|
Power to the people
Godmother of Punk Patti Smith and a group of like-minded musicians bring their message of patriotism and protest to Tampa.
By GINA VIVINETTO, Times Pop Music Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 11, 2002
[AP photo:]
“We’re a global community. You can be a patriot and love your country and still ask questions,” says Patti Smith. “In fact, it’s not only your right, it’s your duty to ask questions.”
|
Patti Smith has been called the Godmother of Punk ever since she dazzled the downtown New York crowd with Horses, her 1975 debut. The album, like all of Smith's, is filled with sharp, insightful songs and plenty of dicey rants exploring sexuality, spirituality and society.
To say Smith "influenced" the throng of edgy pop and punk females that came after her is a joke: Those gals wouldn't exist without Smith.
Now 55, Smith is still aggressive, vigorously opposing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. She's also critical of rampant consumerism, big business and how it all affects the government.
The diatribes are more focused now -- a testament, perhaps, to age and experience.
Smith and a handful of other like-minded musicians, including folk singer Iris Dement and Jello Biafra, former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys, have since last August been touring in the People Have the Power Tour, sponsored by Democracy Rising, a new grass-roots-activism group begun by Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
The tour arrives in Tampa on Saturday. One aim is to get people thinking about Sept. 11 and how the United States reacted, Smith says.
Patriotism and protest, for these artists, often go hand in hand. But how can an American who opposes war support the United States now?
"Two ways," says Smith by telephone from her home in New York. "First of all, we should all remember who we were Sept. 10 and the things we believed in on Sept 10. Just think of yourself -- this is what I keep telling people -- and who you really are. What do you believe in?
"The second is: A person can be a patriot and believe in all the wonderful things it means to be an American. But that does not mean you have to be a nationalist. A nationalist is a flag-waving 'America first!' person, someone who's gonna do anything to keep America first."
That kind of self-centered thinking, Smith says, is what creates conflict and war.
"We're a global community," she says. "You can be a patriot and love your country and still ask questions. In fact, it's not only your right, it's your duty to ask questions. The Declaration of Independence lists it as one of your duties."
That's one reason Smith hooked up with Nader, her late father Grant's hero since the 1960s. (Grant died in 1999, six months before his daughter met Nader.) Nader rocks the boat, investigates what's going on in the government behind the scenes. Smith realizes it's an unfashionable stance.
"We're not supposed to ask any questions right now," she says. "We're supposed to fall in line. That's exactly what happened with Vietnam. . . . We are good people. We know, usually, what is right and what is wrong. A lot of people know that what is going on right now is not smelling right."
Does Smith, the ranting, raving revolutionary, believe that people are essential good?
"Well, you have to nurture your goodness," she says. "Look at Anne Frank, that poor little girl, what she went through in the concentration camps, but what were her last words? That she truly believed people were good at heart."
Smith once called her music "three chords merged with the power of the word." She has always said that the purpose of her art is to wake up people. Is that still true?
"I think art and music and poetry are more important than ever when we have conflict," Smith says. "It gives people a certain voice. Sometimes we feel powerless, but I think artists and musicians remind people that they do have power and they can unite and make change."
The People Have the Power Tour chose its name from a song on Smith's 1988 Dream of Life album. "I'm really proud of that," she says. "That was my father's favorite song of mine."
Smith is as excited by Land, the recent two-disc retrospective of her career. True to her grass-roots values, Smith had fans vote for the collection's songs at gigs and on the Internet. Songs with the most votes went on the first disc. The second was saved for rarities.
"There were things we found that I had never heard," Smith says. "Like those lost demos. That demo of Redondo Beach was lost in a studio since it was recorded. We recorded it in 1975 before Horses and then it was lost because I didn't have the money to pay for it." Smith laughs. "And they wouldn't give it to me!"
Like her old pals the Ramones and the Talking Heads, Smith, too, was recently nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though she has yet to be inducted. She says accolades from the rock establishment are a treat, but, like everything else in her world, direct response from real people matters most.
"What really makes me happiest is when people on the street say hi," Smith says, "or tell me that some song made them feel better, or some record helped them out."
-- To contact Gina Vivinetto, email gina @sptimes.com.
* * *
Ralph Nader's People Have the Power Tour, 7 p.m. Saturday, with Patti Smith, Jello Biafra, Iris Dement, Equality Florida's Nadine Smith and more. USF Sun Dome, 4202 E Fowler Ave., Tampa. $10-$15. (813) 974-3002 or (813) 232-5300.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
