The CBGB group Patti Smith called “the most inspiring”
As outlined in her acclaimed memoir, Just Kids, Patti Smith has lived a life of remarkable proportions. Known as the ‘Punk Poet Laureate’ for her many literary musical flourishes, Smith has established a widely influential back catalogue.
One of the most enlightening aspects of Smith’s career is the way that, through the power of her grasp of the English language, she can reflect on such a significant history with profound candour and insight. As well as Just Kids being a deeply affecting work, almost every interview she has given has also proved to be a welcome peek into her complex inner workings.
One of the most compelling was when she outlined the extensive connection between herself and the literary world and explained that she took great inspiration from J. M. Barrie’s fictional character, Peter Pan, due to his will to never grow up.
“I’d like to get there early, so I can visit the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens,” Smith told The Guardian in 2016. “Have you seen it? Oh, it’s so wonderful! He’s got a pipe and there are fairies about! I used to go and see it in the 70s. I still do. When I was younger, I wanted to be just like him and never grow up. So whenever I’m in London, I always go say hello to Peter Pan.”
Throughout her career, Smith has also effused about actual figures and explained that many prominent musicians have inspired her, including Bob Dylan and The Doors leader Jim Morrison, who came to her in a dream. This point says a lot about Smith’s nature as an artist, given that they are two of the most famous musicians to fuse harmonies with poetry, which she would also do to great effect.
In the following decade, with New York’s punk scene coalescing around the CBGB venue, Patti Smith would find her home and make good on the lessons learnt from her 1960s heroes. She has often reflected on such a momentous period as she rubbed shoulders with the most notable names of the day. When speaking to NY Mag in 2005, Smith was asked if a particular moment at CBGB made her want to become a musician. In response, she named “the most inspiring” act of the lot as Tom Verlaine’s Television.
Smith said: “When I started performing a lot with Lenny Kaye and Richard Sohl, we had goals: to infuse new life into performing poetry—merging poetry with electric guitar, three chords—and to reembrace rock and roll. It drew us together and kept us informed, whether through Bob Dylan or Neil Young or the Who. In the early seventies, rock and roll was monopolized by record companies, marketing strategies, stadium rock. Tom Verlaine and Television were for me the most inspiring: They were not glamorous, they were human.”
Listen to Television below.
