Sounds of a scribe: the songs Patti Smith used to help her write ‘Just Kids’
Patti Smith operates somewhat as a punk deity. Seemingly endless amounts of creative light shine from her every move, and her willingness to prop up and support the future of music, literature, and all that falls between her two favoured realms is truly inspirational. Few artists have been as able to seamlessly move between two somewhat opposing art forms as Smith has with music and writing.
Smith’s contribution is largely unparalleled as one of the leading factions of the punk rock revolution. Setting aside her ascension to the top of the rock pile as a hard-hitting leading frontwoman and the difficulties her gender would have naturally posed during a time when rock music was almost entirely a boy’s club, Smith’s work has always been delicately poised between the cerebral and the animalistic.
Her 1975 record Horses isn’t just a beastial title but a powerhouse piece of punk poetry. It manages to capture the essence of what punk rock would become and combine it with the iambic rhythms that sequestered themselves inside Smith’s soul. Her lyrics were as potent as Rimbaud or Baudelaire but gilded not with the smokehouse of Paris and London but the grime of 1970s New York City. It was a heady combination.
For Smith, though, music would not be her sole operation. Soon, she would turn her hand more purposefully toward writing, with her memoir Just Kids providing not only a sincere look into her early years and the fundamental moments spent with her counterpart, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, but also alerting the world to her innate ability to command the written word.
Through her relationship with Mapplethorpe, in Just Kids, the reader is treated to everything a good rock memoir should have: the origin of Smith’s creativity, the way they discovered their expression, the struggles to be heard, and the satisfaction of achieving one’s dream. The real victory for the reader, though, is that none of these really matter without the love and understanding of one another.
While Smith has since written great books such as M Train, Devotion and Year of the Monkey, she still keeps music at her side, and shared a playlist of the songs she listened to while thinking back and writing the memoirs that would become Just Kids.
“Robert and I loved to dance to Motown songs,” Smith told Service 95. “It was his favourite genre of music. He had a box set of Motown songs of the ’60s. He also loved Tim Buckley and liked me to sing ‘Black Sheep Boy’ by Tim Hardin to him. We listened to the same records over and over on a simple record player”.
She added: “I listened to ‘Madama Butterfly’ by Puccini and John Coltrane records such as My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme“.
The world of music is even connected to Mapplethorpe’s sad passing, as she notes, “When Robert died, I was listening to Maria Callas singing ‘Vissi d’arte’ from the opera Tosca. It has the lines, ‘I have lived for art, I have lived for love.’”
A playlist that includes some of Smith’s favourite songs, from the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and more, is good enough to enjoy on its own. But the knowledge it helped her create a masterpiece will be inspiring.
The songs Patti Smith loved while writing Just Kids:
- ‘1983… (A Merman Should I Turn To Be)’ – Jimi Hendrix
- ‘We Love You’ – Rolling Stones
- ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ – Jimi Hendrix
- ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ – The Animals
- ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ – The Temptations
- ‘All You Need Is Love’ – The Beatles
- ‘So You Want To Be A Rock ’N’ Roll Star’ – The Byrds
- ‘Dark Star’ – Grateful Dead
- ‘Kashmir’ – Led Zeppelin
- ‘Volunteers’ – Jefferson Airplane
- ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ – Pixies
- ‘Marquee Moon’ – Television
- ‘The End’ – The Doors
- ‘For Your Precious Love’ – Jerry Butler
- ‘Cortez The Killer’ – Neil Young
- ‘Everybody Is A Star’ – Sly And The Family Stone
- ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ – Willie Nelson
- ‘The World Is A Ghetto’ – War
- ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ – The Four Tops
- ‘Eight Miles High’ – The Byrds
- ‘Who Do You Love?’ – Bo Diddley
- ‘It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World’ – James Brown
- ‘We Got The Beat’ – The Go-Go’s
- ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ – Hank Williams
- ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ – The Beatles
- ‘When Doves Cry’ – Prince
- ‘People Get Ready’ – The Impressions
- ‘Purple Haze’ – Jimi Hendrix
- ‘What’s Going On’ – Marvin Gaye
- ‘Ohio’ – Neil Young
- ‘Spill The Wine’ – Eric Burdon And War
- ‘The Crystal Ship’ – The Doors
- ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ – Iron Butterfly
- ‘Shapes Of Things’ – The Yardbirds
- ‘On The Road Again’ – Canned Heat
- ‘Back On The Chain Gang’ – The Pretenders
- ‘Beautiful’ – Christina Aguilera
- ‘Astronomy’ – Blue Öyster Cult
- ‘Twist In My Sobriety’ – Tanita Tikaram
- ‘Back To Black’ – Amy Winehouse
- ‘Helpless’ – Neil Young
- ‘Spirit Ditch’ – Sparklehorse
- ‘Eulogy To Lenny Bruce’ – Nico
- ‘Work’ – Charlotte Day Wilson
- ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ – U2
- ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ – R.E.M.
- ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – Nirvana
