name	CBGB
nickname	"CB's"
address	315 Bowery
location	Manhattan, New York
coordinates
type	Music venue
genre	Punk rockHardcore punkBluegrassBluesCountry
opened	1973
closed	2006
owner	Hilly Kristal
website	}}

CBGB (Country, BlueGrass, and Blues) was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, The Voidoids, The Cramps, Blondie, The Shirts, and Talking Heads. In later years, it would mainly become known for Hardcore punk with bands such as Agnostic Front, Alice Donut, Ratos de Porão, Bad Brains, Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, Mindless Self Indulgence, Warzone, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All, and Youth of Today performing there.

The storefront and large space next door to the club served as the "CBGB Record Canteen" (record shop and cafe) for many years. Eventually, in the late eighties, the record store was closed and replaced with a second performance space and art gallery, named "CB's 313 Gallery". The gallery went on to showcase many popular bands and singer-songwriters who played in a musical style more akin to acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, such as Dadadah, Toshi Reagon, and The Shells, while the original club continued to present mainly hardcore bands and post-punk, metal, and alternative rock acts. It stopped hosting punk shows in 1990.

The club closed in October 2006. The final concert was performed by Patti Smith on October 15. CBGB Fashions (the CBGB store, wholesale department, and online store) stayed open until October 31 at 315 Bowery. On November 1, 2006, CBGB Fashions moved to 19-23 St. Mark's Place, but it subsequently closed in the summer of 2008.

CBGB Radio launched on the iheartradio platform in 2010.

Founding

CBGB, a then-little-known rock club, was founded in December 1973, on the site of Kristal's earlier bar, Hilly's on the Bowery, which he ran from 1969 to 1972. Originally, Kristal had focused on his more profitable West Village nightspot, Hilly's, but complaints from the bar's neighbors forced Hilly's to close, leading its owner to concentrate on the Bowery club. The full name is CBGB & OMFUG which stands for "Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers"*. ''Gormandizer'' (gourmand) usually means a ravenous eater of food, but according to Kristal here it means "a voracious eater of ... music". The club was also affectionately called simply "CB's". As its name implied, Kristal intended the bar to feature country, bluegrass, and blues music (along with poetry readings), but it became famous as the birthplace of the American punk movement. Perhaps most notably, the punk rock pioneers The Ramones had their first shows there.

1970s

In 1973, before Hilly's on the Bowery became CBGB, two locals, Bill Page and Rusty McKenna, convinced Kristal to allow them to book concerts. Although the term "punk rock" was not applied to these acts, Kristal's son believes they helped lay the musical foundation for the bands that followed. After the Mercer Arts Center collapsed in August 1973, there were few locations in New York where unsigned bands could play original music, and some of the Mercer refugees, including Suicide, The Fast, Wayne County and the Magic Tramps all played in the very early days of CBGB.

At the third Television gig on April 14, 1974, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group were in the audience. The band went on to make its own CBGB debut on February 14, 1975. Other early performers included The Stillettos, featuring Deborah Harry, Elda Gentile and Amanda Jones on vocals, and Chris Stein on guitar), who supported Television on May 5, 1974. The newly-formed Blondie (under its original name of Angel & the Snake) and the Ramones both arrived in August 1974. Mink DeVille, Talking Heads, The Shirts, The Heartbreakers, The Fleshtones and many other bands followed in quick succession.

CBGB had only one rule for a band to follow in order to play at the venue: they had to play primarily original music. No cover bands were booked to play there. However, most of the regular bands played one or two covers during their sets. Kristal's son claims the policy was meant to help the club avoid paying ASCAP royalties for the compositions being performed.

As CBGB's reputation grew, it began to draw more acts from outside New York City. The club hosted the first American gigs by The Police, on October 20 and 21, 1978.

Hardcore punk

Though CBGB was utilized as a hot spot for touring bands to hit when they came through New York, the scene that kept the bar alive during the 1980s was New York's underground hardcore punk scene. Sunday at CBGB was matinee day (also named "thrash day" in a documentary about hardcore). Every Sunday, a handful of hardcore bands took the stage in the afternoon to dinnertime hours, usually for cheap. Bands made famous by matinees include Reagan Youth, Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, Leeway, Warzone, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All, The Misfits, Straight Ahead, and Youth of Today.

Over the years, CBGB's matinee became an institution. In 1990, violence both inside and outside of the venue caused Kristal to refuse to book hardcore shows. However, CBGB later brought hardcore back at various times, and for the last several years of its existence, had no rules about what genres could and could not be featured.

Closing

In 2005, a dispute arose between CBGB and the Bowery Residents' Committee. The Committee billed Kristal $91,000 in back rent, while Kristal claimed he had not been informed of increases in his $19,000 monthly rent. After the lease expired, they reached an agreement for the club to remain for 14 more months while Kristal dropped his legal battles and his attempts to get historic landmark status for the club.

Kristal planned to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB in Las Vegas, Nevada. The owner planned to strip the current club down to the bare walls, bringing as much of it to Nevada as possible.

"We're going to take the urinals," he said. "I'll take whatever I can. The movers said, 'You ought to take everything, and auction off what you don't want on eBay.' Why not? Somebody will."

The club finally closed on October 15, 2006. The last week featured multi-night stands by Bad Brains and The Dictators, along with an acoustic set by Blondie. More contemporary acts, such as Avail and The Bouncing Souls, opened shows throughout the week.

The final concert was performed by Patti Smith and broadcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attended the show and even performed on a handful of songs with Smith and her band. Television's Richard Lloyd also guested on a few songs, including a reworked version of "Marquee Moon". Toward the end of their set, Smith and her band played "Gloria", paying tribute to the Ramones during the chorus by alternating between the original lyrics and the "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" of "Blitzkrieg Bop". In her final encore, the song "Elegie", Smith read from a list of musicians who had died since they last played at CBGB.

Hilly Kristal died from complications from lung cancer on August 28, 2007. In early October 2007, Kristal's family and friends hosted a private memorial service in the YMCA near the village. Soon after, there was a public memorial where CBGB staff and others paid tribute.

After Kristal's death, his ex-wife, Karen Kristal, and daughter, Lisa Kristal Burgman, engaged in a legal battle over the purported $3 million CBGB estate, settling in June 2009 with Burgman receiving "most" of the money that did not go to creditors and estate taxes.

Building

On November 2, 2007, it was announced that high-end men's fashion designer John Varvatos would open a store at CBGB's former space at 315 Bowery in early 2008. Varvatos expressed a desire to "do justice" to CBGB's legacy. Much of the graffiti covering the toilets was preserved, along with some playbills from the club's 10th anniversary shows in 1983 that were discovered behind a wall. The store opened in April 2008.

In February 2008, it was announced that Morrison Hotel, a SoHo art gallery dedicated to music photography, would open a second location in the former CBGB Gallery space next door. However, in June 2009, it was announced that the Morrison Hotel gallery would close.

It was also announced that the alley behind the club, officially known as "Extra Place," would be turned into a pedestrian mall. The ''New York Post'' quotes Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys as saying "If that alley could talk, it's seen it all," and "All of Manhattan has lost its soul to money lords."

In popular culture

As an iconic referent for a hard-edged New York throughout popular and art media – despite closure and erasure – CBGB's life and presence has been extended by cultural awareness giving a nod to hipdom and historical sensibility. CBGB stands as both punk birthplace and emblem of that city.

In advertisements

Most prominently, CBGB featured in a promotional ad during the bid for New York City to host the Olympic games in 2012.

In games

CBGB is featured as the only non-fictional venue in the 2010 rhythm game ''Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock''. The club was re-opened for one night only for the game's launch party.

The club backdrops a bar brawl in the PS2/Xbox/PC game ''True Crime: New York City''.

In music

Multiple artists have featured CBGB in their music videos.

Hip-hop artist Sage Francis used CBGB in his video, ''Escape Artist.''

In Joan Jett and The Blackhearts' video for their song "Good Music" (the first song on their fifth studio album ''''Good Music''), they play a gig in CBGB's basement. It also shows the front of the shop as she walks in.

Most of Rancid's ''Red Hot Moon'' video was shot at CBGB.

CBGB receives lyrical mentions as well as prominent nods in various songs.

The club is mentioned in the LCD Soundsystem song, "Losing My Edge" (2002): "I was the first one to play Daft Punk to the rock kids. I played them at CBGB."

New York punk band Sick Of It All's track "Month of Sundays", from the album ''Based on a True Story'', is about going to CBGB's for the Sunday hardcore shows. They even name check the doorman.

Talking Heads, who had strong ties to the area, account for perhaps the most famous lyrical mention of CBGB with the song "Life During Wartime", in the verse "this ain't no Mudd Club or CBGB...". Much later, in a related effort, the club played an overtly prominent role in the song "Punk Lolita" by The Heads, a 1996 collaboration of three former Talking Heads members with various guest vocalists.

Onscreen

In film

In ''Bandslam'', CBGB is a favorite place of central character William Burton. Quote: "CBCG is a legendary place." He and Sa5m (the 5 is silent) enter the then-closed CBGB's through an outside basement door.

The club makes an appearance in Woody Allen's ''Hannah and Her Sisters''.

In a ''Sex and the City 2'' flashback scene, Carrie reminisces about her first meeting with Samantha when she worked at CBGB.

In Sylvester Stallone's ''Staying Alive'', Tony Manero (played by John Travolta) stops by the club one night when the performer on stage is, somewhat incongruously, Sylvester Stallone's pop singer brother, Frank Stallone.

A central character in Spike Lee's 1999 movie, ''Summer of Sam'', Richie, becomes a regular CBGB patron after becoming a punk rocker.

