(Credit: Jody Kolodzey)
Culture » December 1, 2003
Patti Smith: Spit & Image
Against an entertainment industry that seems so wedded to the cosmetics industry that a woman’s face is likely to be the only thing she doesn’t bare, Patti Smith’s appearance is a shocker.
She is well-scrubbed without being wholesome, with a defiantly naked face that challenges prevailing notions of gender and beauty. She wears a single-breasted black suit jacket with a discreet peace button on the lapel and a small stain between the pocket and the hem on the left side. Her hair has the swingy movement of the freshly washed, but it is ripply, almost wild, neither straightened nor curled, devoid of what stylists refer to as “product.” Although it shines the expected shade of black under the fluorescent lighting of the Green Room, the stage lights lift it to a pale brown, streaked with grey and haloed in blood red.
And she spits.
Not once, not twice, but four times during a recent performance at the Annenberg Center here, Smith cants her head to the left and, pfwwt, does that thing that all those weathered metal subway signs tell you not to.
This is the first time I’ve seen Smith in concert, the first time I’ve shot her, and capturing her mid-expulsion becomes my brass ring for the night, but she consistently surprises me. I click away, and nod as a guard stationed at the edge of the stage frowns and whispers, “I didn’t believe it the first time.”
From some angles, particularly when she is wearing glasses, Smith resembles John Lennon, or perhaps one of the fussier denizens of The Wind in the Willows; from others, her white shirt poufing over her hip-slung trousers and freighting her frail frame with a deceptive corpulence, she looks like Joe Cocker, and her astonishingly small hands even ride the air in a series of gestures that, like his, hover between aggression and palsy.
Early in her career, she made no secret of her emulation of Keith Richards, but as she sings her mouth is pure Mick Jagger: prehensile and undulating, almost reptilian.
————–
Smith didn’t start performing until she was 25, an age at which many of today’s pop stars find their careers are over, and didn’t record her first album, Horses, until she was 29. She bailed a mere five years later, married guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith of the MC5, moved to a Detroit suburb, had a couple of kids and devoted herself to raising them. She resurfaced in the mid-90s, widowed and wizened and waxing prolific. She released five albums in succession, doubling her discography and culminating in last year’s retrospective Land: An Anthology, 1975-2002. Meanwhile, fashion designers from New York and London to Antwerp and Milan started outfitting female models in slouchy black menswear and citing Smith as their muse. She will turn 57 in December.
Her face is ravaged now, coarsened and bushy-browed; it doesn’t register as pretty until she smiles, which I’m surprised to see she does quite often—between songs, to her bandmates and to her sister Kimberly, whom she invites onstage to play guitar after being startled by her entry to the Green Room before the show. “You sounded just like Mom,” Smith had said as she turned when her sister called her name from the doorway. Later in the show, Smith dedicates a song to another sister, Linda. There are many things that Smith has repudiated, but family is not one of them.
Smith’s cover of the Van Morrison song “G-L-O-R-I-A” often is cited as evidence of her indiscriminate libertinism, but I’m not sure if she ever was truly bisexual or just didn’t play up to men the way female rock stars are supposed to. Some cultural critics idealized Smith because they considered her in touch with her masculine side, but I’ve never been comfortable with the disassembling of self and the conscription of societal roles—feminine side, inner child, etc.—onto the individual psyche. No, this is what raw woman looks like, thinks like, sounds like; deal with it. Yes, Smith’s mufti could mean she is adopting, co-opting the uniform of the ruling body. Or it could simply be that it’s more comfortable to dress that way.
Smith is here in conjunction with an exhibit of her visual art at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemprary Art, the same museum that hosted Robert Mapplethorpe’s retrospective in 1988 without fanfare or censure before it moved on to Cincinnati and scandalized Washington. “Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith” premiered at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh last year and next opens at the Haus der Kunst in Munich in December. She is here on a break from recording a CD that will be released early in 2004. “This is my night off,” she tells the audience.
————–
Early in the set, Smith dedicates a new song to martyred activist Rachel Corrie, adding, “If you don’t know who she is, I’ll tell you later.” She never does. At the end of the show, she segues from The Declaration of Independence into a litany of the atrocities of George W. Bush and glides into a rendition of “People Have the Power,” a song that loaned its name to the tour she has been doing with Ralph Nader. As Smith’s work has transitioned from the personal to the more overtly political, Nader has supplanted Mapplethorpe as her ideological consort.
