Patricia Lee Smith shortly named Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet. She became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album “Horses”. She is called the “punk poet laureate” as she fused rock and poetry in her work. She is best recognized for her song “Because the Night”. She was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in the year 2005 and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the year 2007. What’s more, she won the National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids” on 17th November 2010 and was also the recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.
Famous For
- Being a singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet.
- For er most widely known song is “Because the Night” reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five in the U.K.
Source: @portugalsnews
What is the Birthplace of Patti Smith?
Patti Smith was born with the birth name/real name of Patricia Lee Smith on 30th December 1946 which makes her 74 years old. Her place of birth is in Chicago, Illinois, the USA. She holds an American nationality and her ethnic background is Mixed as the family was of part Irish ancestry. Her race is White. Capricorn is her Zodiac sign and her religion is Christian. She recently celebrated her 74th birthday as of 2020 and will be celebrating her 75th birthday as of 2021 on 30th December. She was born as the eldest of the four children to her parents; Beverly Smith (mother) and Grant Smith (father). She has three siblings; Linda, Kimberly, and Todd. Her mother was a waitress and her father was employed as a machinist at Honeywell plant by profession. In the year 1950, the family moved to Philadelphia and six years later to Woodbury, New Jersey. In her early years, she was shy and introverted. Concerning her education, she completed her preliminary education from Deptford Township High School in 1964. After that, she took up a job at a toy factory. Her experience at the factory was a grueling one which later formed the theme of her first single, “Piss Factory”. At the end of the year 1964, she enrolled at the Glassboro State Teachers College with an intention to become a high school art teacher. Her poor academic performance and her continuous insistence to break away from the traditional curriculum to focus on the experimental artists led to her dropping out of the same. She moved to New York in the year 1967 and took up a job at a Manhattan bookstore where she became friends with Robert Mapplethorpe, a photographer. In the year 1969, she moved to Paris with her sister where she indulged in performance art. She provided a spoken word soundtrack for a film, “Robert Having His Nipple Pierced” and then appeared in Jackie Curtis’s play, “Femme Fatale”. She also starred in Tony Ingrassia’s play “Island”.
How was the Singing Career of Patti Smith?
- Patti Smith was considered for the lead singer position in Blue Oyster Cult after her early work. She then contributed lyrics to several of the band’s songs, including “Debbie Denise” (inspired by her poem “In Remembrance of Debbie Denise”), “Baby Ice Dog”, “Career of Evil”, “Fire of Unknown Origin”, “The Revenge of Vera Gemini” (on which she performs duet vocals), and “Shooting Shark”.
- By the year 1974, she formed her own band, “The Patti Smith Group” and came up with her first-ever recorded single, title “Hey Joe/Piss Factory” and also performed spoken poetry on “I Wake Up Screaming” from Ray Manzarek’s The Whole Thing Started with Rock & Roll Now It’s Out of Control album.
- The following year, she signed a record deal with Arista Records and came up with her debut album, “Horses” which included the famous singles, “Gloria” and “Land of Thousand Dances”.
- In the year 1976, the band released their second album, “Radio Ethiopia” and the third album “Easter” which consists of the successful single ‘Because the Night’.
- Her fourth album, “Wave” was released in the year 1979. Post-release of the album, she took a 17-year hiatus from professional and public life and immersed herself in taking care of her family and rearing children.
- In June 1988, she released the album, “Dream of Life” along with her husband.
- In the year 1996, she along with her colleagues came up with the album, “Gone Again” featuring the singles, “About a Boy”, “Summer Cannibals” and “Wicked Messenger”.
- What’s more, she also collaborated with Stipe for the song “E-Bow the Letter”, a song on R.E.M.’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
- Smith then released two new albums; “Peace and Noise” in 1997 and “Gung Ho” in the year 2000. Songs “1959” and “Glitter in the Eyes” from the albums received Grammy nomination for her.
- In the year 2004, she released another album, “Trampin” under Columbia Records which was a tribute to her mother who had passed away in 2002 and thus included songs about motherhood.
- In the year 2005, she along with members of the Patti Smith Group, reunited for a live performance of their album, “Horses”.
- She then performed at the CBGB nightclub, with a 3½-hour tour de force to close out Manhattan’s music venue on 15th October 2006.
- In 2008, her artwork Land 250 was exhibited in Paris by the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain.
- In the year 2009, she played an open-air concert in Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce.
- In 2010, she made a cameo appearance in the film, “Socialisme”, which was screened at the 2010 Cannes Festival.
- She made her television acting debut on the TV series “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” for the episode, “Icarus” in 2011.
- Then, she released her eleventh studio album, “Banga” in June 2012, and also she provided lead vocals for the title track of the album, “Helen Burns”.
- On 26th September 2015, she performed during the American Museum of Tort Law convocation ceremony and then performed “People Have the Power” at Riverside Church, Manhattan in the year 2016.
- She appeared as herself in “Song to Song” in the year 2017.
- Her concert-documentary film Horses: Patti Smith and her Band premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival to wide acclaim in the year 2018. Also, she narrated in Darren Aronofsky’s VR experience Spheres: Songs of Spacetime alongside Millie Bobby Brown and Jessica Chastain.
- She performed her anthem “People Have the Power” in the year 2019.
Patti Smith Awards, Honors, and Achievements
On 10th July 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to Smith’s influence on rock music, the Minister also noted her appreciation of Arthur Rimbaud. In August 2005, she gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. In November, she received the Woman of Valor Award from ROCKRGRL Magazine. On 12th March 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She is the proud recipient of the Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute on 17th May 2010. She won National Book Award for her memoirs, “Just Kids”. In the year 2011, she won the Polar Music Prize for her contribution to art. In the year 2013, she was presented with the Katharine Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr College. The same year, she was greeted by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. She is set to receive the International Humanities Prize from Washington University in St. Louis in November 2020.
Source: @biography
Band members
Current Member
Patti Smith – vocals, guitar (1974-1979, 1988, 1996-present)
Lenny Kaye – guitar (1974-1979, 1996-present)
Jackson Smith – guitar (2016-present)
Tony Shanahan – bass guitar, keyboards (1996-present)
Jay Dee Daugherty – drums (1975-1979, 1988, 1996-present)
Former Members
- Richard Sohl – keyboards (1974-1977, 1979, 1988)
- Ivan Kral – bass guitar (1975-1979)
- Bruce Brody – keyboards (1977-1978)
- Fred “Sonic” Smith – guitar (1988)
- Kasim Sulton – bass guitar (1988)
- Oliver Ray – guitar (1996-2005)
- Jack Petruzzelli – guitar (2006-2016)
Patti Smith Studio albums
- Horses (1975)
- Radio Ethiopia (1976)
- Easter (1978)
- Wave (1979)
- Dream of Life (1988)
- Gone Again (1996)
- Peace and Noise (1997)
- Gung Ho (2000)
- Trampin’ (2004)
- Twelve (2007)
- Banga (2012)
Patti Smith Books
- Seventh Heaven (1972)
- Early Morning Dream (1972)
- A Useless Death (1972)
- Witt (1973)
- The Night (1976) poems with Tom Verlaine
- Ha! Ha! Houdini! (1977)
- Babel (1978)
- Woolgathering (1992)
- Early Work (1994)
- The Coral Sea (1996)
- Patti Smith Complete (1998)
- Strange Messenger (2003)
- Auguries of Innocence (2005)
- Poems (Vintage Classics) by William Blake.
- Edited by and with introduction by Patti Smith (2007)
- Land 250 (2008)
- Trois (2008)
- Great Lyricists; foreword by Rick Moody (2008)
- Just Kids (2010)
- Hecatomb (2014) With 20 drawings by Jose Antonio Suarez Londono
- M Train (2015)
- Devotion (2017)
- The New Jerusalem (2018)
- Just Kids (Illustrated edition) (2018)
- at the Minetta Lane (2018)
- Year of the Monkey (2019)
Who is Patti Smith married to?
Patti Smith is a married woman. She started having affair with Fred “Sonic: Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 with whom she married. The duo is blessed with a son, Jackson (b. 1982), who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White, in 2009; and a daughter, Jesse Paris, who is also a musician and composer (b. 1987). Later, her husband, Smith passed away in 1994. Her sexual orientation is straight.
Source: @pinterest
During her early years, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption. Initially, she developed an intense romantic liaison with Robert Mapplethorpe. But their relationship ended when Mapplethorpe realized he was a homosexual. They remained friends until Robert’s death in the year 1989. In the 1970s, she was romantically involved with Blues Oyster Cult keyboardist, Allen Lanier. She separated from him in the year 1979.
What is the Net Worth of Patti Smith?
Patti Smith is a successful singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who has made a vast amount of money from her career until now with the release of hit songs, singles, albums, and more. As of 2021, the net worth of Patti Smith is estimated to have $16 Million whereas her exact salary is still to get unfold yet but there is no doubt in the mind of her followers that she is making a good amount of money from her work. Her major source of wealth comes from her music career.
How tall is Patti Smith?
At the age of 74, Patti Smith still looks very beautiful. She always carries a glowing smile on her face which attracts a lot of people towards her. She stands tall at a height of 5 ft 7 in and her balanced weight consist of 58 kg. Her hair color is salt and pepper and she has green color eyes. Overall, she has got a healthy body.
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