I appreciated your candor, Charles, in adding Patti to your rock ladies salute! I didn't really "get" her either, early on...at least, artistically. As you can imagine, I enjoyed watching how she played with the press, and how they reacted to her.
As an avid reader of all rock press (and she was a darling of the press...they seemed to enjoy her eccentricities), I was certainly aware of her every move, even before her "Horses" Arista 1975 debut! As a NY performer, she was always written about in the same breath as all the emerging NYC punk acts, like Ramones, T. Heads, Television, et al, a scene I was following intently. In fact, I had her rare '74 indie "Hey Joe"/"Piss Factory" single.
Also, as a fan of record companies and their inner workings, I was interested to see how (and why) Clive Davis signed her, and would approach her career...i.e. how long would it take before the inevitable "I want some hit singles" memo "hit her desk"! As someone who brought in Janis, Bruce, and many others, and oversaw Dylan's career on Columbia, Clive was certainly not a newbie in guiding artistically prodigious artists!
Speaking of Bruce, I always enjoyed "Because the Night"; adding to my enjoyment was the songwriting notion of Bruce actually deigning to write a song with a collaborator....plus, it was interesting to observe Patti going full-bore commercial in a classic pop songwriting template. Without being a Bruce completist, I'm willing to bet that "BTN" is STILL the only song he's written with ANYBODY else!
I bought her "Babel" book in '78, and briefly met her shortly thereafter to have her sign it. That autographed book was the very first item (of an eventual 5,000 to 7,000 items, mostly promo LPs and promo items) I sold on eBay starting in '98, 20 years later! Can't recall how much it brought in.
A radio story: In October '76, when her 2nd LP, "Radio Ethiopia" was released, I was doing a weeknights 7-midnight shift at WFMF-FM102, Baton Rouge, Louisiana's commercial "progressive rock"/AOR station. I was 21. Wanting to be at least as renegade as Patti, on the day we got the album in the station, I played the 10-minute title track, completely without audition (which you just don't/didn't do in radio!).
Needless to say, while the track was far too long to play (and unlistenable, as it turned out), it lit up my phones with Baton Rougians bellowing stuff like, "Play 'Free Bird,' man!" Also, in the song, she utters the dreaded "f"-word (which, again, I couldn't know, as this, too, was MY first listen!!)😱I kept waiting for our station manager to call, but alas, he didn't...nor did the FCC! My saving grace is that I played it in the last hour of my shift, sometime in the 11pm hour.
I was fascinated by the bravado in her art, and how SO different in everything she was and did than anyone else...(she even played guitar). I also loved the fact that she employed a rock critic/writer, Lenny Kaye (who also curated the "Nuggets" compilation album) as a guitarist!
If you ever do a series on rock writers who became rock musicians, don't leave out John Mendelsohn (L.A. Times, Rolling Stone), who was in Christopher Milk (on United Artists, Warner Bros. with an EP on Bomp Records)!
Those are my Patti stories and rememberies! I thank you for the real estate to express 'em all, Charles! You're exceedingly tolerant, patient, and fun to read! Keep it up!💿🎵🎶🎼🎸🎤👍
I can always expect some cool stories and color from you Brad! The "play Free Bird" story is hilarious--that's become almost a stock joke now, something us old farts will yell during some new, weird performance-art thing. So it sounds like Patti was just one of those larger-than life personalities, from the get-go. For me, having mixed feelings about her music, some great, some, as you say, unlistenable, is almost beside the point. She forced people to think about shit. Lou Reed did that. So, I'm working my way up to the modern era, stick with me and, of course, suggestions always welcome!
Patti was that...larger than life! Her love of poetry left me cool, too, off the bat (not really liking or understanding it). Lou Reed...ha! I actually had a promo copy of his 1975 "Metal Machine Music" double album....can you believe that was actually on RCA's Red Seal classical label?! I guess if that was Lou's F.U. to the label, they'd "oh, yeah?" right back and put him on their classical imprint! Talk about "unlistenable"!!
I'm actually having fun trying to guess not only who you'll feature next, but who all might be in your ultimate Lady Rock "scrapbook"!
Always adding to the scrapbook, so new suggestions are always welcome. I only recently found Barbara Lynn, and while Patti Smith had been around forever, I only recently started digging into her work. So many artists....
