Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Her mother, Beverly, was a jazz singer, and father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford, New Jersey. Raised the daughter of a Jehovah's Witness mother, she claims she had a strong religious, Bible-based education but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining. (She later wrote the opening line of her cover version of Them's Gloria in response to this experience.) After graduating from Deptford Township High School in 1964, Smith went to work in a factory.
In 1967 she left Glassboro State Teachers College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with friend, poet Janet Hamill. Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group LPs, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989. In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to New York City, she lived in the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe. The two frequented the fashionable Max's Kansas City and CBGB nightclubs. The same year Smith appeared with Wayne County in Jackie Curtis's play "Femme Fatale". As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early '70s painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in Sam Shepard's "Cowboy Mouth". (The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".) She collaborated with Allen Lanier of Blue Öyster Cult, who recorded several of the songs to which Smith had contributed, including Debbie Denise (after her poem "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise"), Career of Evil, Fire of Unknown Origin, The Revenge of Vera Gemini, and Shooting Shark. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in Creem magazine.
By 1974 Patti Smith was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums and Richard Sohl, on piano. Financed by Robert Mapplethorpe, the band recorded a first single, "Hey Joe/Piss Factory", in 1974. The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst ("Patty Hearst, you're standing there in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army flag with your legs spread, I was wondering were you gettin' it every night from a black revolutionary man and his women..."). The B-side describes the helpless anger Smith had felt while working on a factory assembly line and the salvation she discovered in the form of a shoplifted book, the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations.
Patti Smith Group was signed by Clive Davis of Arista Records, and 1975 saw the release of Smith's first album, Horses, produced by John Cale amidst some tension. The album fused punk rock and spoken poetry and begins with a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria, and Smith's opening words: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine."
As Patti Smith Group toured the United States and Europe, punk's popularity grew. The rawer sound of the group's second album, Radio Ethiopia, reflected this development. Considerably less accessible than Horses, Radio Ethiopia received poor reviews. However, several of its songs have stood the test of time, and Smith still performs them regularly in concert. On January 23, 1977, while touring in support of the record, Smith accidentally danced off a high stage in Tampa, Florida and fell 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit, breaking several neck vertebrae. The injury required a period of rest and an intensive round of physical therapy, during which time she was able to reassess, re-energize and reorganize her life. Patti Smith Group produced two further albums before the end of the 1970s. Easter (1978) was her most commercially successful record, containing single Because the Night co-written with Bruce Springsteen. Wave (1979) was less successful, although songs Frederick and Dancing Barefoot both received commercial airplay.
Before the release of Wave, Smith, now separated from long-time partner Allen Lanier, met Fred Sonic Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 and his own Sonic's Rendezvous Band, who adored poetry as much as she did. ("Wave"'s "Dancing Barefoot" and "Frederick" were both dedicated to him.) The running joke at the time was that she only married Fred because she would not have to change her name. Patti and Fred had a son, Jackson, and later a daughter, Jesse. Through most of the 1980s Patti was in semi-retirement from music, living with her family north of Detroit in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. On June 1988 she released Dream Of Life, which included song People Have the Power. Fred Smith died on November 4, 1994. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother, Todd, and original keyboard player, Richard Sohl. When her son Jackson turned 21, Smith decided to move back to New York. After the impact of these deaths, her friends Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Allen Ginsberg (whom she had known since her early years in New York) urged her to go back out on the road. She toured briefly with Bob Dylan in December 1995 (chronicled in a book of photographs by Stipe).
In 1996, Smith worked with her long-time colleagues to record the haunting Gone Again, featuring About a Boy, a tribute to Kurt Cobain. Smith was a fan of Cobain, but was more angered than saddened by his suicide. That same year she collaborated with Stipe on E-Bow the Letter, a song on R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which she has also performed live with the band. After release of "Gone Again", Patti Smith has recorded two new albums: Peace and Noise in 1997 (with the single 1959, about the invasion of Tibet) and Gung Ho in 2000 (with songs about Ho Chi Minh and Smith's late father). A box set of her work up to that time, "The Patti Smith Masters", came out in 1996, and 2002 saw the release of "Land (1975–2002)", a two-CD compilation that includes a memorable cover of Prince's When Doves Cry. Smith's solo art exhibition, "Strange Messenger" was hosted at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh on September 28, 2002.
On April 27, 2004 Patti Smith released Trampin' which included several songs about motherhood, partly in tribute to Smith's mother who died two years before. Smith curated the Meltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005, the penultimate event being the first live performance of "Horses" in its entirety. Guitarist Tom Verlaine took Oliver Ray's place. This live performance was released later in the year as "Horses/Horses". In August 2005 Smith gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. On July 10, 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to her influence on rock music, Minister also noted Smith's appreciation of Arthur Rimbaud. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith performed at CBGB nightclub, with a 3½-hour tour de force to close out Manhattan's music venue. She took the stage at 9:30 p.m. (EDT) and closed for the night (and forever for the venue) at a few minutes after 1:00 a.m., performing her song Elegie, and finally reading a list of punk rock musicians and advocates who had died in the previous years.
Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame March 12, 2007. She dedicated her award to the memory of her late husband, Fred, and gave a performance of The Rolling Stones classic, Gimme Shelter. As the closing number of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Smith's "People Have the Power" was used for the big celebrity jam that always ends the program.
From March 28 to June 22, 2008 the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris hosted a major exhibition of the visual work of Patti Smith, "Land 250", drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. Smith is the subject of a 2008 documentary film, "Patti Smith: Dream of Life". http://www.dreamoflifethemovie.com/
In June 2012, Smith released her 11th studio album, "Banga." In an interview on CBS News Sunday Morning on April 1, 2012, Smith explained the album's title: "for those who are curious, you can find what Banga is if you read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov." In The Master and Margarita, Banga is Pontius Pilate's dog who Pilate could freely complain about the hemicrania that tortured him. Other songs on the album were also inspired by literature, particularly "April Fool," inspired by Nikolai Gogol.
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Free Money
Patti Smith Lyrics
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Find a ticket, win a lottery
Scoop the pearls up from the sea
Cash them in and buy you all the things you need
Every night before I rest my head
See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed
I know they're stolen, but I don't feel bad
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me
Oh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free
I'll buy you a jet plane, baby, get you on a higher plane to a jet stream
And take you through the stratosphere
And check out the planets there and then take you down deep
Where it's hot, hot in Arabia, baby, then cool, cold fields of snow
And we'll roll, dream, roll, dream, roll, roll, dream, dream
When we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it
We'll dream it, dream it for free, free money
Free money, free money, free money, free money, free money
Free money
Every night before I go to sleep
Find a ticket, win a lottery
Every night before I rest my head
See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me
Baby, I know our troubles will be gone
Oh, I know our troubles will be gone, goin', gone
If we dream, dream, dream for free
And when we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it
Let's dream it, we'll dream it for free, free money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money, money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money
Free money, free money, free money, free
The song "Free Money" by Patti Smith follows an intriguing narrative of the singer's desire to provide for their loved one, regardless of the unconventional means they take to do so. The opening lines of the song emphasize this desire; that every night before going to sleep, the singer seeks to win the lottery or find some other means of gaining access to money. The repetition of this line emphasizes the importance of the singer's wish to support their loved one.
The sense of desperation and urgency is palpable, as the singer talks about "scooping pearls from the sea" and "buying all the things you need." This seems to suggest that the singer's loved one is in dire need of material support. There is also an underlying sense of guilt, as the singer admits that the money they are using to buy these things is stolen. However, they do not feel bad about it, suggesting that their need to provide for their loved one overrides their sense of morality.
The chorus, "Free money, free money, free money," while repetitive, emphasizes the singer's longing for financial security. The final lines of the song, where the singer talks about dreaming for free, seems to suggest a rejection of the capitalist system that they have been participating in. The song can be seen as a commentary on the American Dream, the pressure to succeed, and the lengths people are willing to go for those they care about.
Line by Line Meaning
Every night before I go to sleep
I think about finding a way to win the lottery.
Find a ticket, win a lottery
I dream of finding a winning lottery ticket so I can buy you everything you need.
Scoop the pearls up from the sea
I imagine finding valuable things, like pearls, to sell and make money.
Cash them in and buy you all the things you need
I want to use the money I make to buy you everything you need.
Every night before I rest my head
I can't stop thinking about how to make enough money to take care of you.
See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed
I imagine all the money I could have and what I could do with it.
I know they're stolen, but I don't feel bad
I am willing to do wrong things if it means getting the money to take care of you.
I take that money, buy you things you never had
I want to use the stolen money to buy you things you've never had before.
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me
It would make me so happy to be able to provide for you.
Oh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free
I want to find a way to get everything you need without having to pay for it.
I'll buy you a jet plane, baby, get you on a higher plane to a jet stream
I dream of buying you a jet plane so we can travel to amazing places.
And take you through the stratosphere
I want to take you up high into the atmosphere and show you the world from a different perspective.
And check out the planets there and then take you down deep
I want to show you the beauty of space and then explore the depths of the ocean.
Where it's hot, hot in Arabia, baby, then cool, cold fields of snow
I want to take you to both hot and cold places around the world.
And we'll roll, dream, roll, dream, roll, roll, dream, dream
We will have amazing adventures together and never stop dreaming.
When we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it
Even when we're just dreaming, we can still imagine amazing experiences.
We'll dream it, dream it for free, free money
We don't need money to dream and imagine wonderful things.
Free money, free money, free money, free money, free money
Money isn't everything when it comes to our happiness and dreams.
Baby, I know our troubles will be gone
I believe that if we work hard and dream big, we can overcome our problems.
Oh, I know our troubles will be gone, goin', gone
Our problems may seem like they're here to stay, but I believe we can find a way to get rid of them.
If we dream, dream, dream for free
Our dreams are free and we can imagine anything we want without having to pay for it.
Let's dream it, we'll dream it for free, free money
Let's keep dreaming and imagining amazing things without worrying about money.
Free money, free money, free money
Money can't buy happiness, but our dreams and imaginations can.
Free money, free money, free money, money
We don't need money to live happy and fulfilling lives, we just need to dream.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LEONARD J KAYE, PATTI SMITH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind