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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White Rabbit
Patti Smith Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
One pill makes you small
And the one that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small
When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
"Feed your head, feed your head
Feed your head"
Patti Smith's song White Rabbit is a cover of the Jefferson Airplane classic song that tells the story of Alice from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The song is a psychedelic journey that draws on the book's themes of altered states of mind, fantasy, and logic. The lyrics are an invitation to embrace the experience of tripping on psychedelic drugs such as LSD, mescaline or psilocybin, as one can see in the opening lyrics: "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small, and the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all." In other words, the song speaks of the distortions of perception that drugs can evoke, as well as the idea that traditional medicine won't work to attain a higher state of consciousness.
The chorus of the song "Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall" references Alice growing in size or growing taller in the book from eating a cake with "Eat me" written on it. The lyrics "And if you go chasing rabbits and you know you're going to fall, Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call" refers to the character the Caterpillar who Alice consults for advice. Meanwhile, the references to the chessboard and the White Knight are a reference to the game that Alice plays in Wonderland, where the rules are arbitrary and the pieces are alive.
Overall, Patti Smith's version of the song evokes a sense of danger and unease as she sings with her unique vocal style. The song reminds the listener of the chaotic nature of the book, with its trippy and hypnotic qualities. In conclusion, White Rabbit captures the essence of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and delivers its message through the medium of psychedelic rock.
Line by Line Meaning
One pill makes you larger
There are substances that make you feel more powerful.
One pill makes you small
There are substances that make you feel weak and insignificant.
And the one that mother gives you
Despite your expectations or wishes for a different kind of experience, your mother might simply give you what she deems safe.
Don't do anything at all
The prescribed medication or treatment might not have the desired effect.
Go ask Alice
Referring to someone or something (Alice) that might have more experience than you in certain fields and whose advice should be sought.
When she's ten feet tall
When this person or thing appears to be larger than life.
And if you go chasing rabbits
If you pursue something that is elusive or difficult to catch.
And you know you're going to fall
And you are aware that this endeavor might go wrong or not produce the desired results.
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Say that an unexpected, perhaps even surreal, encounter has led you on this path.
Has given you the call
The sense that you are being summoned or somehow guided by other entities or forces than your own will.
Call Alice
Seek help or guidance from someone with more experience and wisdom than you have.
When she was just small
Even those who were once small and seemingly powerless can have a perspective on life that is insightful and valuable.
When men on the chessboard
When other people (symbolized by chess pieces) try to dictate your moves and actions.
Get up and tell you where to go
When they try to boss you around or give unsolicited advice.
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
When you are under the influence of substances that distort your perception and judgment.
And your mind is moving low
And you feel disoriented, confused, or unsure of what is happening around you.
Go ask Alice
Again, seek guidance from someone more experienced than you in navigating altered states of consciousness.
I think she'll know
This person is likely to have encountered similar situations and therefore might have valuable insights.
When logic and proportion
When the predictable, rational ways of understanding the world break down.
Have fallen sloppy dead
When nothing makes sense, and order is replaced by chaos.
And the White Knight is talking backwards
When even characters and symbols that were once associated with stability and order seem to have been distorted by the chaos.
And the Red Queen's off with her head
When the powerful turn on others, and even seemingly stable institutions or entities are dismantled.
Remember what the dormouse said
A reminder to look for wisdom and guidance in unexpected places or from unexpected sources.
"Feed your head, feed your head
This wisdom, once found, should be internalized and made part of you. You should seek to expand your understanding of the world and yourself, even in difficult or chaotic times.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Grace Wing Slick
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind