Lizzie Mooney

1/21/15

Assumption at Zero - Patti Smith

I remember the first time I heard Patti Smith. I was interning for a casting producer in Los Angeles for the month, a little worse for wear given the fact I had never had to buy my own toilet paper before and I hadn't seen very many familiar faces in weeks. I was over the moon that an old family friend was taking me to dinner in Silverlake for a little escape from my internship . We spent the evening mulling around town, poking into little shops of every kind. We stumbled upon her favorite bookstore and in it, her favorite book. Just Kids by Patti Smith “I love Patti!” She exclaimed in a bookstore-whisper, pointing to a little black book with a photograph of a Mick Jagger-faced man and a striking dark haired woman- “Patti,” according to my friend- on the cover. “You’d love her,” she assured me, and offered to play a few of her songs in the car.

She popped Patti Smith’s Horses into the CD player, the soundtrack to our long wait in LA’s rush hour madness. The first song was “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo.” At first she reminded me of a female Jim Morrison or Lou Reed. Her voice was untrained, raspy, but powerful. I could almost feel her spitting at me through the car speakers when she sang the first line “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.” I was hooked. I spent the rest of my time in LA hunting down her music. By the time I had to head back to San Diego, I had accumulated enough of her records and CDs to institute another small suitcase. My train ride home was accompanied by Outside Society, Radio Ethiopia and Wave.

Patti changed the way I thought about music. As the daughter of a guitar player, I’ve been taught to choose my music carefully, to always keep an eye out for innovation and theory. Although Patti might not use many dynamic progressions or melodies, she’s innovative in different ways. Not only did I feel extremely connected to her music, I was deeply affected by the poetry in her songs. I had always been a huge fan of poetry, but her innovative style of fusing rock and roll and spoken word was unlike anything I had ever heard. In the few interviews I’ve seen with her, she speaks almost lyrically. She is a poet to the core.

A few months ago, I saw that Patti had announced her upcoming tour dates. To my pleasant surprise, San Diego’s Balboa Theater was on the list! I held my breath and dropped the eighty bucks on tickets. There was no way I could pass up a chance to see her. My anticipation for this concert got me thinking; sure, I’m a huge fan of Patti Smith’s music, but how much do I really know about her? What are her influences? Her story? The show is only a couple weeks away now and I’m determined to learn more about her so that I can get the most out of seeing her live. Patti is hugely influential in music, poetry and culture. Now she’s 68 years old and still touring! What makes an artist like that tick?