She sings:
She is well-scrubbed without being wholesome, with a defiantly naked face that challenges prevailing notions of gender and beauty. She wears a single-breasted black suit jacket with a discreet peace button on the lapel and a small stain between the pocket and the hem on the left side. Her hair has the swingy movement of the freshly washed, but it is ripply, almost wild, neither straightened nor curled, devoid of what stylists refer to as “product.” Although it shines the expected shade of black under the fluorescent lighting of the Green Room, the stage lights lift it to a pale brown, streaked with grey and haloed in blood red.
And she spits.
Not once, not twice, but four times during a recent performance at the Annenberg Center here, Smith cants her head to the left and, pfwwt, does that thing that all those weathered metal subway signs tell you not to.
This is the first time I’ve seen Smith in concert, the first time I’ve shot her, and capturing her mid-expulsion becomes my brass ring for the night, but she consistently surprises me. I click away, and nod as a guard stationed at the edge of the stage frowns and whispers, “I didn’t believe it the first time.”
From some angles, particularly when she is wearing glasses, Smith resembles John Lennon, or perhaps one of the fussier denizens of The Wind in the Willows; from others, her white shirt poufing over her hip-slung trousers and freighting her frail frame with a deceptive corpulence, she looks like Joe Cocker, and her astonishingly small hands even ride the air in a series of gestures that, like his, hover between aggression and palsy.
Early in her career, she made no secret of her emulation of Keith Richards, but as she sings her mouth is pure Mick Jagger: prehensile and undulating, almost reptilian.
————–
Smith didn’t start performing until she was 25, an age at which many of today’s pop stars find their careers are over, and didn’t record her first album, Horses, until she was 29. She bailed a mere five years later, married guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith of the MC5, moved to a Detroit suburb, had a couple of kids and devoted herself to raising them. She resurfaced in the mid-90s, widowed and wizened and waxing prolific. She released five albums in succession, doubling her discography and culminating in last year’s retrospective Land: An Anthology, 1975-2002. Meanwhile, fashion designers from New York and London to Antwerp and Milan started outfitting female models in slouchy black menswear and citing Smith as their muse. She will turn 57 in December.
Her face is ravaged now, coarsened and bushy-browed; it doesn’t register as pretty until she smiles, which I’m surprised to see she does quite often—between songs, to her bandmates and to her sister Kimberly, whom she invites onstage to play guitar after being startled by her entry to the Green Room before the show. “You sounded just like Mom,” Smith had said as she turned when her sister called her name from the doorway. Later in the show, Smith dedicates a song to another sister, Linda. There are many things that Smith has repudiated, but family is not one of them.
Smith’s cover of the Van Morrison song “G-L-O-R-I-A” often is cited as evidence of her indiscriminate libertinism, but I’m not sure if she ever was truly bisexual or just didn’t play up to men the way female rock stars are supposed to. Some cultural critics idealized Smith because they considered her in touch with her masculine side, but I’ve never been comfortable with the disassembling of self and the conscription of societal roles—feminine side, inner child, etc.—onto the individual psyche. No, this is what raw woman looks like, thinks like, sounds like; deal with it. Yes, Smith’s mufti could mean she is adopting, co-opting the uniform of the ruling body. Or it could simply be that it’s more comfortable to dress that way.
Smith is here in conjunction with an exhibit of her visual art at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemprary Art, the same museum that hosted Robert Mapplethorpe’s retrospective in 1988 without fanfare or censure before it moved on to Cincinnati and scandalized Washington. “Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith” premiered at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh last year and next opens at the Haus der Kunst in Munich in December. She is here on a break from recording a CD that will be released early in 2004. “This is my night off,” she tells the audience.
————–
Early in the set, Smith dedicates a new song to martyred activist Rachel Corrie, adding, “If you don’t know who she is, I’ll tell you later.” She never does. At the end of the show, she segues from The Declaration of Independence into a litany of the atrocities of George W. Bush and glides into a rendition of “People Have the Power,” a song that loaned its name to the tour she has been doing with Ralph Nader. As Smith’s work has transitioned from the personal to the more overtly political, Nader has supplanted Mapplethorpe as her ideological consort.
She sings:
I believe everything we dreamAnd then she spits.
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth’s revolution
we have the power
people have the power
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Jody Kolodzey is a journalist and ethnomusicologist in Philadelphia.
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Reader Comments
Great article about Patti Smith. I grew up in Michigan listening to whatever Lester Bangs told me to listen to in Creem Magazine. Patti is an American artist whom should be held above all the detrious produced by politic, religion and music indutry greed. Her music and poetry serves to frighten and sooth. Her music has worked a savage canvas for Oliver Stone in Natural Born Killers. Also Marlyn Manson covers her “Rock and Roll Nigger” with the brutal grace of someone who knows from the outside. Her cover of “My Generation” gives me goosebumps, and I listen to it every time I think the world may be getting the best of me.