In the film ''The Warriors'' and its video game adaptation, a gang from the Bowery, known as The Lizzies, take three members of The Warriors street gang to their apartment. The Lizzies' building is directly across the street from CBGB.

In the film ''Rent'' based on the Broadway musical, Mark Cohen references Roger's old band playing at CBGB's in the years before the film takes place.

Television

In season 4's ''Gilmore Girls'', Lane Kim and her band (including former Skid Row member Sebastian Bach) are supposed to play the 1 a.m. Tuesday slot but they get bumped.

CBGB duly featured on ''The Simpsons'' during their 19th season (episode 12, aired 2008-02-17) in the episode "Love, Springfieldian Style" with a spoof of the romance of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen and the film ''Sid and Nancy.'' Sid (played by Nelson Muntz) and Nancy (played by Lisa Simpson) get kicked out of CBGB by the Comic Book Guy and are informed that: "You are no longer welcome at CBGB: Comic Book Guy's Bar."

In the webtoon Neurotically Yours by iLL WiLL PrEss, Foamy the Squirrel gives a rant outside of a CBGB spoof (called "GBCB's"). There is also a CD called "Foamy: Live at GBCB's."

References

Sources

Beeber, Steven. ''The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk''. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-55652-613-8.

Brazis, Tamar (ed.). ''CBGB & OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock'' (1st ed.). New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0810957868.

Heylin, Clinton. ''From the Velvets to the Voidoids'' (2nd ed.). Eastbourne, East Sussex: Gardners Books, 2005. ISBN 1-905139-04-7.

Kozak, Roman. ''This Ain't No Disco: The Story of CBGB''. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1988. ISBN 0-571-12956-0.

External links

Official site

Concerts held at CBGB's

Rekindling the Punk Flame - shanatinglipton.com article

The End of an Era antimusic.com article

Las Vegas Herald story on club's move

The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB's - Book

Between Punk Rock and a Hard Place New York Magazine

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School ''NY Times'' op-ed from Richard Hell

CBGB Takes Final Bow Before Eviction WCBS TV

CBGB's Last Hours 2006-11-06 MTV News article about the dismantling of the club

Glide Magazine: Notable Acts that have played CBGB Glide Magazine

Punk's had its day at CBGB opentomusic.co.uk

Varvatos opening party- illustrated report

CBGB at Tribeca Jarrod Dicker

CBGB – Virtual tour in 3D

Category:1973 establishments Category:2006 disestablishments Category:Former music venues in New York City Category:Lower East Side Category:New York City cultural history Category:Nightclubs in New York City Category:Punk rock venues Category:New Wave music

br:CBGB ca:CBGB's cs:CBGB de:CBGB es:CBGB fr:CBGB it:CBGB he:CBGB nl:CBGB ja:CBGB pl:CBGB's pt:CBGB ru:CBGB fi:CBGB's sv:CBGB zh:CBGB

Syd Straw is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw (''The Pajama Game''), she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joined the Golden Palominos (also including Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, and Anton Fier). She released her first album, ''Surprise'', in 1989; it featured contributions by Stipe, Fier, Richard Thompson, Jody Harris, Peter Blegvad, and a number of other well-known musicians. A second album, ''War and Peace,'' appeared in 1996. Recorded with a relatively obscure Midwest rock group called the Skeletons, it chronicled a brief and unhappy romance. In 2008, she released a new album, entitled ''Pink Velour,'' on her own label, Earnester Records. According to an earlier interview, the title track “is about my family moving back and forth between the east and the west, and my being kidnapped by my mother on Valentine's Day in 1969, and about not seeing my dad for almost seven years.”

A frequent backup singer and contributor to duets with other musicians, Straw has also maintained an intermittent acting career, appearing on the television shows ''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' and ''Tales of the City''. Syd Straw can be heard singing harmony and backing vocals on the Rickie Lee Jones albums ''Traffic From Paradise'' and ''The Evening of My Best Day''. She is also featured on Leo Kottke's ''Peculiaroso,'' which Jones produced. For a number of years she has given an annual "Heartwreck" live performance on Valentine's Day.

In 1994, Straw teamed up with Wilco to contribute the song "The T.B. Is Whipping Me" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Discography

''Surprise'' (1989)

''War and Peace'' (1996)

''Live at the Triple Crown'' (2001) (with The Adventures Of...)

''Whole Wide World'' (2005)

''Pink Velour'' (2008)

Compilation Albums

"Blue Shadows On The Trail" on ''Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films'', 1988 (one of Various Artists)

"Meeting Across The River" on The Songs of Bruce Springsteen, 2000

External links

Discography: Syd Straw

Syd Straw Group Fan mailing list

LAist Interview

PUNKCAST#397 Video from St Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn - Feb 14 2004

PUNKCAST#670 Video from Tonic, NYC - Feb 14 2005

References

''Not The Last Straw'' (2004 interview)

Category:American female singers Category:American rock musicians Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:The Golden Palominos members

name	Ramones
landscape	Yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States
genre	Punk rock
years active	1974–1996
label	Sire, Philips, Beggars Banquet, Radioactive, Chrysalis
associated acts	Tangerine Puppets, Sniper, Bad Chopper, Los Gusanos, Dust, The Voidoids, Blondie, Uncle Monk, Misfits, Osaka Popstar
past members	Dee Dee RamoneJohnny RamoneJoey RamoneTommy RamoneMarky RamoneRichie RamoneElvis Ramone (Clem Burke)C. J. Ramone }}

The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the punk rock movement both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", though none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By a little more than eight years after the breakup, the band's three founding members—lead singer Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—had died.

Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album ''Ramones Mania''. However, recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now cited in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the ''Rolling Stone'' list of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by ''Spin'' magazine, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones—including the three founders and drummers Marky and Tommy Ramone—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

History

Early days: 1974–1975

The original members of the band met in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi had both been in a high-school garage band from 1966 to 1967 known as the Tangerine Puppets. They became friends with Douglas Colvin, who had recently moved to the area from Germany, and Jeffrey Hyman, who was the initial lead singer of the glam rock band Sniper, founded in 1972.

The Ramones began taking shape in early 1974, when Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join them in a band. The initial lineup featured Colvin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Cummings on lead guitar, and Hyman on drums. Colvin, who soon switched from rhythm guitar to bass, was the first to adopt the name "Ramone", calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by Paul McCartney's use of the pseudonym Paul Ramon during his Silver Beatles days. Dee Dee convinced the other members to take on the name and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman and Cummings became Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone, respectively.

A friend of the band, Monte A. Melnick (later their tour manager), helped to arrange rehearsal time for them at Manhattan's Performance Studios, where he worked. Johnny's former bandmate Erdelyi was set to become their manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he could not sing and play his bass guitar simultaneously; with Erdelyi's encouragement, Joey became the band's new lead singer. Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!" Joey soon similarly realized that he could not sing and play drums simultaneously and left the position of drummer. While auditioning prospective replacements, Erdelyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to perform the group's music better than anyone else, and he joined the band as Tommy Ramone.

The Ramones played before an audience for the first time on March 30, 1974, at Performance Studios. The songs they played were very fast and very short; most clocked in at under two minutes. Around this time, a new music scene was emerging in New York centered around two clubs in downtown Manhattan—Max's Kansas City and, more famously, CBGB (usually referred to as CBGB's). The Ramones made their CBGB debut on August 16. Legs McNeil, who co-founded ''Punk'' magazine the following year, later described the impact of that performance: "They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song...and it was just this wall of noise.... They looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new."

The band swiftly became regulars at the club, playing there seventy-four times by the end of the year. After garnering considerable attention for their performances—which averaged about seventeen minutes from beginning to end—the group was signed to a recording contract in late 1975 by Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Stein's wife, Linda Stein, had seen the band play at CBGB's; she would later co-manage them along with Danny Fields. By this time, the Ramones were recognized as leaders of the new scene that was increasingly being referred to as "punk". The group's unusual frontman had a lot to do with their impact. As Dee Dee explained, "All the other singers [in New York] were copying David Johansen [of The New York Dolls], who was copying Mick Jagger.... But Joey was unique, totally unique."

Spearheading punk: 1976–1977

The Ramones recorded their debut album, ''Ramones'', in February 1976. Of the fourteen songs on the album, the longest, "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", barely surpassed two-and-a-half minutes. While the songwriting credits were shared by the entire band, Dee Dee was the primary writer. ''Ramones'' was produced by Sire's Craig Leon, with Tommy as associate producer, on an extremely low budget of about $6,400 and released in April. The now iconic front cover photograph of the band was taken by Roberta Bayley, a photographer for ''Punk'' magazine.

''Ramones'' was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the ''Billboard'' album chart. The two singles released from the album, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", failed to chart at all. At the band's first major performance outside of New York, a June date in Youngstown, Ohio, approximately ten people showed up. It wasn't until they made a brief tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor; a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies), organized by Linda Stein, was a resounding success. Their Roundhouse appearance and a club date the following night—where the band met members of the Sex Pistols and The Clash—helped galvanize the burgeoning UK punk rock scene. The Flamin' Groovies/Ramones double bill was successfully reprised at The Roxy in Los Angeles the following month, fueling the punk scene there as well. The Ramones were becoming an increasingly popular live act—a Toronto performance in September energized yet another growing punk scene.

Their next two albums, ''Leave Home'' and ''Rocket to Russia'', were released in 1977. Both were coproduced by Tommy and Tony Bongiovi, the second cousin of Jon Bon Jovi. ''Leave Home'' met with even less chart success than ''Ramones'', though it did include "Pinhead", which became one of the band's signature songs with its chanted refrain of "Gabba gabba hey!" ''Rocket to Russia'' was the band's highest-charting album to date, reaching number 49 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In ''Rolling Stone'', critic Dave Marsh called it "the best American rock & roll of the year". The album also featured the first Ramones single to enter the ''Billboard'' charts (albeit only as high as number 81): "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker". The follow-up single, "Rockaway Beach", reached number 66—the highest any Ramones single would ever reach in America. On December 31, 1977, the Ramones recorded ''It's Alive'', a live concert double album, at the Rainbow Theatre, London, which was released in April 1979 (the title is a reference to the 1974 horror film ''It's Alive'').

Recordings turn more pop: 1978–1983

Tommy, tired of touring, left the band in early 1978. He continued as the Ramones' record producer under his birth name of Erdelyi. His position as drummer was filled by Marc Bell, who had been a member of the early 1970s hard rock band Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, and the pioneering punk group Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Bell became Marky Ramone. Later that year, the band released their fourth studio album, and first with Marky, ''Road to Ruin''. The album, co-produced by Tommy with Ed Stasium, included some new sounds such as acoustic guitar, several ballads, and the band's first two recorded songs longer than three minutes. It failed to reach the ''Billboard'' Top 100. However, "I Wanna Be Sedated", which appeared both on the album and as a single, would become one of the band's best-known songs. The artwork on the album's cover was done by ''Punk'' magazine co-founder John Holmstrom.

After the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (1979), renowned producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album ''End of the Century''. During the recording sessions in Los Angeles, Spector held Dee Dee at gunpoint, forcing him to repeatedly play a riff. Though it was to be the highest-charting album in the band's history—reaching number 44 in the United States and number 14 in Great Britain—Johnny made clear that he favored the band's more aggressive punk material: "''End of the Century'' was just watered-down Ramones. It's not the real Ramones." This stance was also conveyed by the title and track selection of the compilation album Johnny later oversaw, ''Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits''. Despite these reservations, Johnny did concede that some of Spector's work with the band had merit, saying "It really worked when he got to a slower song like 'Danny Says'—the production really worked tremendously. 'Rock 'N' Roll Radio' is really good. For the harder stuff, it didn't work as well." The syrupy, string-laden Ronettes cover "Baby, I Love You" released as a single, became the band's biggest hit in Great Britain, reaching number 8 on the charts.

''Pleasant Dreams'', the band's sixth album, was released in 1981. It continued the trend established by ''End of the Century'', diluting the rawer punk sound showcased on the band's initial three albums. Slick production was again featured, this time provided by Graham Gouldman of UK pop act 10cc. Johnny would contend in retrospect that this direction was a record company decision, a continued futile attempt to get airplay on American radio. While ''Pleasant Dreams'' reached number 58 on the U.S. chart, its two singles failed to register at all.

''Subterranean Jungle'', produced by Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin, was released in 1983. Billy Rogers, who had performed with Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, played drums on the album's second single, a cover of The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today". ''Subterranean Jungle'' peaked at number 83 in the United States—it would be the last album by the band to crack the ''Billboard'' Top 100.

Shuffling members: 1983–1989

After the release of ''Subterranean Jungle'', Marky was fired from the band due to his alcoholism. He was replaced by Richard Reinhardt, who adopted the name Richie Ramone. The first album the Ramones recorded with Richie was ''Too Tough to Die'' in 1984, with Tommy Erdelyi and Ed Stasium returning as producers. The album marked a shift to something like the band's original sound. In the description of Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the "rhythms are back up to jackhammer speed and the songs are down to short, terse statements." In contrast, Salon.com arts editor Bill Wyman writes of "Joey's pained, pleading voice". |format=Ogg}} The band's main release of 1985 was the British single "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg"; though it was available in the United States only as an import, it was played widely on American college radio. The song was written by Joey in protest of Ronald Reagan's visit to a German military cemetery where SS members were buried. Retitled "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", the song appeared on the band's ninth studio album, ''Animal Boy'' (1986). Produced by Jean Beauvoir, formerly a member of the Plasmatics, the album was characterized by a ''Rolling Stone'' reviewer as "nonstop primal fuzz pop". Making it his pick for "album of the week", ''New York Times'' critic Jon Pareles wrote that the Ramones "speak up for outcasts and disturbed individuals".

The following year the band recorded their last album with Richie, ''Halfway to Sanity'', produced by Daniel Rey. Richie left in August 1987, upset that after being in the band for four years, the other members would still not give him a share of the money they made selling T-shirts. Richie was replaced by Clem Burke from Blondie, which was disbanded at the time. According to Johnny, the performances with Burke—who adopted the name Elvis Ramone—were a disaster. He was fired after two performances because his drumming could not keep up with the rest of the band. Marky, now clean and sober, returned.

Dee Dee left the band after the recording of their tenth studio album, 1989's ''Brain Drain'', co-produced by Beauvoir, Rey, and Bill Laswell. He was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed with the band until they disbanded. Dee Dee initially pursued a brief career as a rapper under the name Dee Dee King. He quickly returned to punk rock and formed several bands, in much the same vein as the Ramones, for whom he also continued to write songs.

