Source: Patti Smith Gung Ho web site
"‘I Feel Just Like Some Misplaced Joan of Arc'" by Jessamin Swearingen (adapted and edited by Allan Metz)
‘We Created It: Let's Take It Over!' web site, 1999-2001
What Patti Smith meant to punk–Ed.
Source: Patti Smith
Gung Ho web site
In 1974, Patti Smith was the first to be signed from the initial wave of bands that played CBGBs. For that alone she has earned the title "Godmother of punk" (Kozak 38). Smith's influence on the punk scene, however, is not confined to her CBGBs association. Smith was one of the genre's most prolific artists regardless of medium. Her accomplishments, both independent and in terms of the punk movement, are significant. Smith became a rock star on her own terms. Starting as rock's biggest fan, she published her poetry and rock criticism. She also tried playwriting with Sam Shepard on "Cowboy Mouth" before becoming a rock musician herself. Smith was also one of the few (if not first) women to succeed in rock music without becoming a sex symbol. She showed off her rock'n'roll hero worship and created powerful rock pieces out of her collection of rock influences. As in her playwriting, she created narrative and texture with her songs.
Smith released her first single independently in 1974. One-time roommate and friend, Robert Mapplethorpe, put up the money for his label "Mer" to press some copies of "Piss Factory." On the record were Smith and what was the beginning of the Patti Smith Group. "Piss Factory" describes Smith's job in a factory during high school, weaving the tale of being "sixteen and time to pay off." As the record spins, Smith's poetry, backed by Lenny Kaye on guitar and Richard Sohl on piano, takes the listener on a ride through Smith's past. Her verse is crammed with references to a rock'n'roll upbringing. She cites the dizzying soul of the "Wicked" Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" in one verse, then the name brand of the cough syrup on which rock critic extraordinaire, Lester Bangs, overdosed in the next. Her list of influences also includes James Brown, "Twist & Shout," and Philadelphia DJ George Woods. "Piss Factory" is significant because never before had an artist been so vocal about the impact of rock music and its influences. "Piss Factory" launched itself from where Chuck Berry's autobiographical rock anthem "Johnny B. Goode" left off. Berry's classic is autobiographical, but Smith's sensationalizes her own life story to the point of mythology.
Her monumental first record, Horses, released in 1975, broke new ground in rock music. Produced by ex-Velvet Underground member, John Cale, Horses forced rock music to be sanctioned as an art form. Smith's rock was more focused than that of the Beatles and less self-absorbed than Jim Morrison's drunken verse. She gained the listener's attention with street-smart on-target fiction....