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.
www.pattismith.net
MySpace
Wave
Patti Smith Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I, I was watching you from...
Actually I've watched you for a long time.
I like to watch you when you're walking
Back and forth on the beach.
And the way your the way your cloth looks.
I like I like to see the edges
The bottom of it
It's real nice to talk to you.
I didn't. I-I-I-I-I...how are you? how are you?
(oh albino)
I saw I saw you from your balcony window
And you were standing there waving at everybody
It was really great because there was about
A billion people there, but when I was waving to you,
Uh, the way your face was, it was so, the way your face was
It made me feel exactly like we're
It's not that you were just waving to me, but
That we were we were waving to each other.
Really it was really wonderful
I really felt happy
It really made me happy
And. Um. I. I just wanted to thank you
Because
You
You really really you made me
You made me feel good
And
Oh I, it's nothing.
I Um. I. well I'm just clumsy.
Yeah.
No, it's just a band aid.
No, it's ok.
Oh no, I'm always doing
Something's always happening to me
Yeah. well. I'll be seein' ya.
Goodbye. bye.
Wave thou art pretty.
Wave thou art high
Wave thou are music
Wave thou are white
(oh albino)
(oh albino)
Wave thou art high
(wave thou art pretty)
Wave to the city
Wave
Goodbye.
Goodbye sir.
Goodbye papa.
The lyrics to Patti Smith's "Wave" depict the singer's infatuation with someone they have been watching from afar. The singer expresses their admiration for the person's physical appearance and the way they move on the beach. They recount a moment where they saw the person wave and felt a connection through that gesture. The singer then thanks the person for making them feel good before leaving.
On a deeper level, the lyrics explore the often-transient nature of human connection and the significance of small gestures in fostering emotional bonds. The singer's fixation on the physical appearance and behavior of the person they are observing suggests a shallow infatuation, but the moment they share through waving transcends the surface-level attraction and becomes a source of genuine happiness. The lyrics also explore themes of isolation and longing, as the singer has been "running after" their target "for a long time," suggesting a sense of unrequited affection or a desire to connect with someone they feel is out of reach.
Line by Line Meaning
Hi. Hi. I was running after you for a long time.
Greetings. Greetings. I have been chasing your attention for quite some time.
I, I was watching you from...
I was observing your movements from afar...
Actually I've watched you for a long time.
In reality, I've been a long time admirer of yours.
I like to watch you when you're walking
I enjoy observing you while you stroll...
Back and forth on the beach.
...near the coast, walking back and forth.
And the way your the way your cloth looks.
I take pleasure in the appearance of the fabric you wear.
I like I like to see the edges
I like seeing the edges of your clothes...
The bottom of it
...particulary the lower area...
Get all wet when you're walking near the water there.
...getting soaking wet when you're near the ocean.
It's real nice to talk to you.
It's great to converse with you...
I didn't. I-I-I-I-I...how are you? how are you?
Excuse me, How are you doing?
(oh albino)
Addressing someone with an albino complexion.
I saw I saw you from your balcony window
I caught sight of you from your balcony window
And you were standing there waving at everybody
...where you were standing and greeting the crowd with your hand.
It was really great because there was about
It was splendid considering the sheer number...
A billion people there, but when I was waving to you,
...lots of people around, yet when I waved at you...
Uh, the way your face was, it was so, the way your face was
...the way you looked, your expression was so perfect...
It made me feel exactly like we're
It made me feel like the both of us were...
It's not that you were just waving to me, but
...as if you were waving back, not just making a general wave.
That we were we were waving to each other.
...that we were mutually waving at each other.
Really it was really wonderful
Truly, it was a wonderful feeling.
I really felt happy
I was genuinely happy.
And. Um. I. I just wanted to thank you
And, well, I just want to express gratitude to you.
Because
Thank you because...
You
You, of course.
You really really you made me
...you greatly pleased me...
You made me feel good
...you made me feel really wonderful.
And
Moreover,
Um. I. well I'm just clumsy.
...I have to admit that I tend to be rather clumsy.
Yeah.
Yes, it's true.
No, it's just a band aid.
I'm just wearing a band-aid...
No, it's ok.
No worries, it's perfectly fine.
Oh no, I'm always doing
Actually, I tend to...
Something's always happening to me
Something or other always seems to happen to me.
Yeah. well. I'll be seein' ya.
Right then, take care, I bid thee goodbye.
Goodbye. bye.
Goodbye, goodbye.
Wave thou art pretty.
Hi there, pretty wave.
Wave thou art high
You're high wave,
Wave thou are music
You are like music, wave.
Wave thou are white
White as you are, wave.
(oh albino)
Hello white-skinned person.
(oh albino)
Hello white-skinned person.
Wave thou art high
You're a high wave,
(wave thou art pretty)
A pretty wave indeed
Wave to the city
Wave to the city, wave...
Wave
Wave...
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Goodbye sir.
Goodbye, sir.
Goodbye papa.
Goodbye, father.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CLIFFORD RAY SMITH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind