1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story about 2 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:21,279 Speaker 1: Patti Smith is steeped in true crime, everything from the 3 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 1: criminal influence of her artistic heroes Jean Jeanet and William S. Burrows, 4 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,280 Speaker 1: to the impression made upon her from her mother's obsession 5 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: with America's first true crime of the century, the Lindberg kidnapping, 6 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: to the influence of the Manson murders in New York 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: City's forty four caliber killings that Patty lived through in 8 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: late seventies New York, to the crime and grime of 9 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:47,199 Speaker 1: Central Park, the Chelsea Hotel in forty second Street, rape 10 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: and murder, all of it just to shot away, as 11 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 1: they say. But Patty Smith survived all of it to 12 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: become one of the last centuries great artists, a great musician, 13 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: someone who made great music. Unlike that music I played 14 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,319 Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show. That wasn't 15 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop from my melotron 16 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: called Falling from Chelsea MK. Two. I played you that 17 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the rights to One Bad 18 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,679 Speaker 1: Apple by the Osmonds. And why would I play you 19 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 1: that specific slice of plastic sibling cheese? Could I afford 20 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: it because that was the number one song in America 21 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: on February tenth, nineteen seventy one. And that was the 22 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: day that Patti Smith first took the stage with more 23 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: than just words, with a guitarist at her side, and 24 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: began building a previously unimagined bridge between the art world 25 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: and rock and roll. And she did it for the criminals. 26 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 2: On this episode, Junkies, Murderers, poets, playwrights, death, destruction, the 27 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 2: pursuing one's artistic calling, and how true crime helped Patti. 28 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:08,760 Speaker 1: Smith survive at all. I'm Jake Brennan. 29 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:23,840 Speaker 3: This is Disgraceland. 30 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,239 Speaker 1: Though Patti Smith is known as the godmother of Ponkin 31 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 32 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, She's much more than just 33 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,919 Speaker 1: an iconic rock star. She's a literary luminary, a National 34 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,959 Speaker 1: Book Award winner, and the recipient of the Penn Literary 35 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: Service Award. She's been honored by the French Ministry of 36 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: Culture and the Municipal Arts Society of New York, an 37 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 1: organization that in two thousand twenty four awarded Patty Smith 38 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: with their highest honor, the Jacqueline Kennedy on Nassis Medal, 39 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: She's met the Pope, she accepted a Nobel Prize on 40 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: behalf of and at the request of, none other than 41 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, and her name rings true throughout the same 42 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 1: universities and museums that teach and celebrate the author's poets 43 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: and artists Louisa may Alcott, Arthur Innbau, and Fried de Callo, 44 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: to name a few that Patty Smith has drawn inspiration 45 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: from throughout her life. To dismiss Patty Smith as merely 46 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: a rock star is like calling Steve Jobs a computer salesman. 47 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: She is not just a musician. She's what I refer 48 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: to as the high priestess of art, someone who holds 49 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: rare dual citizenship in the gritty origins of punk and 50 00:03:54,080 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: in the highest echelons of New York and European society. 51 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: Catholic priests speak of being called to the priesthood that 52 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: moment when they hear God's voice imploring them to serve Him, 53 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: to dedicate their lives to him, to sacrifice everything in 54 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: his name. Many of them faced not just persecution, but 55 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,919 Speaker 1: even death in pursuit of their calling. Jesus's apostle Peter 56 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 1: was crucified upside down. Bartholomew, another apostle, was skinned alive, 57 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: tortured over days, and eventually decapitated. Deacon Lawrence of Rome 58 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: in the year two point fifty eight, a d was 59 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: roasted to death over an open fire. In seventeen ninety two, 60 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:50,200 Speaker 1: during the French Revolution, over two hundred priests were massacred 61 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: by angry mobs in under forty eight hours. Spanish Clarician 62 00:04:55,760 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: priests Salvador and Jesuits, Mexican seminary students, and countless others 63 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: who were once called have been martyred and suffered horrific 64 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: deaths for their calling. But Patti Smith, who once famously 65 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: saying Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine, was 66 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 1: no martyr. She was and is an artist, and similar 67 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: to priests, artists here recalling they must also navigate danger, 68 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: violence and potential death murder even in pursuit of their art. 69 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:39,160 Speaker 1: So when and where was Patti Smith, the high Priestess 70 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 1: of art called to become an artist And what kind 71 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: of danger of violence and true crime did she have 72 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,720 Speaker 1: to escape to become the artist we all know her 73 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: to be As a little girl in suburban New Jersey 74 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties. The first stories Patti Smith heard 75 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: were dark. The original Brother's Grim collection of children's fairy 76 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: tales from the eighteen hundreds spoke of a stepmother in 77 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: the Juniper Tree story who decapitated her step son and 78 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,520 Speaker 1: cooked his flesh in a soup to serve to the 79 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: boy's unsuspecting father. In the original version of Cinderella entitled Askinputul, 80 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: one stepsister uses a knife to cut off her toes, 81 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: and another hacks off the heel of her foot. Yet 82 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,920 Speaker 1: these stories were nothing compared to what Patty later read 83 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament, where in 84 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: Judges nineteen, one woman is severed into twelve different pieces, 85 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: each given to a different tribe of Israel. Her sin Nune, 86 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: she was offered up to protect the crimes of a rapist. 87 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:58,360 Speaker 1: In Judge's four, Yale offers an unsuspecting enemy general hospitality. 88 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: When the general fall asleep, Yale takes a spike and 89 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: hammers it through his skull. In Kings nine, Queen Jezebel's 90 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: eunuchs throw her from a window, where she's then trampled 91 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:17,559 Speaker 1: to death by horses. Horses horses and horse and later 92 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: on as a teenager, rape and murder were more than 93 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: just shot away. All of these stories were right there, 94 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: out in the open, in Patti Smith's Bible, and in 95 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: her history books, and in the museums she visited as 96 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:43,559 Speaker 1: a child. If the executioner was feeling merciful, he'd build 97 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: the pire low to the ground to ensure a quick death. 98 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 1: But this executioner was not feeling merciful. He built the 99 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 1: pire extra high so that Joan of Arc would be 100 00:07:55,920 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: guaranteed a prolonged and painful death. That's exactly what happened. 