Final years: 1990–1996

After more than a decade and a half at Sire Records, the Ramones moved to a new label, Radioactive Records. Their first album for the label was 1992's ''Mondo Bizarro'', which reunited them with producer Ed Stasium. ''Acid Eaters'', consisting entirely of cover songs, came out the following year. In 1993 the Ramones were featured in the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', providing music and voices for animated versions of themselves in the episode "Rosebud".

In 1995, the Ramones released ''¡Adios Amigos!'', their fourteenth studio album, and announced that they planned to disband if it was not successful. Its sales were unremarkable, garnering it just two weeks on the lower end of the ''Billboard'' chart. The band spent late 1995 on what was promoted as a farewell tour. However, they accepted an offer to appear in the sixth Lollapalooza festival, which toured around the United States during the following summer. After the Lollapalooza tour's conclusion, the Ramones played their final show on August 6, 1996, at the Palace in Hollywood. A recording of the concert was later released on video and CD as ''We're Outta Here!'' In addition to a reappearance by Dee Dee, the show featured several guests including Motörhead's Lemmy, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen.

Aftermath and deaths

On July 20, 1999, Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, Tommy, Marky, and C.J. appeared together at the Virgin Megastore in New York City for an autograph signing. This was the last occasion on which the original four members of the group appeared together. Joey, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995, died of the illness on April 15, 2001, in New York.

In 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which specifically named Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, Tommy, and Marky. At the ceremony, the surviving inductees spoke on behalf of the band. Tommy spoke first, saying how honored the band felt, but how much it would have meant for Joey. Johnny thanked the band's fans and blessed George W. Bush and his presidency, Dee Dee humorously congratulated and thanked himself, while Marky thanked Tommy for influencing his drum style. Green Day played "Teenage Lobotomy" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" as a tribute, demonstrating the Ramones' continuing influence on later rock musicians. The ceremony was one of Dee Dee's last public appearances; on June 5, 2002, two months later, he was found at his Hollywood home, dead from a heroin overdose.

On November 30, 2003, New York City unveiled a sign designating East 2nd Street at the corner of Bowery as Joey Ramone Place. The singer lived on East 2nd for a time, and the sign is near the former Bowery site of CBGB. ''End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones'', a Ramones documentary, came out in 2004. Johnny, who had been privately battling prostate cancer, died on September 15, 2004, in Los Angeles, shortly after the film's release. On the same day as Johnny's death, the world's first Ramones Museum opened its doors to the public. Located in Berlin, Germany, the museum features more than 300 items of memorabilia, including a pair of stage-worn jeans from Johnny, a stage-worn glove from Joey, Marky's sneakers, and C.J.'s stage-worn bass strap.

The Ramones were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007. That October saw the release of a DVD set containing concert footage of the band: ''It's Alive 1974-1996'' includes 118 songs from 33 performances over the span of the group's career. In February 2011 the group was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Drummers Tommy, Marky, and Richie Ramone attended the ceremony. Joey Ramone's award was accepted by his brother Mickey Leigh, who thanked his brother Joey Ramone for giving a voice to a whole genre of music and "To sharing his voice with us, and his character, and his style, and his charm, his sentiment, his sensitivity, his craziness and for urging us to experience every human emotion through music and most of all to have some fun in this life." During Richie Ramone's speech, Richie noted that it was the first time in history that all three drummers were under the same roof, and mused that he couldn't "...help thinking that [Joey Ramone] is watching us right now with a little smile on his face behind his rose-colored glasses." Marky remarked "This is amazing. I never expected this. I'm sure Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee would never have expected this. I'm extremely honoured."

Conflicts between members

Tensions between Joey and Johnny colored much of the Ramones' career. The pair were politically antagonistic, Joey being a liberal and Johnny a conservative. Their personalities also clashed: Johnny was a military brat who lived by a code of self-discipline, while Joey struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Johnny, who was fascinated by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, would sometimes torment Joey (who was Jewish) with anti-Semitic remarks. In the early 1980s, Johnny "stole" Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. As a consequence, despite performing together for years afterward, Joey and Johnny stopped speaking to each other. Johnny did not call Joey before the latter's death in 2001, but said in the documentary ''End of the Century'' that he was depressed for "the whole week" after the singer died.

Aside from this central conflict, Dee Dee's bipolar disorder and repeated relapses into drug addiction also caused significant strains. Tommy left the band partly in reaction to being "physically threatened by Johnny, treated with contempt by Dee Dee, and all but ignored by Joey". As new members joined, payment methods and image representation became matters of serious dispute. In 1997, Marky and Joey got into a fight about their respective drinking habits on the Howard Stern radio show.