Posted by John Staber on Dec 1, 2003 at 5:57 PM
What you see is what you get, Patti has always been like that. She spits read sings spits not contrived but normal like any other person. I do not think there is a person on earth that has never spit or spat? She is passionate about her work almost as passionate as she is towards people. She is very spiritual and very humble and genuine. She shows this through her music poetry and love towards people. Her eyes are wide open she is involved in humanity and like me cannot stand the waste of human life for any reason. I defend her not because she needs defended but because she deserves it. I have become more aware of our human rights. Rights that are being slowly taken away and because of her I look for ways to try and fix the problems instead of ignoring them. I have been a fan for a very long time and have met her on several occasions and each time I have met her she reinforces these convictions her’s and more so mine. We need more people like her to be out front and not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. What ever they may be especially disagreeing with a President that has an agenda and is capable of justifying the loss of life and liberty and selling it to a country that follows along blindly. It is true People have the Power and as a solid unit anything can be done. Living in a country that I believe to be free, freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom to change. I feel privileged, however when these simple freedoms are constantly being taken away I find that you must be aware at all times of the things going on around us. We have a Government that hides issues and like Governments before them passes bills and laws that are taking away our basic human rights. The main problem is we do not find these laws out until it is to late. Not that these laws being passed such as the Patriotism Bill are done so illegally. It is like so many other laws that citizens do not become aware of these rights to privacy until it affects them. By then it is to late because it is a law. While we still can, and it is essential to be aware of local, State and U.S Government. Yes people have the power but for how long and when we finally do come together will it be to late? I do not think so, as long reporters talk about the message our Poets/Rockers are saying instead of how they spit or dress or not wear make up. Like Patti would say drink water and brush your teeth. I do not find that hard to take in. Thank You David Alan Flynn
Posted by David A Flynn on Dec 1, 2003 at 9:57 PM
What you see is what you get, Patti has always been like that. She spits, read sings, spits not contrived but normal like any other person. I do not think there is a person on earth that has never spit or spat? She is passionate about her work almost as passionate as she is toward people. She is very spiritual and very humble and genuine. She shows this through her music poetry and love towards people. Her eyes are wide open she is involved in humanity and like me cannot stand the waste of human life for any reason. I defend her not because she needs defended but because she deserves it. I have become more aware of our human rights. Rights that are being slowly taken away and because of her I look for ways to try and fix the problems instead of ignoring them. I have been a fan for a very long time and have met her on several occasions and each time I have met her she reinforces these convictions her and more so mine. We need more people like her to be out front and not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. What ever they may be especially disagreeing with a President that has an agenda and is capable of justifying the loss of life and liberty and selling it to a country that follows along blindly. Living in a country that I believe to have freedoms, freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom to change, I feel privileged. However when these simple freedoms are constantly being taken away, I feel challenged. We have a Government that hides issues and like Governments before them passes bills and laws that are taking away our basic human rights. The main problem is we do not find these laws out until it is to late. Not that these laws being passed such as the Patriotism Bill are done so illegally. It is like so many other laws that citizens do not become aware of these rights to privacy until it affects them. By then it is to late because it is a law. Being aware of these bills before they are passed and doing some thing about it changes the law before they are passed. While we still can it is essential to be aware of local, State and U.S Government. Yes people have the power but for how long and when we finally do come together will it be to late? I do not think so, as long reporters talk about the message our Poets/Rockers are saying instead of how they spit or dress or not wear make up. Like Patti would say drink water and brush your teeth. I do not find that hard to take in. Thank You David Alan Flynn
Posted by David A Flynn on Dec 1, 2003 at 10:20 PM
From smack queen to earth mother - she has always had her pulse on the human condition. Fighting for justice, for fairness, for humanity - she has always been on the correct side. Screaming (remember Gilda?), crooning, or rocking - she has run the gamut of musical expression. She wrings every last bit of emotion from our collective unconsciousness and spits it back out toward us saying, “This is what we are, this is who we are, this is what we do!” This is ART writ large. As for me, it’s the Radio Ethiopia stuff, the stuff she now hates, that will always resonate with me-the stuff from deep inside scrapping, crawling, shreeking to be let loose. The anti-Brittany, the anti-pap, the anti-Bush.
Posted by Kindster on Dec 2, 2003 at 8:27 AM
I’m shocked that I must spit in order to be truly feminine. Spitting is gross behavior and spreads germs!!
I vote for women without makeup, who do not spit as beautiful!!
Posted by Jo Warren on Dec 2, 2003 at 9:12 AM
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