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The Many Selves of Patti Smith
Like most post-boomers, I'm more a little tired of hearing how better everything was in the sixties: the music, the ideas, the sex. But when Patti Smith sings, the best of the sixties bursts forth.
Last night a friend and I saw the indomitable Patti Smith play at the Fillmore in San Francisco. A few minutes before she began I ordered a beer at the downstairs bar. Waiting, I turned around to see a large, astonishing nude photograph of Janis Joplin, staring at me like a mischievous Eve.
Like most post-boomers, I'm more a little tired of hearing how better everything was in the sixties: the music, the ideas, the sex. My bullshit detector goes off when I hear decline narratives in general, and narratives of cultural decline since the sixties are particularly inane. That said, Patti sang several incredible covers from the era: "Go Ask Alice," "Gloria," and "Are You Experienced?" The truth is I've only heard those songs on the radio -- hearing them live, by one of the greatest female singers from that era, was absolutely transcendent. Patti Smith is a radiant, Dionysian Diva: earthy, lusty, and dangerous. That she remains so at age 60 is simply astonishing. She looked beautiful and much younger, like she was in her late 40s, and while her vocal range must be diminished from what it was, she absolutely nailed every note in her powerful, low alto voice.
Much has been said about Smith's androgyny, which was much on display. The Fillmore lit her face differently, depending on the song. When she was performing a more feminine song, she became a woman, body and face. But when she was covering Mick Jagger or Kurt Cobain she looked and sounded absolutely manly. One felt not that she was revealing her authentic self but her many authentic selves. Looking back at photographs of her over the year one would be forgiven for not seeing in them the "same person."
Patti noted that 2007 is the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper and the Summer of Love, and though I worried for a moment that she would take the largely boomer audience down a nostalgia trip, she added that it's been "40 years of love" -- I felt grateful, maybe for the first time, for how baby boomers freed America from its 1950s Victorian sexual morality. And she remains future-oriented, screaming out in her "Babelogue" to "Rock and Roll N****R"
If there was a theme to the show, it was the power of sex ("love" being something of a euphemism). Patti played the clarinet like Pan -- rattling the reed, and the audience, loudly, screechingly, and beautifully. At times Patti almost seemed to sexually menace the male members of the band. We like to think of ourselves as single beings. Even when we wear different masks, or perform different personalities, the assumption is that a consistent one of our selves is in control. But of course there isn't. Within Patti is Janis, Mick, Kurt, Grace -- as well as mother, lover, seducer, and warrior. Who's in control of Patti Smith? Nothing and everything, apparently. Janis Joplin died before having realized her full potential. But Patti Smith realized hers, and sings on. When she does, the best of the sixties bursts forth. 1 COMMENTS: Post a comment |
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thank you so much for your beautiful words. I am in full agreement with you. I simply adore Pattie Smith. She is a Power of Example for me 15 years her junior. There was Joan Baez, although; Pattie Smith Rocks the house down to the Core. She is beyound Freedom, boyound Streghth, boyound Hope----An Inspiration. I like the use of the word adrogenous. You explained her to the teee. Keep on Rocken Patti, I love you!!!!!!
Raven xoxoxoxoox
Posted by: Raven Haber at October 16, 2007 1:21 PM