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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Patti Smith Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
From the other end of the hallway a rhythm was generating
Another boy was sliding up the hallway
He merged perfectly with the hallway,
He merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallway
The boy looked at Johnny, Johnny wanted to run,
But the movie kept moving as planned
He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny
The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees,
Started crashing his head against the locker,
Started crashing his head against the locker,
Started laughing hysterically
When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
Horses, horses, horses, horses
Coming in in all directions
White shining, silver studs with their nose in flames,
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.
Do you know how to pony like bony maroney
Do you know how to twist, well it goes like this, it goes like this
Baby mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligator
And you twist the twister like your baby sister
I want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, dig your baby sister
Rise up on her knees, do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee pee,
Roll down on her back, got to lose control, got to lose control,
Got to lose control and then you take control,
Then you're rolled down on your back and you like it like that,
Like it like that, like it like that, like it like that,
Then you do the watusi, yeah do the watusi
Life is filled with holes, Johnny's laying there, in his sperm coffin
Angel looks down at him and says, "Oh, pretty boy,
Can't you show me nothing but surrender?"
Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,
Taped to his chest there's the answer,
You got pen knives and jack knives and
Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred
Then he cries, then he screams, saying
Life is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brain
And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud,
Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,
And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi
There's a little place, a place called space
It's a pretty little place, it's across the tracks,
Across the tracks and the name of the place is you like it like that,
You like it like that, you like it like that, you like it like that,
And the name of the band is the
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes,
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes
Baby calm down, better calm down,
On the night, in the eye of the forest
There's a mare black and shining with yellow hair,
I put my fingers through her silken hair and found a stair,
I didn't waste time, I just walked right up and saw that
Up there, there is a sea
Up there, there is a sea
Up there, there is a sea
The sea's the possibility
There is no land but the land (Up there is just a sea of possibilities)
There is no sea but the sea (Up there is a wall of possibilities)
There is no keeper of the key (Up there there are several walls of possibilities)
Except for one who seizes possibilities, one who seizes possibilities. (Up there)
I seize the first possibility, is the sea around me
I was standing there with my legs spread like a sailor
I felt his hand on my knee (On the screen)
And I looked at Johnny and handed him a branch of cold flame (In the heart of man)
The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions
Gradually lapping into sea horses
He picked up the blade and he pressed it against his smooth throat(The spoon)
And let it deep in (The veins)
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities (It started hardening)
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities
I put my hand inside his cranium, oh we had such a brainiac-amour
But no more, no more, I gotta move from my mind to the area
(Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud)
And go Johnny go and do the watusi,
Yeah do the watusi, do the watusi
Shined open, coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encircling
Our lives are now entwined, we will fall yes we're together twining
Your nerves, your mane of the black shining horse
And my fingers all entwined in your silky hair,
I could feel it, it was the hair going through my fingers,
The hairs were like wires going through my body
I, I that's how I
That's how I
I died (At that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after)
(They knew what they were after)
(Everything on the current) Moved up
I tried to stop it, but it was too warm, too unbelievably smooth,
Like playing in the sea, in the sea of possibility, the possibility
Was a blade, a shiny blade, I hold the key to the sea of possibilities
There's no land, but the land
Looked at my hands, and there's a red stream
That went streaming through the sands like fingers,
Like arteries, like fingers
He lay, pressing it against his throat (Your eyes)
He opened his throat (Your eyes)
His vocal chords started shooting like (of a horse) mad pituitary glands
The scream he made (and my heart) was so high (my heart) pitched that nobody heard,
No one heard that cry,
No one heard (Johnny) the butterfly flapping in his throat,
Nobody heard, he was on that bed, it was like a sea of jelly,
And so he seized the first (His vocal chords shot up)
It was a black tube, he felt himself disintegrate (There is nothing happening at all)
And go inside the black tube, so when he looked out into the steep
Saw this sweet young thing (Fender one)
Humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter
In the sheets
There was a man
Dancing around
To the simple
Rock & roll
Song
The lyrics to Patti Smith's song "Land" are a surreal and abstract stream of consciousness narrative that seems to explore themes of violence, sexuality, identity, and the search for meaning and self-discovery. The first half of the song tells the story of a violent encounter between two boys in a school hallway, with Johnny being violently assaulted by another, unnamed boy. The scene then shifts to a strange and hallucinatory image of horses surrounding Johnny while a voice instructs him how to dance different styles. The lyrics then take a more abstract, poetic turn as Smith references the French poet Rimbaud and explores the idea of possibility and self-discovery. The song ends with a brief description of a man dancing to rock and roll music in his sheets.
One interpretation of the song's lyrics views them as a kind of journey or quest for understanding and self-discovery. Johnny's violent assault in the opening verses reflects the harsh, cruel reality of life, but his later encounters with horses and his exploration of different dance styles suggest a search for something more joyful and ecstatic. The references to Rimbaud and the exploration of possibility and the sea also suggest a search for something beyond the ordinary or mundane. The song seems to suggest that we are all on a journey of discovery, trying to make sense of the world around us and find meaning in our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
The boy was in the hallway drinking a glass of tea
The scene opens with a boy drinking tea in a hallway.
From the other end of the hallway a rhythm was generating
A rhythm is being created from the other end of the hallway.
Another boy was sliding up the hallway
Another boy is seen sliding up the hallway.
He merged perfectly with the hallway,
The boy merges into the hallway smoothly.
He merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallway
The boy merges into the hallway perfectly, reflecting in the hallway mirror.
The boy looked at Johnny, Johnny wanted to run,
The boy looks at Johnny, who wants to run away from him.
But the movie kept moving as planned
The scene continues to progress as anticipated.
The boy took Johnny, he pushed him against the locker,
The boy grabs Johnny, shoves him against a locker.
He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny
The boy assaults Johnny with force.
The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees,
The assailant vanishes and Johnny falls to his knees.
Started crashing his head against the locker,
Johnny begins to hit his head on the locker repeatedly.
Started laughing hysterically
Johnny starts laughing uncontrollably.
When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by Horses, horses, horses, horses
Johnny senses horses surrounding him from all directions.
Coming in in all directions White shining, silver studs with their nose in flames,
The horses are white, with shiny silver studs, flaming nostrils.
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.
Johnny sees horses everywhere.
Do you know how to pony like bony maroney Do you know how to twist, well it goes like this, it goes like this Baby mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligator And you twist the twister like your baby sister I want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, dig your baby sister Rise up on her knees, do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee pee, Roll down on her back, got to lose control, got to lose control, Got to lose control and then you take control, Then you're rolled down on your back and you like it like that, Like it like that, like it like that, like it like that, Then you do the watusi, yeah do the watusi
The scene changes, and someone is teaching dance moves, while expressing some controversial desires.
Life is filled with holes, Johnny's laying there, in his sperm coffin
The lyrics reveal that life is full of problems and Johnny is on the ground, in a helpless position.
Angel looks down at him and says, "Oh, pretty boy, Can't you show me nothing but surrender?"
An angel talks to Johnny, asking him to keep fighting and not to give up.
Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket, Taped to his chest there's the answer,
Johnny gets up, takes off his jacket, and reveals something written on his chest.
You got pen knives and jack knives and Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred Then he cries, then he screams, saying Life is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brain And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud, Go Rimbaud, Go Rimbaud, And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi
Johnny laments about the harshness of life and turns to drugs, quoting Rimbaud, then he dances the watusi.
There's a little place, a place called space It's a pretty little place, it's across the tracks, Across the tracks and the name of the place is you like it like that, You like it like that, you like it like that, you like it like that, And the name of the band is the Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes
The singer introduces a place called space, nearby and a band called the Twistelettes.
Baby calm down, better calm down, On the night, in the eye of the forest There's a mare black and shining with yellow hair, I put my fingers through her silken hair and found a stair, I didn't waste time, I just walked right up and saw that Up there, there is a sea Up there, there is a sea Up there, there is a sea The sea's the possibility There is no land but the land (Up there is just a sea of possibilities) There is no sea but the sea (Up there is a wall of possibilities) There is no keeper of the key (Up there there are several walls of possibilities) Except for one who seizes possibilities, one who seizes possibilities. (Up there) I seize the first possibility, is the sea around me I was standing there with my legs spread like a sailor I felt his hand on my knee (On the screen) And I looked at Johnny and handed him a branch of cold flame (In the heart of man) The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions Gradually lapping into sea horses He picked up the blade and he pressed it against his smooth throat(The spoon) And let it deep in (The veins) Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities (It started hardening) Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities
The artist is in a forest and feels a sense of possibility, then sees a sea. There's a reference to something happening 'on the screen', then Johnny is handed something symbolic. A knife is present and someone uses it on themselves while reflecting on the sea of possibilities.
I put my hand inside his cranium, oh we had such a brainiac-amour But no more, no more, I gotta move from my mind to the area (Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud) And go Johnny go and do the watusi, Yeah do the watusi, do the watusi Shined open, coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encircling Our lives are now entwined, we will fall yes we're together twining Your nerves, your mane of the black shining horse And my fingers all entwined in your silky hair, I could feel it, it was the hair going through my fingers, The hairs were like wires going through my body I, I that's how I That's how I I died (At that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after) (They knew what they were after) (Everything on the current) Moved up I tried to stop it, but it was too warm, too unbelievably smooth, Like playing in the sea, in the sea of possibility, the possibility Was a blade, a shiny blade, I hold the key to the sea of possibilities There's no land, but the land
The singer has experienced a relationship on a deeper level, reflecting on thoughts and intertwining lives with another person(s). There's a reference to the Tower of Babel and the idea of something being beyond their grasp.
Looked at my hands, and there's a red stream That went streaming through the sands like fingers, Like arteries, like fingers He lay, pressing it against his throat (Your eyes) He opened his throat (Your eyes) His vocal chords started shooting like (of a horse) mad pituitary glands The scream he made (and my heart) was so high (my heart) pitched that nobody heard, No one heard that cry, No one heard (Johnny) the butterfly flapping in his throat, Nobody heard, he was on that bed, it was like a sea of jelly, And so he seized the first (His vocal chords shot up) It was a black tube, he felt himself disintegrate (There is nothing happening at all) And go inside the black tube, so when he looked out into the steep Saw this sweet young thing (Fender one) Humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter In the sheets There was a man Dancing around To the simple Rock & roll Song
The singer is reflecting on life, death, and the idea of nobody hearing someone's cry for help. The lyrics go on to describe a carefree moment and the simplicity of rock and roll music.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BYRON GAY, RICHARD A. WHITING
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind