Saturday, 25 May 2013

Patti Smith


"I have never been addicted to anything except maybe my husband, maybe a boyfriend, maybe an idea," she says. "I have such a needle phobia. I could never be addicted to any substance because I've had too many illnesses that preclude me doing that. I'd die if I did that stuff. If Robert was here, he'd be the first to explain that to people."

"When I was young, all I wanted was to write books and be an artist. I got sidetracked, almost as a mission, to give something to the canon of rock'n'roll in the manner in which people I admired had. In other words, forming a cultural voice through rock'n'roll that incorporated sex and art and poetry and performance and revolution."

"In 1974, when I started working with the material that became Horses, a lot of our great voices had died. We'd lost Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, and people like Robert KennedyMartin Luther King and Malcolm X. There were so many losses so quickly. These people who were building a political and cultural voice. And it seemed that rock'n'roll was heading towards something different – something consumer-oriented and stadium-oriented. I felt new generations had to come and break everything apart. As Jim Morrison says, 'Break on through to the other side.' And I felt in the centre, not quite the old generation, not quite the new generation. I felt like the human bridge, and I just thought, you have to wake up. Wake them up."

"I had my responsibilities to my children and to myself and to my work. You have to honour your responsibilities. Oh, believe me, the things that people cope with. I don't consider myself so special." She stops herself and says if she's making it sound easy, it wasn't – and still isn't. "Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably crashes like a house of cards and you have to rebuild it. It's not like you get to a point where you're all right for the rest of your life."





Take me now baby here as I am 
Pull me close, try and understand 
Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe 
Love is a banquet on which we feed 

Come on now try and understand 
The way I feel when I'm in your hands 
Take my hand come undercover 
They can't hurt you now, 
Can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now 
Because the night belongs to lovers 
Because the night belongs to lust 
Because the night belongs to lovers 
Because the night belongs to us 

Have I doubt when I'm alone 
Love is a ring, the telephone 
Love is an angel disguised as lust 
Here in our bed until the morning comes 
Come on now try and understand 
The way I feel under your command 
Take my hand as the sun descends 
They can't touch you now, 
Can't touch you now, can't touch you now 
Because the night belongs to lovers ... 

With love we sleep 
With doubt the vicious circle 
Turn and burns 
Without you I cannot live 
Forgive, the yearning burning 
I believe it's time, too real to feel 
So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now 
...

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