a little bit more stately 733 00:48:35,985 --> 00:48:43,108 and be a little, a little wiser, maybe a little more, a little conservative, 734 00:48:43,437 --> 00:48:45,117 but it's not like that. 735 00:48:47,148 --> 00:48:49,936 Still consumed by that same creative impulse, 736 00:48:50,015 --> 00:48:54,835 Patti added photography to her music, poetry and drawing practices. 737 00:48:55,215 --> 00:48:58,049 Thanks to her Land 250 camera from the 1960s, 738 00:48:58,073 --> 00:49:01,359 she created sensitive, vintage-looking Polaroids. 739 00:49:02,866 --> 00:49:07,714 Robert Mapplethorpe's slippers, Virginia Woolf's bed, 740 00:49:07,957 --> 00:49:10,339 Arthur Rimbaud's tomb: 741 00:49:11,660 --> 00:49:16,441 Patti unveiled her relics, her memories, and her wanderings to the public. 742 00:49:17,363 --> 00:49:19,519 She dialogued with the dead, 743 00:49:19,574 --> 00:49:23,949 with those who had inspired her as well as those whose lives she'd shared. 744 00:49:24,042 --> 00:49:28,746 EXPOSITION LAND 250, 2008 She never created a hierarchy, and always stayed true to herself. 745 00:49:29,020 --> 00:49:34,722 I started taking Polaroids very seriously after the death of my husband 746 00:49:34,809 --> 00:49:40,818 because its simple, gave me immediate response to a creative need. 747 00:49:41,888 --> 00:49:46,435 After words and music, she was being recognized as a visual artist. 748 00:49:53,458 --> 00:49:56,513 In 2010, at the age of 64, 749 00:49:56,638 --> 00:50:00,294 Patti published Just Kids, her first autobiography. 750 00:50:00,412 --> 00:50:04,465 Through this narrative, she made good on her promise to Robert to tell their story. 751 00:50:04,789 --> 00:50:09,849 Digging through her memories, she conjured up her move to New York and her beginnings. 752 00:50:10,204 --> 00:50:13,052 I accepted a date with an older man 753 00:50:13,147 --> 00:50:16,767 and he walked me down to Tompkins Square Park 754 00:50:17,150 --> 00:50:23,624 and I was so nervous and we sat down. And then he said, “Would you like to come up to my apartment for a cocktail?” 755 00:50:23,686 --> 00:50:28,738 And I thought, “Oh, I'm done”, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do. 756 00:50:28,799 --> 00:50:33,191 And this boy appeared as if the clouds parted. 757 00:50:33,226 --> 00:50:37,193 This boy that I had just casually met once or twice, 758 00:50:37,948 --> 00:50:40,396 and I ran up to him and said, 759 00:50:40,873 --> 00:50:44,588 “Will you pretend you're my boyfriend?” And he said, “Sure”. 760 00:50:45,110 --> 00:50:49,910 He rescued me and then we never separated. 761 00:50:51,178 --> 00:50:56,012 We were so in tune in kind that 762 00:50:56,273 --> 00:50:59,267 when we did a work, we wanted the other to see it ; 763 00:50:59,407 --> 00:51:03,825 when we leapt to a new place, when we 764 00:51:03,903 --> 00:51:10,630 had an illumination, it felt truer, more magnified in the eyes of the other. 765 00:51:11,386 --> 00:51:15,179 Now over 70 years old, Patti has lived many lives. 766 00:51:15,335 --> 00:51:19,371 Always navigating the margins, she represents-through her radical nature... 767 00:51:19,424 --> 00:51:21,351 The very essence of an artist. 768 00:51:21,464 --> 00:51:27,366 But above all, she personifies a spirit of freedom, of fully being oneself. 769 00:51:27,912 --> 00:51:31,410 Once you finish a work, it belongs to the people, 770 00:51:31,497 --> 00:51:35,316 but what belongs to the artist is the process. But it's a struggle that I'm proud to have. 771 00:51:40,350 --> 00:51:43,105 It's decreed, the people rule. 772 00:51:43,129 --> 00:51:46,705 I've never been normal, but I'm just a normal eccentric person. 773 00:51:46,775 --> 00:51:51,314 Vengeful aspects became suspect, and bending low as if to hear 774 00:51:51,476 --> 00:51:57,868 My public life is something I do to share my energy or 775 00:51:57,929 --> 00:52:01,010 ideas with the people. 776 00:52:01,306 --> 00:52:04,508 But when I finish my concerts, I'm just myself, 777 00:52:04,735 --> 00:52:09,708 you know, I don't turn into a rock star to to perform, 778 00:52:09,733 --> 00:52:14,014 I'm wearing the same clothes I'm, I just go on stage, 779 00:52:14,118 --> 00:52:21,123 I spend two hours or so with the people, and then, you know back on my way.