I appreciated your candor, Charles, in adding Patti to your rock ladies salute! I didn't really "get" her either, early on...at least, artistically. As you can imagine, I enjoyed watching how she played with the press, and how they reacted to her.
As an avid reader of all rock press (and she was a darling of the press...they seemed to enjoy her eccentricities), I was certainly aware of her every move, even before her "Horses" Arista 1975 debut! As a NY performer, she was always written about in the same breath as all the emerging NYC punk acts, like Ramones, T. Heads, Television, et al, a scene I was following intently. In fact, I had her rare '74 indie "Hey Joe"/"Piss Factory" single.
Also, as a fan of record companies and their inner workings, I was interested to see how (and why) Clive Davis signed her, and would approach her career...i.e. how long would it take before the inevitable "I want some hit singles" memo "hit her desk"! As someone who brought in Janis, Bruce, and many others, and oversaw Dylan's career on Columbia, Clive was certainly not a newbie in guiding artistically prodigious artists!
Speaking of Bruce, I always enjoyed "Because the Night"; adding to my enjoyment was the songwriting notion of Bruce actually deigning to write a song with a collaborator....plus, it was interesting to observe Patti going full-bore commercial in a classic pop songwriting template. Without being a Bruce completist, I'm willing to bet that "BTN" is STILL the only song he's written with ANYBODY else!
I bought her "Babel" book in '78, and briefly met her shortly thereafter to have her sign it. That autographed book was the very first item (of an eventual 5,000 to 7,000 items, mostly promo LPs and promo items) I sold on eBay starting in '98, 20 years later! Can't recall how much it brought in.
A radio story: In October '76, when her 2nd LP, "Radio Ethiopia" was released, I was doing a weeknights 7-midnight shift at WFMF-FM102, Baton Rouge, Louisiana's commercial "progressive rock"/AOR station. I was 21. Wanting to be at least as renegade as Patti, on the day we got the album in the station, I played the 10-minute title track, completely without audition (which you just don't/didn't do in radio!).
Needless to say, while the track was far too long to play (and unlistenable, as it turned out), it lit up my phones with Baton Rougians bellowing stuff like, "Play 'Free Bird,' man!" Also, in the song, she utters the dreaded "f"-word (which, again, I couldn't know, as this, too, was MY first listen!!)😱I kept waiting for our station manager to call, but alas, he didn't...nor did the FCC! My saving grace is that I played it in the last hour of my shift, sometime in the 11pm hour.
I was fascinated by the bravado in her art, and how SO different in everything she was and did than anyone else...(she even played guitar). I also loved the fact that she employed a rock critic/writer, Lenny Kaye (who also curated the "Nuggets" compilation album) as a guitarist!
If you ever do a series on rock writers who became rock musicians, don't leave out John Mendelsohn (L.A. Times, Rolling Stone), who was in Christopher Milk (on United Artists, Warner Bros. with an EP on Bomp Records)!
Those are my Patti stories and rememberies! I thank you for the real estate to express 'em all, Charles! You're exceedingly tolerant, patient, and fun to read! Keep it up!💿🎵🎶🎼🎸🎤👍
I can always expect some cool stories and color from you Brad! The "play Free Bird" story is hilarious--that's become almost a stock joke now, something us old farts will yell during some new, weird performance-art thing. So it sounds like Patti was just one of those larger-than life personalities, from the get-go. For me, having mixed feelings about her music, some great, some, as you say, unlistenable, is almost beside the point. She forced people to think about shit. Lou Reed did that. So, I'm working my way up to the modern era, stick with me and, of course, suggestions always welcome!
Patti was that...larger than life! Her love of poetry left me cool, too, off the bat (not really liking or understanding it). Lou Reed...ha! I actually had a promo copy of his 1975 "Metal Machine Music" double album....can you believe that was actually on RCA's Red Seal classical label?! I guess if that was Lou's F.U. to the label, they'd "oh, yeah?" right back and put him on their classical imprint! Talk about "unlistenable"!!
I'm actually having fun trying to guess not only who you'll feature next, but who all might be in your ultimate Lady Rock "scrapbook"!
Always adding to the scrapbook, so new suggestions are always welcome. I only recently found Barbara Lynn, and while Patti Smith had been around forever, I only recently started digging into her work. So many artists....