Artist

Patti Smith

Chicago, United States • b. 1946

Patti Smith is a musician from Chicago, United States, active since 1946. Their discography on Gatefold includes 17 records.

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Albums tracked

121

In collections

1946

Since

Biography

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, poet and visual artist who was a highly influential component of the New York punk rock movement, particularly with her 1975 début album 'Horses'. Called the "Godmother of Punk", she integrated the beat poetry performance style with three-chord rock. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978.

The Arc of Patti Smith

The pivots — what forced Patti Smith to reinvent.

The St. Mark’s Incantations
Before there was a full band, it was just Patti and Lenny Kaye at St. Mark’s Church in 1971. She was reading poems and he was making car-crash noises on an electric guitar to keep the crowd from getting bored. This era is pure street-level improvisation where the line between a literary reading and a rock show dissolved entirely. You can hear the skeleton of the New York punk scene forming in those early live tapes before the drums even showed up.
The Arista Polished Years
Jimmy Iovine took over production for Easter in '78 because the label wanted a hit. He cleaned up the grime, brought in Bruce Springsteen to help finish 'Because the Night,' and gave the Patti Smith Group a radio-ready sheen that pissed off the purists. It worked, but you can hear the struggle between her shamanic instincts and Iovine’s obsession with a tight snare sound. It’s a massive record, but it’s the sound of a wild animal being told to sit still for the camera.
The Detroit Silence and Return
After Dream of Life in 1988, she basically vanished into domestic life with Fred Smith, leaving the industry behind for nearly a decade. The return in the mid-90s was sparked by a string of brutal deaths that forced her back into the studio with Oliver Ray and Tom Verlaine. These records are leaner and more haunted, trading the youthful aggression of the 70s for a deep, resonant authority. She stopped trying to reinvent the wheel and started acting as the scene's conscience.

Influences

Jim Morrison — She saw The Doors at the Fillmore East and realized a singer could be a shamanic vessel rather than just a performer. You hear it in the long-form improvisations on 'Birdland' where she abandons melody for a trance-like rhythmic chant. He gave her the blueprint for the poetic freak-out.
The Velvet Underground — Patti famously said that the Velvets made her feel like she could do anything because they brought high-art filth to the rock stage. Lenny Kaye’s guitar style is a direct descendant of Lou Reed’s 'ostrich tuning' and feedback experiments. They proved you didn't need to be a virtuoso if you had the right attitude.
Arthur Rimbaud — The 19th-century poet is the literal DNA of her lyrics, and she carried his picture like a holy relic during the Horses sessions. He’s the reason her songs are full of surrealist imagery and violent transformations rather than standard 'boy meets girl' tropes. She treats rock and roll as a continuation of the French Symbolist tradition.
Jimi Hendrix — She was obsessed with the way Hendrix used the electric guitar as a physical, atmospheric force rather than just an instrument. She recorded Horses at his Electric Lady Studios specifically to soak up the ghost of his feedback. That raw, unstructured noise at the end of 'Land' is a direct tribute to his 'Star Spangled Banner' chaos.
William S. Burroughs — Burroughs was a mentor who taught her about the 'cut-up' technique and the power of the spoken word as a weapon. You hear his influence in her jagged, non-linear delivery on Radio Ethiopia. He was the one who told her to keep her nerds close and her enemies closer.