Style

Musical style

The Ramones' loud, fast, straightforward musical style was influenced by pop music that the band members grew up listening to in the 1950s and 1960s, including classic rock groups such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones; bubblegum acts like the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express; and girl groups such as The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. They also drew on the harder rock sound of The Stooges and the New York Dolls, both now known as seminal protopunk bands. The Ramones' style was in part a reaction against the heavily produced, often bombastic music that dominated the pop charts in the 1970s. "We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard," Joey once explained. "In 1974 everything was tenth-generation Led Zeppelin, tenth-generation Elton John, or overproduced, or just junk. Everything was long jams, long guitar solos.... We missed music like it used to be." Ira Robbins and Scott Isler of ''Trouser Press'' describe the result:

With just four chords and one manic tempo, New York's Ramones blasted open the clogged arteries of mid-'70s rock, reanimating the music. Their genius was to recapture the short/simple aesthetic from which pop had strayed, adding a caustic sense of trash-culture humor and minimalist rhythm guitar sound.

As leaders in the punk rock scene, the Ramones' music has usually been identified with that label, while some have defined their characteristic style more specifically as pop punk and others as power pop. In the 1980s, the band sometimes veered into hardcore punk territory, as can be heard on ''Too Tough to Die''.

On stage, the band adopted a focused approach directly intended to increase the audience's concert experience. Johnny's instructions to C.J. when preparing for his first live performances with the group were to play facing the audience, to stand with the bass slung low between spread legs, and to walk forward to the front of stage at the same time as he did. Johnny was not a fan of guitarists who performed facing their drummer, amplifier, or other band members.

Visual imagery

The Ramones' art and visual imagery complemented the themes of their music and performance. The band members adopted a uniform look of long hair, leather jackets, t-shirts, torn jeans, and sneakers. This fashion emphasized minimalism, which was a powerful influence on the New York punk scene of the 1970s and reflected the band's short, simple songs. Tommy Ramone recalled that, both musically and visually, "we were influenced by comic books, movies, the Andy Warhol scene, and avant-garde films. I was a big ''Mad Magazine'' fan myself."

The band's logo was created by New York City artist Arturo Vega, a longtime friend who had allowed Joey and Dee Dee to move into his loft. Vega produced the band's t-shirts, their main source of income, basing most of the images on a black-and-white self-portrait photograph he had taken of his American bald eagle belt buckle which had appeared on the back sleeve of the Ramones' first album. He was inspired to create the band's logo after a trip to Washington, D.C.:

I saw them as the ultimate all-American band. To me, they reflected the American character in general—an almost childish innocent aggression.... I thought, 'The Great Seal of the President of the United States' would be perfect for the Ramones, with the eagle holding arrows—to symbolize strength and the aggression that would be used against whomever dares to attack us—and an olive branch, offered to those who want to be friendly. But we decided to change it a little bit. Instead of the olive branch, we had an apple tree branch, since the Ramones were American as apple pie. And since Johnny was such a baseball fanatic, we had the eagle hold a baseball bat instead of the [Great Seal]'s arrows.

The scroll in the eagle's beak originally read "Look out below", but this was soon changed to "Hey ho let's go" after the opening lyrics of the band's first single, "Blitzkrieg Bop". The arrowheads on the shield came from a design on a polyester shirt Vega had bought. The name "Ramones" was spelled out in block capitals above the logo using plastic stick-on letters.

Influence

The Ramones had a broad and lasting influence on the development of popular music. Music historian Jon Savage writes of their debut album that "it remains one of the few records that changed pop forever." As described by Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "The band's first four albums set the blueprint for punk, especially American punk and hardcore, for the next two decades." ''Trouser Press'''s Robbins and Isler similarly write that the Ramones "not only spearheaded the original new wave/punk movement, but also drew the blueprint for subsequent hardcore punk bands". Punk journalist Phil Strongman writes, "In purely ''musical'' terms, The Ramones, in attempting to re-create the excitement of pre-Dolby rock, were to cast a huge shadow—they had fused a blueprint for much of the indie future." Writing for Slate in 2001, Douglas Wolk described the Ramones as "easily the most influential group of the last 30 years."

The Ramones' debut album had an outsized effect relative to its modest sales. According to Tony James, a member of several seminal British punk bands, "Everybody went up three gears the day they got that first Ramones album. Punk rock—that rama-lama super fast stuff—is totally down to the Ramones. Bands were just playing in an MC5 groove until then." The central fanzine of the early UK punk scene, ''Sniffin' Glue'', was named after the song "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", which appeared on the debut LP. The Ramones' first British concert, at London's Roundhouse concert hall, was held on July 4, 1976, the United States Bicentennial. The Sex Pistols were playing in Sheffield that evening, supported by The Clash, making their public debut. The next night, members of both bands attended the Ramones' gig at the Dingwall's club. Ramones manager Danny Fields recalls a conversation between Johnny Ramone and Clash bassist Paul Simonon (which he mislocates at the Roundhouse): "Johnny asked him, 'What do you do? Are you in a band?' Paul said, 'Well, we just rehearse. We call ourselves the Clash but we're not good enough.' Johnny said, 'Wait till you see us—we stink, we're lousy, we can't play. Just get out there and do it.'" Another band whose members saw the Ramones perform, The Damned, played their first show two days later. The Ramones' two July 1976 shows, like their debut album, are seen as having a significant impact on the style of many of the newly formed British punk acts—as one observer put it, "instantly nearly every band speeded up".