101 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: The flames took their time. The ancient Greeks used funeral 102 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: pyres to honor their departed emperors and heroes. The Romans too, 103 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:14,120 Speaker 1: not the English. When it came to Joan of Arc. 104 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: They had something else in mind, revenge, public disgrace, maximum 105 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 1: pain in the eyes of the English dominated Ecclesiastical Tribunal 106 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: of fourteen thirty one, nineteen year old Joan of Arc 107 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: was a heretic. She claimed she'd been called by a 108 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: divine voice. She cut her hair, she dressed like a boy. 109 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: She made a mockery of modern authority in social norms 110 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:44,640 Speaker 1: and in the process inspired and uprising that turned the 111 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,319 Speaker 1: tide of the hundreds years War, driving the English out 112 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 1: of France. And for those perceived sins, she was now 113 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: roped to a stake in Market Square in the city 114 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: of Ruan, high above a gritted stack of dry wind wood, 115 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: built to burn slow and fierce, with its blue flames 116 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: snapping at the skin of her feet, and black smoke 117 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,000 Speaker 1: corroding her lungs, white hot pain piercing every cell in 118 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: her body. The blaze rose up over her legs, her midriff, 119 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:20,240 Speaker 1: and no one heard her scream and no one saw 120 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: her cry when the inferno engulfed her completely. Soon enough, 121 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: Joan of Arc was gone, but embodied only another martyr, 122 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:36,079 Speaker 1: this one officially executed for the crimes of heresy and 123 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:41,080 Speaker 1: cross dressing, but whose life's work would inspire generations and 124 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:48,040 Speaker 1: whose name would forever ring true. In nineteen sixty six, 125 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:52,680 Speaker 1: herself just nineteen years old, Patti Smith stood outside on 126 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:56,160 Speaker 1: the streets of Philadelphia, across from the Museum of Modern Art, 127 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: about five miles from the more modern Market Square, and 128 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 1: looked up at a statue of Joan of Arc, Emmanuel 129 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,560 Speaker 1: Fremier's gilded bronze depiction of the young martyr cast a 130 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: piercing impression upon young Patty. Here was this woman her 131 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:17,160 Speaker 1: own age, who gave everything for what she believes. It 132 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: was then that Patty knew she would have to do 133 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:23,719 Speaker 1: the same. It was then that Patty Smith heard her 134 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: calling in the shadows of martyrs and museums, to become 135 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,560 Speaker 1: an artist. The stakes of failing to fulfill her life's 136 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: goal were, as they are for most teenagers, dramatic and intense. 137 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,199 Speaker 1: A life as anything but an artist, a life as 138 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: something else in suburban New Jersey, would be its own 139 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:51,360 Speaker 1: kind of death. But art was dangerous, and not in 140 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: the fairy tale Old Testament, musty historical kind of way, 141 00:10:55,440 --> 00:11:00,120 Speaker 1: but in a real and scary kind of way. One 142 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: of Patty's favorite novelists, Jean Janet, lived in squalor, forced 143 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: into a life of crime, and nearly imprisoned for life. 144 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: One of her favorite musicians, the jazz singer Billie Holiday, 145 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,200 Speaker 1: died addicted to heroin. In her final living moments, she 146 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: was handcuffed to her bed by federal agents and placed 147 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: under arrest for narcotics possession. One of Patty's favorite painters, 148 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 1: Jackson Pollock was driven to alcoholism and eventually off the 149 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:32,800 Speaker 1: road in his Oldsmobile, where he flipped his car, crushed 150 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: his skull, and decapitated one of his passengers. And these 151 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,679 Speaker 1: were just the artists that Patty knew about thanks to 152 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: her true crime obsessed mother. Patti Smith also knew about 153 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:49,040 Speaker 1: the dangers of the world right outside her suburban window. 154 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 1: Nineteen thirty two, Patti Smith's mother was traumatized by events 155 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,680 Speaker 1: that were unfolding over the radio airwaves, just as the 156 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,840 Speaker 1: rest the nation was One of America's most famous sons, 157 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,679 Speaker 1: the aviator Charles Lindberg, was the victim of what had 158 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: quickly become America's most famous crime. Lindbergh's twenty month old 159 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: son had been kidnapped. The kidnapper used the latter to 160 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 1: creep into the second story nursery of the Limburg's New 161 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:24,240 Speaker 1: Jersey estate. Within twenty four hours of the abduction, the 162 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 1: crime was a national sensation. By daybreak, over one hundred 163 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 1: reporters and photographers had breached the gates of the estate 164 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 1: and contaminated the crime scene. Notorious mafioso Al Capone issued 165 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: a statement from a Chicago jail cell offering a reward 166 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,480 Speaker 1: for the return of the baby, and before the night 167 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,920 Speaker 1: of the crime had ended, newswires like the Associated Press 168 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: were deluged with bulletins, transmitting over fifty thousand words in 169 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:58,599 Speaker 1: just hours. Radio stations across the country took the unprecedented 170 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: step of canceling all all programming to issue a coordinated 171 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: bulletin describing the child's appearance, in effect creating a complete 172 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 1: national radio blackout, And it was through the radio that 173 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:17,240 Speaker 1: Patty Smith's mother became transfixed with the early details of 174 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: the crime, as well as the saga's conclusion. Ten weeks 175 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,760 Speaker 1: after the kidnapping, the badly decomposed body of Charles Lindbergh's 176 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:30,080 Speaker 1: baby was found by a truck driver relieving himself on 177 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: the side of a New Jersey highway. The infant's corpse 178 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: had been partially scavenged by animals, Just like Jezebel and 179 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:42,320 Speaker 1: the horses, and like Pollock and the crushed skull, like 180 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,199 Speaker 1: Yale's enemy a hole through the head, and like Joan 181 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:50,280 Speaker 1: of Arc, the Lindbergh Baby would not soon be forgotten. 182 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: Young Patty Smith was transfixed by her mother's retelling of 183 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:59,400 Speaker 1: this story. She never forgot it, just like she never 184 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:03,680 Speaker 1: forgot the grim or the Old Testament where Jean, Billy 185 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: Jackson or Joan. The lesson she took was that life 186 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,439 Speaker 1: was dangerous, and so too the pursuit of art was dangerous, 187 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:17,200 Speaker 1: and in nineteen sixty seven, the only place to really 188 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: pursue art was in America's most dangerous place, New York City. 189 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: The whispers Patty Smith heard at night in Central Park 190 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: where the stuff of terror. The park was more than 191 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: a few colic playground for New Yorkers to laze away 192 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: their afternoons. Each night it became a den of violent criminals, thieves, rapists, 193 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:14,400 Speaker 1: and murderers, all prowling about for the ruination of souls. 