Dancing Barefoot
The Patti Smith Story
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Offering a unique analysis and discussion of her life, career, and work, this is the true story of Patti Smith. Widely acknowledged as one of the most significant American artists of the rock age, an acclaimed poet, and a figurehead for many liberal political causes, Patti Smith went from an ugly-duckling childhood in postwar New Jersey to become queen of the 1970s New York art scene. Not a tell-all biography, this measured, accurate, and enthusiastic account of Smith's career is written for her loyal fans as well as for neophytes hungry for a great rock 'n' roll story. Guided by interviews with those who have known her—including Ivan Kral, Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, John Cale, and Jim Carroll—it relies most of all on Patti's own words.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this unfortunately timed biography, music critic Thompson (London's Burning) chronicles Smith's story from her childhood in New Jersey, growing up next to a pig farm, and her early days in New York with Robert Mapplethorpe, to her time at CBGB and up to her most recent album, Twelve. When Smith was nine, a neighbor invited her over to his house to listen to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti"; from that moment, according to Thompson, she never let go of rock 'n' roll. Unfortunately, Thompson plods through these details, stitching together Smith's story based on interviews with her friends, from Tom Verlaine to John Cale; sadly, the book offers a disappointing and shallow portrait of this innovative poet and musician who still emerges from Thompson's book as an artist who is always changing, revising, and revisiting her own work and the work of others. Although this account of Smith provides few new insights into her life and music, Thompson's vivid re-creation of the music scene in New York City in the 1970s captures an exhilarating moment in music history.
