Tabishland

Before cynicism completely took over my life there was Patti Smith.

I remember I owned copies of Easter and Horses when I was in High School. Easter because she had a radio hit with Because The Night and Horses because I liked Easter. I loved both records, but sometimes I had to play them quietly as not to offend anyone- Horses started with potentially the most offensive line in Rock and Roll to that point- “Jesus died for somebody’s sins…. But not mine” and then the song with perhaps the MOST offensive- Rock and Roll N-------, which to this day, I can’t sing along to because it’s too damn offensive. “Jackson Pollack was a n------, Jesus Christ and Grandma too!”

I really liked those records. I thought she was original and gutsy and interesting and beautiful/ugly. Other people hated her- hated her bad. I mean, even LouReed hated her- “F--- Radio Ethiopia, I’m radio Brooklyn” he shouted on his Lou Reed Live album. (well, as it turns out, Lou was from Massapequa, Long Island and went to school, at University of Syracuse- so f--- Radio Brooklyn too!) But still, even Lou???

The music was sometimes pretty good, sometimes forgettable, but Patti really seemed like she had something she wanted to say. I don’t think I knew what it was. Her songs were kind of like “I don’t F--- much with the past but I f--- plenty with the future mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble” but the platitudes were shouted with such conviction- like me at 16- I didn’t know what I wanted to say, but I meant it maaaaan.

But she was great- the cover of her Easter album had he unshaved armpits- really threatening to a 16 year old boy, but really, really exciting too. Dangerous in ways that I couldn’t even fathom then.

“Horses, horses, comin’ in in all directions” A hugely homo-erotic song that I was oblivious to the meaning of- but sang along to nonetheless.

I found myself in the East Village in 1980- visiting a friend in NYC- and I came face to face with the people I saw on album covers and in articles in Cream Magazine, but hadn’t come near Indiana, Pennsylvania- the town so nice they named it once. I loved to dress up like the pictures- but these people seemed like they meant it. They scared me shitless. I knew at that point that I was a fake- a phony… (until The Clash gave me permission to wear army surpluss just a few years later). Yeah, that made me authentic!!!

Maybe, since that time, I’ve just been trying to prove that all those sincere rebels were really fakes like me. So, I'm the first to pooh-pooh anyone out of the ordinary- "oh yeah, non-conformity- that's sooooo original" But Patti wasn’t a fake at all. I just saw her tonight on TV and she was clumsy, homely, nervous, inarticulate, passionate – but, I think, sincere.

Shit. I was wrong. Everyone wasn’t a fake like me.

P.S. I rented Marie Antoinette (the movie, not the historical figure) this last week and was delighted to hear the movie open with a Gang of Four song- something off of Entertainment- I thought- “wow, this could be a really interesting movie.” In the end, I think Sophia Coppala just used the song because she liked the guitar riff and she probably thought it made her movie seem hip- kind of how I used to reference famous writers when I was younger- whose books I hadn’t read, but by mentioning their names- I thought it made me sound cooler.

# posted by Ian Gallanar @ 11:54 PM