194 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: Central Park was also Patti Smith's sometime bedroom. It was 195 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: where she'd lie down during that first summer when she 196 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: arrived in the city. On those nights when she couldn't 197 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: find a welcoming doorway in which to lay her head, 198 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:35,160 Speaker 1: Central Park was where she slept, And in nineteen sixty seven, 199 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: Central Park was also the place where a fifteen year 200 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 1: old girl was brutally raped and her friend stomped so 201 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: severely that he was left in critical condition. It was 202 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,560 Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen sixties, a place where nearly one 203 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: thousand felonies were committed on average each year. In Central 204 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,120 Speaker 1: Park during the Summer of Love. For all the groups 205 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: of young hippies strewn about on blankets with acoustic guitars 206 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 1: and flowers in their hair, there were just as many 207 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:12,080 Speaker 1: self described wolf packs, hordes of young neighborhood delinquents swarming 208 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: the park in shifts to rob in Maine, not just 209 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: the hippies, but the homosexuals cruising the park so called 210 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: predatory zones. Patti Smith may have slept in Central Park, 211 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: but it was in another park where she met the 212 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:33,600 Speaker 1: first great love of her life, Robert Maplethorpe. She knew 213 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:36,760 Speaker 1: him from the bookstore where she'd taken a job. He 214 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: was a customer, and she was in Tompkins Square Park 215 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:43,200 Speaker 1: on a date with an older man, a man who 216 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: could afford to buy her a meal that she could 217 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: not afford to buy herself. But in New York City, 218 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: nothing's free, so just before the man attempted to collect 219 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: his payment sexually, Patti Smith recognized the good looking boy 220 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: from the bookstore and ran to him in the park, 221 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,720 Speaker 1: introducing him on the spot to a predatory lunch date 222 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 1: as her boyfriend Robert Maplethorpe, who was high on LSD 223 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,040 Speaker 1: at the time, went along with the ruse, which he 224 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:19,600 Speaker 1: no doubt thought was hilarious. Robert found Patty Lee Smith 225 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: to be not only funny, but also sexy, intelligent, creative, 226 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,560 Speaker 1: a perfect partner in crime for his own first foray 227 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:31,359 Speaker 1: into New York City. They shared the same goal to 228 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:35,399 Speaker 1: become artists. They weren't sure what kinds of artists they 229 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: wanted to become, just that they were most certainly destined 230 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: to create things that would change the world of culture 231 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:45,879 Speaker 1: and art as they knew it. In their first apartment together, 232 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:48,679 Speaker 1: the one in Brooklyn where they had to scrub the 233 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: wall of the splattered blood and psychotic scribblings from the 234 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:58,880 Speaker 1: previous tenant, they painted, created drawings and collages, and wrote. 235 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,520 Speaker 1: They read the great of the great writers, those who 236 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: were also criminals, not just Jean Jannet, but Paul Verlaine, 237 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:11,720 Speaker 1: oh Henry and William S. Burrows, Burrows who shot and 238 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:14,800 Speaker 1: killed his wife in a game of William Tell and 239 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,440 Speaker 1: got away with it. And they studied to Cooney and Rivera, 240 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,640 Speaker 1: Warhol and Picasso, and prayed at the altar of Coltrane 241 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:26,879 Speaker 1: sympathized with those devils, the rolling Stones, and filled in 242 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:31,400 Speaker 1: the oor gaps with the Cherells and Dylan Bob not Thomas. 243 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: They had little food, even less money, and they stole 244 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,360 Speaker 1: when they had to, but they never begged. What they 245 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: did have was desire, and that desire gave way to faith, 246 00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:49,679 Speaker 1: and faith to creation, and soon the artistic callings of 247 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:55,120 Speaker 1: each would bear fruit. Robert with photography and Patty with words. 248 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 1: A new apartment, this one in Manhattan, signified progress, with 249 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,480 Speaker 1: the chalk outline of the dead body outside the front 250 00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:09,159 Speaker 1: door precipitated another move to a less dangerous neighborhood, so 251 00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:16,320 Speaker 1: further uptown they went to the Chelsea Hotel. These days, 252 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: the Chelsea Hotel on West twenty third Street, like most 253 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:23,919 Speaker 1: of Manhattan, is a glitzy, gentrified incarnation of what it 254 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,359 Speaker 1: once was a dangerous rooming house for bohemian vagabonds. In 255 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:34,720 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, the Chelsea was part artist colony, in 256 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 1: part central command for the drug fueled late sixties counterculture, 257 00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 1: housing and hosting the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen 258 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,960 Speaker 1: in The Velvet Underground's Nico Salvador Dali, stayed at the 259 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:49,920 Speaker 1: Chelsea when there was no room at the Saint Regis. 260 00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:54,159 Speaker 1: Alan Ginsburg cruised the lobby for dates, even taking Patty 261 00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: to lunch one day, mistaking her with her short crop 262 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:00,399 Speaker 1: Joan of arc Hare to be a young pretty boy. 263 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: Dylan died at the Chelsea Thomas not Bob, while the 264 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,119 Speaker 1: poet fell into a coma in Room two five after 265 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,119 Speaker 1: downing eighteen straight whiskies before he was carried off to 266 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 1: be pronounced dead at Saint Vincent's. The Andy Warhol superstar 267 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: Edie Cedric set her room at the Chelsea on fire 268 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,320 Speaker 1: while high on barbituates. She had to be rescued from 269 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: room one oh five, where Warhol has shot part of 270 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: his acclaim nineteen sixty six film Chelsea Girls. In a 271 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:35,280 Speaker 1: few years prior, a twenty year old dancer named Lucille 272 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: Andell found herself on the roof of the Chelsea Hotel. 273 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,440 Speaker 1: She walked carefully on her tiptoes close to the edge 274 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,600 Speaker 1: before giving into the darkness that had overtaken her and 275 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: plunging to her death ten stories below. Along the way, 276 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 1: the usually graceful Lucille struck the third floor fire escape 277 00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:01,080 Speaker 1: with a thud, partially dismembering herself before pancaking on West 278 00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: twenty third. But all the danger that the Chelsea Hotel 279 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:12,600 Speaker 1: represented didn't scare Patty Smith. Instead, it compelled her. Besides, 280 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,719 Speaker 1: Patty could navigate it. She wasn't big into drugs and 281 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,600 Speaker 1: she seldom drank. And besides, she and her partner, Robert 282 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:24,400 Speaker 1: Maplethorpe were broke. Which other hotel would take art as 283 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,119 Speaker 1: collateral until they could come up with the cash to 284 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,080 Speaker 1: rent a room. None, and no other hotel had Burrows 285 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: and the poet Jim Carroll roaming its halls. Patty befriended 286 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:40,879 Speaker 1: both of them. She also befriended Janis Joplin, who stayed 287 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,119 Speaker 1: in Room four or eleven during her run of shows 288 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:47,360 Speaker 1: at the Fillmore East. Patty listened to Janis express herself 289 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: through music. Patty worked up poems with Jim Carroll, and 290 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,919 Speaker 1: Patty met Bob Dylan's fixer and confident on, Bob Newarth. 