PATTI SMITH DISCOGRAPHY (Incl Gone Again, Peace & Noise, Gung Ho & Banga) 9 Albums

Patti Smith: The Arista Years 1975 - 2000 + Banga 2012

Patti Smith - by A.Swapp ©️ 1977 pastels on tint paper A4

Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album Horses made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fused rock and poetry in her work. In 1978, her most widely known song,"Because the Night," co-written with Bruce Springsteen, reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number five on the UK Singles Chart. As punk rock grew in popularity, the Patti Smith Group toured the U.S. and Europe. The rawer sound of the group's second album, Radio Ethiopia, reflected this. Considerably less accessible than Horses, Radio Ethiopia initially received poor reviews. 

However, several of its songs have stood the test of time, and Smith still performs them live. She has said that Radio Ethiopia was influenced by the band MC5. As the '80s became the '90s, Smith lost some of those closest to her. Longtime friend and album-cover photographer Mapplethorpe died in 1989, followed a year later by pianist Richard Sohl. At the end of 1994, both her husband and her brother Todd died of heart failure within a month of one another. Smith returned to performing as a means of therapy, and re-formed the Patti Smith Group -- with Kaye, Daugherty, and new bassist Tony Shanahan -- for a few small-scale tours including a December 1995 excursion with Bob Dylan that R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe documented in the book Two Times Intro

Kostas does it yet again a glorious portrait of Patti Smith in her Arista Years

well written and with a plethoras of great pictures to illustrate the punk poet priestess

Patti - by A. Swapp ©️ 1977 charcoal and pencil on cartridge paper (study)