Patti Smith

Background

Patricia Lee Smith, popularly known as Patti Smith, was born on December 30, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois. Her zodiac sign is Capricorn, and her ethnicity is part Irish. She is the daughter of Beverly and Grant Smith, and she has three younger siblings named Linda, Kimberly, and Todd. Growing up, her family moved to Philadelphia and then to New Jersey. She grew up listening to records her mother gave her. She graduated from Deptford Township High School, worked in a factory, attended Glassboro State College, then left in 1967 to move to Manhattan, New York, and met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet Janet Hamill. In 1969, Smith moved to Paris, France, where she started busking and doing performance art, later returning to Manhattan and living in the famous Chelsea Hotel with Mapplethorpe. She spent this time refining her craft by writing and performing.

By 1974, Smith started to perform her own music, accompanied by Lenny Kaye and later a full band, calling themselves the Patti Smith Group. In the same year, the band recorded their first single titled ‘Hey Joe/Piss Factory.’ The band got signed by Arista Records and released their first album, “Horses,” in 1975. The album fused poetry with punk rock, which was just emerging, and featured a cover photo by Mapplethorpe, becoming one of rock’s classic images. The band began touring the U.S. and Europe and released their second album, “Radio Ethiopia,” the following year. In 1978, the band released what would become Smith’s most commercially successful album, “Easter,” and her most successful song, ‘Because the Night,’ the latter of which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. The following year, the band released their fourth studio album, “Wave.” In the 1980s, Smith retired temporarily from music to be with her newly formed family, although she released her fifth album, “Dream of Life,” in 1988. It included the song ‘People Have the Power.’

In 1995, Smith toured briefly with Bob Dylan. The following year, she released her sixth album, “Gone Again,” and collaborated with R.E.M. on their single ‘E-Bow The Letter.’ In 1997, she released her seventh studio album, “Peace and Noise.” She followed it up with her eighth studio album “Gung Ho,” released in 2000. In 2004, she released her ninth album, “Trampin’,” her first album on Columbia Records. In 2007, Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and released her tenth album, “Twelve,” which was an all-covers album. The following year, she was the subject of a documentary film, “Patti Smith: Dream of Life.” In 2010, Smith released a memoir about her life in ‘70s New York, titled “Just Kids.” In 2012, she released her eleventh studio album, “Banga.” Smith’s concert-documentary film “Horses: Patti Smith and her Band” premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival to wide acclaim.