291 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: Bob Newarth encouraged Patty to work her poems into songs, 292 00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:03,120 Speaker 1: to listen Hank Williams, to listen to blind Willie mctel, 293 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 1: to get down to the root of what she felt 294 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,560 Speaker 1: and to pull it out and spill it all over 295 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: open chords on an acoustic guitar creatively. Patty was encouraged 296 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 1: and compelled. Robert was too, but in a darker way. 297 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:26,200 Speaker 1: It was nineteen sixty nine The Rolling Stones, as Brian 298 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 1: Jones had died, and so too did the lsd Dreams 299 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:34,160 Speaker 1: from the Summer of Love. Robert took the stone sympathy 300 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,240 Speaker 1: for the devil a little too literally. Charles Manson was 301 00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 1: all anyone at the Chelsea could talk about in nineteen 302 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 1: sixty nine. Just as Patty Smith's mother had been obsessed 303 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,760 Speaker 1: with the Lindberg case, Robert Maplethorpe was obsessed with this 304 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: latest crime of the century. Out in Hollywood. Seven people 305 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,480 Speaker 1: were dead in what appeared to be a ritualistic murder 306 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,400 Speaker 1: spree with a decidedly rock and roll edge. The Tate 307 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,560 Speaker 1: Labians in August of nineteen sixty nine were hard not 308 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: to be affected by, and so Robert Maplethorpe began working 309 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 1: a darker vision into his art. He became obsessed with 310 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:17,199 Speaker 1: the concept of evil. It was a stark counterpoint to 311 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,879 Speaker 1: his Catholic upbringing, a reflection of what he saw on 312 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,679 Speaker 1: the street up on forty Second, where he hustled sex 313 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: for cash to help support himself and Patty. Patty worried 314 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: about Robert. Sex work was as dangerous as a gun. 315 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:42,399 Speaker 1: Nineteen sixty nine, Midtown Manhattan, forty second Street aka the Deuce, 316 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:48,360 Speaker 1: a neon open air sex market, predators and prey pros 317 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: and junkies applying their trade for pimps and pushers, chicken hawks, 318 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: older skeevee looking men in trench coats on the prow 319 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,720 Speaker 1: for young runaways. A few went a long way. A 320 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 1: runaway could make a buck or two with one job 321 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,399 Speaker 1: and be able to afford a slice of pizza, a coke, 322 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: and a movie ticket into one of the theaters, the Liberty, 323 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,520 Speaker 1: the Empire, the Victory, and be able to pass out 324 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 1: in relative peace and quiet until the shakedown artist showed 325 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:21,679 Speaker 1: up looking to rob this loosing patrons out on the street, 326 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: Robert Maplethorpe kept as cool. It was all about the look, 327 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,480 Speaker 1: the right nod from the right dude, and Robert knew 328 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:35,879 Speaker 1: it was on. But danger was everywhere. Cops supposed as 329 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 1: John's to entrap hustlers and turn their backs when they 330 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: were harassed and assaulted. Many clients refused to pay. Some 331 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:49,800 Speaker 1: insisted on rough stuff with hustlers, strangulation, knife play. Sickos 332 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,840 Speaker 1: were slitting the throats and the theaters and the working 333 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: boy's screams drowned out by the soundtracks blasting from the screens. 334 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,960 Speaker 1: Robert was a quote unquote rent boy, or so he 335 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,320 Speaker 1: told himself. He worked the streets to help pay his 336 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,000 Speaker 1: and Patty's rent at the Chelsea. It wasn't the sex 337 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,880 Speaker 1: so much that bothered Patty, it was the danger. Their 338 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: relationship was an open one, and Robert's homosexuality by this 339 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 1: time was no secret. It was also around this time 340 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:24,320 Speaker 1: that Patty became romantically involved with the poet Jim Carroll. 341 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,160 Speaker 1: Jim hustled up on forty second Street as well. Robert 342 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 1: asked Jim how he knew that he wasn't gay. Jim 343 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:38,040 Speaker 1: told him that he knew because he always asked for money, 344 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:44,200 Speaker 1: whereas sometimes Robert didn't. Either way, Jim hustled for heroin 345 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: and Robert hustled for rent. For Robert there was no 346 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 1: other way to support his pursuit of becoming an artist, 347 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 1: and for Patty there had to be a less dangerous way. 348 00:25:56,359 --> 00:26:03,479 Speaker 1: Sam Shephard was that way. Sam was a writer, a 349 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: California Cowboy a musician, an established off Broadway playwright, and 350 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,439 Speaker 1: by the time he and Patty Smith began their affair 351 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:17,159 Speaker 1: at the Chelsea Hotel, already a husband and father. It 352 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 1: didn't matter. Sam encouraged Patty to sing, He bought her 353 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: her first guitar. He encouraged her artistically romantically. Sam was dangerous, 354 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,680 Speaker 1: but compared to Jim Carroll. 355 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 3: He was safe. 356 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: Sam Shepherd exuded life, not junkie death. Sam didn't hustle, well, 357 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,159 Speaker 1: he did, but in a different way. Sam made shit happen, 358 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:44,200 Speaker 1: and by the time he was twenty seven, he'd won 359 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,919 Speaker 1: four Obie Awards for four different plays. The Obis are 360 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,520 Speaker 1: the highest awards given to off Broadway artists. Sam Shephard 361 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,399 Speaker 1: won three in one year. Sam convinced Patty that she 362 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: had something to say, as if she needed further validation, 363 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: but still hearing that her words carried weight from a 364 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:11,879 Speaker 1: sexy award winning playwright, couldn't hurt. Sam prevailed upon Patty 365 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,520 Speaker 1: to collaborate with him on a new play, and they 366 00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:20,119 Speaker 1: called it Cowboy Mouth. Cowboy Mouth was a semi autobiographical 367 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 1: account of Sam and Patty's relationship. Both acted in the 368 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,760 Speaker 1: two lead Roles when it was staged in April of 369 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, and there it was Sam and Patty's 370 00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: illicit relationship brought to life for all to see. Afterward, 371 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: Sam freaked out, he had a wife and a kid, 372 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,280 Speaker 1: that it was wrong and he knew it. He abruptly 373 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,400 Speaker 1: left New York City to return to his family in Vermont. 374 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:52,560 Speaker 1: At first, Patty was devastated, but it didn't take long 375 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: before she put a relationship with Sam Shepard in the 376 00:27:55,040 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: proper perspective. It was brief, explosive, and overall a positive 377 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,080 Speaker 1: experience in the end, despite who got hurt and how 378 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: it was worth it because Sam Shepard helped Patty Smith 379 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: finally find her voice. Cowboy Mouth wasn't just autobiographical. It 380 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:20,160 Speaker 1: was also about a character who moves seamlessly between art 381 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:25,479 Speaker 1: and crime, specifically music, rock and roll, actually and crime. 382 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,359 Speaker 1: To this point in her life, Patti Smith had spent 383 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:34,639 Speaker 1: her life moving between art and crime, shoplifting, harrowing, hustling, 384 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:39,680 Speaker 1: Charles Lindbergh, Charles Manson, chalk outlined bodies and blood stained 385 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:45,240 Speaker 1: tenement walls, Jean Janet, William Burrows and William Tell, Willie Micktell, 386 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:51,360 Speaker 1: Bob Newarth, Robert Maplethorpe, and Jim Carroll, Sam Shepherd. It 387 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,600 Speaker 1: was all one big art and crime collage. It was 388 00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,600 Speaker 1: who she had become, and now it was time to 389 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: give voice to all of that transgressive inn influenced, to 390 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,520 Speaker 1: bridge the gap between art and artist, to be the 391 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 1: voice of the voiceless, for those persecuted for following their calling, 392 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: for their crimes, and to do it all with rock 393 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:20,720 Speaker 1: and roll. We'll be right back after this. 394 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:22,240 Speaker 2: We're We're where. 395 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: On February tenth, nineteen seventy one, Patti Smith stood on 396 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: stage at Saint Mark's Church in New York's East Village 397 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:39,200 Speaker 1: and stared out at the crowd. By her side, a 398 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:44,719 Speaker 1: lanky and musically lethal guitar playing friend Lenny Kay, staring 399 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,040 Speaker 1: up at them. From the audience, who's who of Downtown Cool, 400 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: Lou Reed, Todd Rudgren, Robert Maplethorpe, Alan Ginsburg, and Moore. 401 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: The evening was billed as a night of poetry featuring 402 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: the Warhol, performance artist and poet Gerard la and Patty Smith. 403 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:08,800 Speaker 1: For whatever reason, Patty decided to include a musical element. Lenny. 404 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 1: Lenny was already a musical Encyclopedia. He wrote for jazz 405 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,880 Speaker 1: and pop Rolling Stone Crawdaddy, and at the time was 406 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 1: busy assembling songs for what would become one of the 407 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: greatest compilation albums in rock and roll history, The Nuggets 408 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:28,240 Speaker 1: Original Artifacts from the Psychedelic Era nineteen sixty five to 409 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight set, which would become the definitive collection 410 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:36,480 Speaker 1: of American garage rock singles and eventually one of punk 411 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:40,920 Speaker 1: rock's guiding lights. In fact, the Nuggets Liner Notes feature 412 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 1: one of the earliest uses of the term punk rock. 413 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,720 Speaker 1: Lenny Kay not only knew how to play guitar, Lenny 414 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:54,280 Speaker 1: Kay knew his ship. With Lenny at her side, Patty 415 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,360 Speaker 1: Smith stared out into the audience. As the crowd settled, 416 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,880 Speaker 1: the two performers looked at get their faces flushed with anticipation. 417 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: They could all sense it something different was about to happen. 418 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: New Yorkers know this feeling. It's familiar, the promise of 419 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: the new that feeling that you're about to be let 420 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,320 Speaker 1: in on the secret, in on something special. It's a 421 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,880 Speaker 1: promise that in the nineteen seventies, New York City seemed 422 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:29,400 Speaker 1: to constantly fulfill. The lights dimmed guitar feedback began to 423 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:33,760 Speaker 1: creep from Lenny's amplifier, and the crowd dropped their nervous chatter. 424 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:39,719 Speaker 1: The feedback unfurled throughout the room, bending both piercing and 425 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: warm at the same time, like a blanket of nails, 426 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,000 Speaker 1: and Patty grabbed the microphone atop the stand with one hand, 427 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: raised her other hand in the air, and abruptly brought 428 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: it down to her side. Lenny muted his guitar silence. 429 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: Patti Smith leaned into the microphone and said, said, this 430 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: one's for the criminals. With that, Lenny kay released the 431 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,600 Speaker 1: squeal and squawk from his Gibson melody Maker, and Patty 432 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,440 Speaker 1: meted out the powerful words from the first lines of 433 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:21,120 Speaker 1: her poem Oath, Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. 434 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:25,320 Speaker 1: And suddenly it wasn't a poem anymore. It was a song, 435 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 1: and with Lenny it was rock and roll. Patty Smith 436 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:35,240 Speaker 1: had answered her calling and people loved it. The crowd 437 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,120 Speaker 1: that night adored her, and Patty was indeed something new, 438 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: something unseen, a transgressive hybrid of poetry and music with 439 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:48,400 Speaker 1: something powerful to say. The sins of her generation were 440 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:51,760 Speaker 1: not yet answered for and maybe they weren't even sins 441 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 1: who knew? That was the point, all the crime, all 442 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: the transgression, the so called sins, The cross was there 443 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:05,360 Speaker 1: and theirs alone to bear heresy. Like all great art, 444 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,560 Speaker 1: the action is in the risk. Patty's words were shocking, 445 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:15,800 Speaker 1: like Joan of ARC's words. Patty's possessed unyielding conviction, and 446 00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:21,480 Speaker 1: those words had the power to inspire. And inspire they did. 447 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,479 Speaker 1: Patty and Lenny brought their rock and roll poetry hybrid 448 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: to other stages. After this, they opened for the New 449 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,880 Speaker 1: York Dolls at their famed Mercer Art Center gigs. They 450 00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: played Le Jardin at the Other End, which had been 451 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: and would again be called the Bitter End, And before long, 452 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, Patty found herself on the Bowery 453 00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,840 Speaker 1: in Manhattan's Lower East Side, with all its grit and grime, 454 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,920 Speaker 1: a motley collection of the unhoused and unwashed, derelics and 455 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,600 Speaker 1: artists clinging desperately to a world trying to shake them 456 00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: loose like fleas on the backside of a rabid dog, 457 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: all just steps from William S. Burrows's apartment, where the 458 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,120 Speaker 1: iconic novelists lived in Squalor and would receive Patty as 459 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: a guest whenever she was in the neighborhood. It was 460 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:15,440 Speaker 1: just Patty in her fearlessness, in her curiosity, and Borrows 461 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:20,240 Speaker 1: and his heroin and his shotgun. Down the street near Bleaker, 462 00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: the crowd assembled outside the doors of Cebe Gebi's A 463 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,960 Speaker 1: Little Die. No one had cared about five minutes before. 464 00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 1: But tonight, Patty, in the new band she'd assembled with 465 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:35,200 Speaker 1: Lenny on guitar, Richard Sole on piano, Ivan Carl on bass, 466 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,280 Speaker 1: and j. D. Darty was set to perform the Patti 467 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: Smith Group, along with one of the most inventive groups 468 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,839 Speaker 1: to come out of the nineteen seventies in New York television. 469 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,880 Speaker 1: Both bands were in the midst of a multi week residency. 470 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,279 Speaker 1: Just like at the Saint Mark's Church gig a few 471 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,759 Speaker 1: years prior, you could feel the anticipation in the air, 472 00:34:56,480 --> 00:35:00,879 Speaker 1: except now there were actual stakes. Ever since that first 473 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,880 Speaker 1: performance at Saint Mark's, Patty was heralded as a savior. 474 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,120 Speaker 1: This new art she was creating, this poetry rock and 475 00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:12,760 Speaker 1: roll hybrid. It was the natural progression of a century 476 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:16,080 Speaker 1: long march from the romance of Arthur Rimbau to the 477 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: squalor of Jean Jeannet, to the grime of Jim Carroll, 478 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,280 Speaker 1: to the pop of the Andy Warhol, to the music 479 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 1: of Patti Smith. And therefore, Patty's music was seen as 480 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: the antidote to the poisonous, drivel filling airwaves in the 481 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:37,960 Speaker 1: mid seventies, soulless, bloated, spiritually starved rock music. Patty was 482 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: unofficially drafted by New York's downtown tastemakers and uptown glitterati too. 483 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:47,400 Speaker 1: As she said, quote, preserve, protect, and project the revolutionary 484 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:52,319 Speaker 1: spirit of rock and roll unquote, And that's exactly what 485 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:56,800 Speaker 1: the Patti Smith Group did each night at CBGB's. Patty 486 00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: drew strength from her mentor William S. Burrows in her 487 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,799 Speaker 1: best friend, the first great love of her life, Robert Maplethorpe, 488 00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:07,280 Speaker 1: both of whom positioned themselves each night right up front. 489 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,160 Speaker 1: Robert was devoted to Patty's success as an artist in 490 00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 1: the same way he was to his own, on a 491 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:18,040 Speaker 1: near spiritual level. Soon, the powerful executive Clive Davis from 492 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:22,800 Speaker 1: Arista Records would also devote himself to Patty's success, signing 493 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: her to a lucrative recording contract. The Patti Smith group's 494 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: debut album, Horses, produced by the Velvet Undergrounds John Cale, 495 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,480 Speaker 1: the one with the stark and beautiful Robert Maplethorpe portrait 496 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,280 Speaker 1: of Patty on the cover, did what it was supposed 497 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,560 Speaker 1: to do, its part to save rock and roll. The 498 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,560 Speaker 1: album begins with a bang, just as Patty did at 499 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:50,800 Speaker 1: Saint Mark's, with the powerful rejection of the past. Somebody 500 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:57,160 Speaker 1: sins but not mine. Horses nailed the moment. Kids loved it, 501 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,839 Speaker 1: so did the critics. None other than america greatest rock 502 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 1: critic Lester Bangs said in his Cream magazine review that 503 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:09,120 Speaker 1: Patty's songs on Horses touched quote deep wellsprings of emotion 504 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:13,680 Speaker 1: that extremely few artists in rock or anywhere else are 505 00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:19,160 Speaker 1: capable of reaching. Unquote that was just it, few artists 506 00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:23,080 Speaker 1: in rock or anywhere else. I don't know if Lester 507 00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:27,080 Speaker 1: Bangs intended to cast Patty's are outside the parameters of 508 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,759 Speaker 1: rock or not, but that's exactly where her creativity was 509 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:35,360 Speaker 1: leading her. She wasn't just a musician. She was clearly 510 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,960 Speaker 1: something else, something new, someone an artist who wasn't only 511 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,880 Speaker 1: revealing something about herself and her listeners. She was revealing 512 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: something that hadn't been revealed before. Here was an artist 513 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 1: who was reclaiming rock and roll from under the safe 514 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:55,600 Speaker 1: nightlight of mainstream rocks radio play duvet and dragging it 515 00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:58,719 Speaker 1: back under the grimy blanket of nails inhabited by the 516 00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: criminal underworld, both the perpetrators and the victims. Patty Smith 517 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,920 Speaker 1: was a revolution in an iconic twist. Her cause was 518 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:15,200 Speaker 1: celebrated not only downtown but uptown as well. Soon elite 519 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:20,319 Speaker 1: culture would take note and open its doors. Aside from 520 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 1: the predictable grousing from conservative detractors over her line about Jesus, everyone, 521 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:32,319 Speaker 1: it seemed, loved Patty Smith's music except Robert Maplethorpe. Well, 522 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:36,520 Speaker 1: not exactly. Robert was an ardent supporter of Patty's, but 523 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 1: ever since their earliest days, when Patty would sing to 524 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,759 Speaker 1: them back in that Brooklyn apartment, Robert would always say 525 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,800 Speaker 1: to her, sing me a song I can dance to, Patty. 526 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: The world didn't dance to the songs on horses. They 527 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: studied them like something worthy of a museum exhibit. No, 528 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,680 Speaker 1: the dancing would come later with Bruce Springsteen, perhaps you've 529 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 1: heard of. At the time, Bruce Springsteen had just become 530 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:07,680 Speaker 1: the definition of an overnight sensation upon releasing his third album, 531 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,120 Speaker 1: Born to Run. The previously obscure rock and roll bandleader 532 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:13,840 Speaker 1: had rocketed to stardom when he appeared on the covers 533 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: of both Newsweek and Time magazine simultaneously. Now, in July 534 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:22,760 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy six, he was filing a lawsuit against 535 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,880 Speaker 1: his manager, trying to extricate himself from a horrible contract, 536 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: one that he believed to be criminal. Patti Smith, at 537 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: the time, was playing shows in support of horses and 538 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:39,160 Speaker 1: preparing to record her follow up album, Radio Ethiopia, while 539 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,240 Speaker 1: living with her new boyfriend, the guitarist from Blue Oyster Cult, 540 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,279 Speaker 1: Alan Lanier. None of them knew it yet, but all 541 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,560 Speaker 1: three of these artists, much like their New York City fans, 542 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:56,600 Speaker 1: were about to be gripped in fear. Young lovers like 543 00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:59,520 Speaker 1: Patty and Allen, and like the couples who flocked to 544 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:03,560 Speaker 1: records stores to purchase Springsteen's records, were about to get 545 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 1: swept up in a year of paranoia because the New 546 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:13,320 Speaker 1: York City night now belonged to a lunatic July twenty ninth, 547 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, one ten Am Pellam Bay the Bronx, 548 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: two women eighteen year old Donna Lauria and nineteen year 549 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,080 Speaker 1: old Jody Valenti sat in a nosemobile on the side 550 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,840 Speaker 1: of the road in the dark of night, discussing the 551 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: time they just had at Peachtrees, a local discotheque, and 552 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,120 Speaker 1: the heavy rhythm from the tramps that's where the happy 553 00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:39,360 Speaker 1: people go supplied the adrenaline still coursing through them. The 554 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:41,799 Speaker 1: vibe was pierced by a passing car on a not 555 00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:45,399 Speaker 1: so far away street blaring the haunting new hit by 556 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:51,160 Speaker 1: Blue Oyster Cult, Don't Fear the Reaper. Suddenly the mood turned, 557 00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,480 Speaker 1: the street got a little darker, the inside of the 558 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,319 Speaker 1: car a little quieter. Donna opened the door to leave. 559 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: From out of the darkness a man with a gun. 560 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: Donna startled. The man crouched onto one knee, took aim 561 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:13,360 Speaker 1: at Donna with both hands, and Jody screamed. Donna Lauria 562 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,759 Speaker 1: died instantly. The gunman got off another two shots, and 563 00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,839 Speaker 1: one hit Jody in the thigh. She lived to tell 564 00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:25,760 Speaker 1: the harrowing story to the New York newspapers. Three months later. 565 00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:31,520 Speaker 1: The next shootings happened two young lovers, eighteen year old 566 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:35,920 Speaker 1: Rosemary Keenan and twenty year old Carl Denaro escaped the 567 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,520 Speaker 1: killer who fired into Karl's car and Queen's Carl took 568 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,480 Speaker 1: a bullet in the head but survived and sewed, did Rosemary. 569 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,319 Speaker 1: The cops connected the forty four caliber shell casings from 570 00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:50,120 Speaker 1: the Queen shooting to the Bronx shooting, and the papers 571 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,120 Speaker 1: came up with a spiffy name for this lunatic terrorizing 572 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:58,800 Speaker 1: New Yorkers, the forty four caliber killer. Baby, Don't Fear 573 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,880 Speaker 1: the Reaper. That line from the Blue Oyster cult single 574 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:07,000 Speaker 1: kept asking the impossible from speakers across the city in 575 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:11,879 Speaker 1: the spring. In summer of seventy six and later in November, 576 00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: another shooting Seasons, Don't Fear the Reaper. Another couple of 577 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:23,760 Speaker 1: teenage girls, another Donna, this one Donna Demassi sixteen, along 578 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:30,120 Speaker 1: with joe Anne Lomino eighteen. Two shots and both girls survived, 579 00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,600 Speaker 1: but the papers, especially the New York Daily News columns 580 00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:38,640 Speaker 1: Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, traded ink for industry scale paranoia. 581 00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:44,400 Speaker 1: New Yorkers sweated out the winter. La la la la La, 582 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: Don't Fear the Reaper. The new year nineteen seventy seven 583 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:55,200 Speaker 1: new shootings, another couple alone in the car. Christine Freud 584 00:42:55,440 --> 00:43:01,040 Speaker 1: twenty six and John Diale thirty both were shot. She survived, 585 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,440 Speaker 1: he didn't, and the papers did their thing and the 586 00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:09,880 Speaker 1: public paranoia ratcheted even higher. Love of two is one here, 587 00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:14,760 Speaker 1: but now they're gone. March eighth, nineteen seventy seven, another 588 00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:19,200 Speaker 1: shooting college student, Virginia Vouscashin, was walking back to her 589 00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:22,080 Speaker 1: home in Queen's in the dark after class when the 590 00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:25,719 Speaker 1: gunman appeared out of nowhere. She saw the gun, she 591 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,960 Speaker 1: raised her textbook in front of her face. The gunman shot, 592 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,880 Speaker 1: and the bullet blasted through the book and into Virginia's face. 593 00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:40,320 Speaker 1: Virginia was dead here, but now they're gone. A month later, 594 00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,400 Speaker 1: a model and her boyfriend parked at about three am 595 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,720 Speaker 1: on the side of the Hutchinson Parkway in the Bronx. 596 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:52,160 Speaker 1: One dead model, one dead boyfriend. Romeo and Juliet are 597 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:56,800 Speaker 1: together in eternity. Come on, baby, don't fear the reaper. 598 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,560 Speaker 1: And on May thirtieth, nineteen seventy seven, when Daily News 599 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:06,040 Speaker 1: Calmness Jimmy Breslin was revealing to the world the psychotic 600 00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:09,520 Speaker 1: ramblings of the forty four caliber killer sent to Breslin 601 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 1: himself by the Killer, who claimed for all to be, 602 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:17,000 Speaker 1: in his words, the Son of Sam aka the self 603 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:24,520 Speaker 1: proclaimed Chubby Bohemoth aka Beezlbub aka Satan aka Death Himself 604 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:31,440 Speaker 1: aka the Reaper. While Breslin freaked New York City the 605 00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:34,640 Speaker 1: fuck out, while cops hunted for the killer and the 606 00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:39,160 Speaker 1: killer hunted for victims, Patty Smith was planning her next album, 607 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: her third, the follow up to Radio Ethiopia. And while 608 00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:48,200 Speaker 1: the NYPD hunted for the Son of Sam, Patty was 609 00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,839 Speaker 1: still hunting for a song her friend Robert Maplethorpe could 610 00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:56,279 Speaker 1: dance to. By June of that year, Bruce Springsteen had 611 00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 1: finally extracted himself from his legal problems. It was work 612 00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,839 Speaker 1: on his belated follow up to Born to Run, an 613 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:07,600 Speaker 1: album called Darkness on the Edge of Town, and there 614 00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,280 Speaker 1: was plenty of darkness to go around, especially in New Yorktown. 615 00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:15,839 Speaker 1: Investigators were at a dead end, unable to hunt down 616 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:19,080 Speaker 1: the Sun of Sam. The Knight no longer belonged to 617 00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:23,520 Speaker 1: the city's lovers, but Springsteen didn't care. There was something there, 618 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:27,319 Speaker 1: the wisp of a song. As the sessions began with 619 00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:32,879 Speaker 1: producer Jimmy Iavin, Springsteen had the chorus it was defiant, triumphant. 620 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:39,120 Speaker 1: It reclaimed something. It went because the knight belongs to lovers. 621 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:45,319 Speaker 1: But that was it. That was all he had. The 622 00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:47,799 Speaker 1: end of June came and the Son of Sam shot 623 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:52,880 Speaker 1: another couple, Salvatore Lupo twenty and Judy Placibo seventeen, and 624 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,400 Speaker 1: both survived. The Cobs kept up their hunt for the killer, 625 00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,040 Speaker 1: but were still coming up empty by the end of 626 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:03,160 Speaker 1: the month. July hit with the heat of a thousand suns, 627 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:05,760 Speaker 1: and that meant that it had been a full year 628 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:09,560 Speaker 1: of terror in New York City. The self proclaimed chubby 629 00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:12,560 Speaker 1: bohem Is celebrated by shooting at a parked car a 630 00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:16,880 Speaker 1: couple kissing on their first date. Stacey Moskowitz and Robert Violente, 631 00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:21,560 Speaker 1: both twenty. Both were shot in the head. Stacy lived, 632 00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:26,720 Speaker 1: Robert did not. In August, Patty Smith entered the record 633 00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:30,320 Speaker 1: Plan to begin work on her new album. That same week, 634 00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:35,120 Speaker 1: police acting on a tip interviewed a chubby twenty something 635 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 1: postal worker up in Yonkers named David Berkowitz. The following day, 636 00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:46,320 Speaker 1: Berkowitz was arrested. The Son of Sam manhunt had ended. 637 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:53,919 Speaker 1: New York breathed a sigh of relief. Patty Smith kept 638 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,080 Speaker 1: her head down and worked, still hunting for a hit, 639 00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:02,000 Speaker 1: a song Robert Maplethorpe could dance to. On September twenty seventh, 640 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:06,000 Speaker 1: Jimmy Ivien, who was also now producing Patty's new album, 641 00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:09,880 Speaker 1: brought Springsteen's demo of Because the Knight into the studio 642 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:13,280 Speaker 1: for Patty. Patty heard something in the song that Bruce 643 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:19,080 Speaker 1: hadn't not just defiance, but again reclamation. She channeled it 644 00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:24,200 Speaker 1: all into verse lyrics, Come on, now, try and understand 645 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,759 Speaker 1: the way I feel when I'm in your hands, take 646 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:32,000 Speaker 1: my hand, come undercover. They can't hurt you now, can't 647 00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,839 Speaker 1: hurt you now, can't hurt you now, because The Knight 648 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:42,080 Speaker 1: belongs to lovers once more, and now the Son of 649 00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:45,520 Speaker 1: Sam was behind bars, and young couples in New York 650 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:50,000 Speaker 1: were once again free to frolic. Because The Knight was 651 00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:54,800 Speaker 1: a massive smash. Patty Smith had her hit, and Robert 652 00:47:54,800 --> 00:48:24,120 Speaker 1: Maplethorpe had a song he could dance to. Now Patty 653 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,360 Speaker 1: Smith was more than just an artist. For a minute, 654 00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:33,040 Speaker 1: it seemed Patty Smith was a pop star. Because The 655 00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:36,840 Speaker 1: Night was Patty Smith's commercial breakthrough. It was a top 656 00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:41,760 Speaker 1: forty hit, top five in the UK Easter. The album 657 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:45,520 Speaker 1: that the single supported sold better than Patty's previous two 658 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:50,520 Speaker 1: albums combined. But pop stardom was never her goal being 659 00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:55,359 Speaker 1: an artist was. An artist need fuel and inspiration, and 660 00:48:55,440 --> 00:49:00,520 Speaker 1: sometimes the only source for them is love and Naturally, 661 00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:03,880 Speaker 1: while at the top of her game, Patti Smith walked 662 00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:07,360 Speaker 1: away from the game. She fell in love with another artist, 663 00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:11,800 Speaker 1: another guitarist, this one fred Sonic Smith from the proto 664 00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:16,680 Speaker 1: punk anarchists and Motor City Legends the MC five. In 665 00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,360 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, Pattie moved to Detroit to marry Fred 666 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:25,000 Speaker 1: and traded a quote unquote career for fulfillment, the kind 667 00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:28,680 Speaker 1: of fulfillment that only creating a family can bring. But 668 00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,560 Speaker 1: soon enough, New York City would come calling again with 669 00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:37,720 Speaker 1: some very bad news. By the late eighties, Patti Smith's 670 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,680 Speaker 1: best friend, the first great love of her life, her 671 00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:44,719 Speaker 1: creative confidant, her literal infigurative partner in crime. During those 672 00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:48,920 Speaker 1: formative years in New York, Robert Maplethorpe, after having become 673 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,160 Speaker 1: one of the most successful photographers on the planet, was 674 00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:57,920 Speaker 1: dying from AIDS related complications. On his deathbed, Robert asked 675 00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:05,240 Speaker 1: Patty appointed question, did art get us. Perhaps art took Robert, 676 00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:10,800 Speaker 1: but it didn't take Fred's Sonicsmith heart failure did Patty's 677 00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:14,359 Speaker 1: other great love. Fred Smith died in nineteen ninety four, 678 00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:19,279 Speaker 1: five years after Robert Maplethorpe, and Patty did what all 679 00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:23,759 Speaker 1: great artists do to process grief. She worked, She made 680 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:27,200 Speaker 1: new music, went on tour with Bob Dylan, moved back 681 00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:31,480 Speaker 1: to New York City, and she wrote prodigiously, publishing books 682 00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:35,080 Speaker 1: of poetry, books about her obsession with the works of Warhol, 683 00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:40,040 Speaker 1: books of drawings, of photography, a collection of song lyrics, 684 00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:44,040 Speaker 1: all to critical acclaim, and in twenty ten she released 685 00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:48,080 Speaker 1: Just Kids, a personal memoir of her early life in 686 00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,279 Speaker 1: her time in New York City with Robert Maplethorpe, and 687 00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:54,680 Speaker 1: later that year, Just Kids won the National Book Award 688 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:58,800 Speaker 1: for non Fiction, one of the most prestigious literary honors 689 00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:05,520 Speaker 1: in the world. In twenty fifteen, Patty released a second memoir, Mtrain, 690 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:09,520 Speaker 1: which focused more on her present life and the unconventional 691 00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:13,160 Speaker 1: ways in which she'd pursued making art and the irredeemable 692 00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,080 Speaker 1: loss she felt after the death of her husband Fred. 693 00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:21,520 Speaker 1: Mtrain was a national best seller, and Patty followed it 694 00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:25,320 Speaker 1: up with four more titles, including the recent Bread of Angels, 695 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:29,440 Speaker 1: another memoir. Each book was released to more critical praise 696 00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:33,759 Speaker 1: and numerous awards and nominations Grammys, a Pen Award, the 697 00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:39,879 Speaker 1: Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, honorary doctorates from prestigious universities. It's 698 00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:42,840 Speaker 1: now twenty twenty six, and it's clear that Patti Smith 699 00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:46,080 Speaker 1: is still living a life that few artists get to live. 700 00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:51,280 Speaker 1: She is, as I mentioned earlier, the high priestess of art. 701 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:56,640 Speaker 1: She has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, artistic credibility 702 00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,400 Speaker 1: in the underground, and doors that fly open for her 703 00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:05,840 Speaker 1: at elite cultural institutions. Most importantly, she survived. She's seventy 704 00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:09,040 Speaker 1: nine years old and has lived to harvest the fruits 705 00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:13,480 Speaker 1: of her artistic labor, no small feat. Most artists of 706 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:17,520 Speaker 1: consequence succumbed to the ever present danger that surrounds them. 707 00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:21,240 Speaker 1: Jean Janey and William S. Burrows lived to be seventy 708 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,840 Speaker 1: five and eighty three, respectively, but Rimbaud died at thirty seven, 709 00:52:26,120 --> 00:52:31,280 Speaker 1: Pollock at forty four, Coltrane at forty, Brian Jones twenty seven, 710 00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:34,160 Speaker 1: and too many other artists to name, all of whom 711 00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:38,839 Speaker 1: died too young, And of course there was Robert Maplethorpe, 712 00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:46,000 Speaker 1: who asked, did Art get us dead at just forty two. 713 00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:49,920 Speaker 1: Perhaps the reason Patty Smith survived is something that she 714 00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:53,439 Speaker 1: revealed in m Train. When you read it, you can't 715 00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:56,040 Speaker 1: help but feel Patty writing at times in a sort 716 00:52:56,080 --> 00:53:00,680 Speaker 1: of gumshoe detective way, channeling her inner Mickey Lane, her 717 00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:05,760 Speaker 1: inner Raymond Chandler. It's not full on Philip Marlowe. It's subtle. 718 00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: But what isn't subtle is Patty's love of detective fiction, 719 00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:14,760 Speaker 1: both on the page and on screen. In a word, 720 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:20,680 Speaker 1: Patti Smith is crime obsessed. Law and Order, The Girl 721 00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:26,920 Speaker 1: with the Dragon Tattoo, Midsummer Murders, Sherlock Holmes, Luther, CSI, Miami, 722 00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:30,960 Speaker 1: The Killing. Patti Smith reveals an m Train that she 723 00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,279 Speaker 1: is so obsessed with some of these crime series that 724 00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:37,719 Speaker 1: she will sometimes rearrange her travel schedule in order to 725 00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:41,000 Speaker 1: catch various shows when they air on TV in different countries. 726 00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:44,680 Speaker 1: Her obsession with the show The Killing was so intense 727 00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:47,239 Speaker 1: that she wrote to the producers when it was canceled 728 00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:51,120 Speaker 1: to mourn the loss. The producers responded by giving Patty 729 00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:57,080 Speaker 1: a cameo on one of the series' last episodes, but 730 00:53:57,160 --> 00:54:01,240 Speaker 1: Patty Smith's obsession with TV crime shows I don't believe 731 00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:04,879 Speaker 1: that it's just folly. I believe that it comes from 732 00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:08,799 Speaker 1: Patty's extensive exposure to actual crime throughout the course of 733 00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:13,960 Speaker 1: her life. The Lindbergh Baby, Charles Manson, The Son of Sam. 734 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:18,839 Speaker 1: These true crime stories were formative for Patty Smith, as 735 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:21,680 Speaker 1: was the ever present danger of New York City in 736 00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:25,719 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and seventies. The blood splattered walls of 737 00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,920 Speaker 1: her first apartment, the body outlined in chalk on the 738 00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:32,480 Speaker 1: street outside Roberts, the dancer plunging to her death from 739 00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,520 Speaker 1: the top of the Chelsea, her friend William S Burrows, 740 00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:38,080 Speaker 1: who shot and killed his wife and got away with it. 741 00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:42,839 Speaker 1: Jim Carroll's deadly addiction to heroin, Robert Maplethorpe's forty Second 742 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,600 Speaker 1: Street Hustling. Not to mention the addiction, violence, and deadly 743 00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:51,279 Speaker 1: recklessness that accompanies most artists lives. Patty Smith was a 744 00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:54,640 Speaker 1: hair's breath from all of it, and she learned from 745 00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:58,239 Speaker 1: it all, learned from the crime, learned how not to 746 00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:01,680 Speaker 1: succumb to the danger of it, but instead to use 747 00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:06,279 Speaker 1: it as creative fuel. Patti Smith survived to become that 748 00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:10,560 Speaker 1: rare type of artist that she became because I believe 749 00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:14,760 Speaker 1: Patty Smith knew what all crime fiction and true crime 750 00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:19,319 Speaker 1: fans know, and that's how to stay safe, to be 751 00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:24,800 Speaker 1: vigilant aware, and like all great artists, to trust her intuition, 752 00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,319 Speaker 1: to believe in that calling, because the Knight doesn't just 753 00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:35,160 Speaker 1: belong to lovers, it belongs to the criminals. I'm Jake 754 00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:57,200 Speaker 1: Brennan in this is Disgraceland. All right, guys, you've not 755 00:55:57,239 --> 00:56:00,239 Speaker 1: heard the Patti Smith episode of the Disgrace lamp polls. 756 00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:02,760 Speaker 1: The question I want to ask you all is which 757 00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:07,320 Speaker 1: musicians memoir or autobiography would you recommend? Get your answers 758 00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:09,680 Speaker 1: in via voicemail and text to six one seven nine 759 00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:11,840 Speaker 1: oh six six six three eight, or hit me on 760 00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:15,239 Speaker 1: the socials at Disgrace lampod in the comments. Here comes 761 00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:19,080 Speaker 1: some credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is 762 00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,760 Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis, the Exactly Right Network 763 00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:26,680 Speaker 1: in iHeart Podcasts. Credits for this episode can be found 764 00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:30,279 Speaker 1: on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If 765 00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:33,360 Speaker 1: you're listening as a Disgraceland all Access member. Thank you 766 00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:36,319 Speaker 1: for supporting the show, we really appreciate it, and if not, 767 00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:38,640 Speaker 1: you can become a member right now by going to 768 00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:43,560 Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com slash Membership members can listen to every 769 00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:47,080 Speaker 1: episode of disgracelan ad free, rate and review the show, 770 00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:50,080 Speaker 1: and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at 771 00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:55,319 Speaker 1: disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at Disgracelampod, 772 00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:56,920 Speaker 1: rock a Rolla 773 00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:02,680 Speaker 2: He's a bad dead Man.