Ramones concerts and recordings influenced many musicians central to the development of California punk as well, including Greg Ginn of Black Flag, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Mike Ness of Social Distortion, Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, and members of the Descendents. Canada's first major punk scenes—in Toronto and in British Columbia's Victoria and Vancouver—were also heavily influenced by the Ramones. In the late 1970s, many bands emerged with musical styles deeply indebted to the band's. There were The Lurkers from England, The Undertones from Ireland, Teenage Head from Canada, and The Zeros and The Dickies from southern California. The seminal hardcore band Bad Brains took its name from a Ramones song. Later punk bands such as Screeching Weasel, The Vindictives, The Queers, The Mr. T Experience, Boris the Sprinkler, Beatnik Termites, and Jon Cougar Concentration Camp have recorded cover versions of entire Ramones albums—''Ramones'', ''Leave Home'', ''Rocket to Russia'', ''Road to Ruin'', ''End of the Century'', ''Pleasant Dreams'', and ''Too Tough to Die'', respectively. The Huntingtons' ''File Under Ramones'' consists of Ramones covers from across the band's history. The Riverdales, made up of former members of Screeching Weasel, have emulated the sound of the Ramones throughout their career.

The Ramones also influenced musicians associated with other genres, such as heavy metal. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has described the importance of Johnny's rapid-fire guitar playing style to his own musical development. Motörhead lead singer Lemmy, a friend of the Ramones since the late 1970s, mixed the band's "Go Home Ann" in 1985. The members of Motörhead later composed the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute, and Lemmy performed at the final Ramones concert in 1996. In the realm of alternative rock, the song "53rd and 3rd" lent its name to a British indie pop label cofounded by Stephen Pastel of the Scottish band The Pastels. Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (who also inducted the band to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and The Strokes are among the many alternative rock musicians who have credited the Ramones with inspiring them.

The first Ramones tribute album featuring multiple artists was released in 1991: ''Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones'' includes tracks by such acts as The Flesh Eaters, L7, Mojo Nixon, and Bad Religion. In 2001, ''Ramones Maniacs'', a multi-artist cover of the entire ''Ramones Mania'' compilation album, included a guest appearance by Dee Dee Ramone. ''We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones'' (2003) is the best known Ramones tribute album, with artists such as Green Day, Kiss, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Metallica, and Rob Zombie (who also did the album cover artwork). Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong named his son Joey in homage to Joey Ramone, and drummer Tré Cool named his daughter Ramona.

Members

Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) – bass guitar, vocals (1974–1989) Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) – guitar (1974–1996) Joey Ramone (Jeffry Hyman) – drums (1974), lead vocals (1974–1996) Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi) – drums (1974–1978) Marky Ramone (Marc Bell) – drums (1978–1983, 1987–1996) Richie Ramone (Richard Reinhardt) – drums, vocals (1983–1987) Elvis Ramone (Clem Burke) – drums (1987) C. J. Ramone (Christopher Joseph Ward) – bass guitar, vocals (1989–1996)

Discography

;Studio albums

''Ramones'' (1976)

''Leave Home'' (1977)

''Rocket to Russia'' (1977)

''Road to Ruin'' (1978)

''End of the Century'' (1980)

''Pleasant Dreams'' (1981)

''Subterranean Jungle'' (1983)

''Too Tough to Die'' (1984)

''Animal Boy'' (1986)

''Halfway to Sanity'' (1987)

''Brain Drain'' (1989)

''Mondo Bizarro'' (1992)

''Acid Eaters'' (1993)

''¡Adios Amigos!'' (1995)

See also

List of Ramones concerts

Gabba Gabba Hey

References

Sources

Bayles, Martha (1996). ''Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music'', University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226039595

Beeber, Steven Lee (2006). ''The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk'', Chicago Review Press. ISBN 155652613X

Bessman, Jim (1993). ''Ramones: An American Band'', St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312093691

Colegrave, Stephen, and Chris Sullivan (2005). ''Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution'', Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560257695

Edelstein, Andrew J., and Kevin McDonough (1990). ''The Seventies: From Hot Pants to Hot Tubs'', Dutton. ISBN 0525485724

Isler, Scott, and Ira A. Robbins (1991). "Ramones", in ''Trouser Press Record Guide'' (4th ed.), ed. Ira A. Robbins, pp. 532–534, Collier. ISBN 0020363613

Keithley, Joe (2004). ''I, Shithead: A Life in Punk'', Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551521482

Leigh, Mickey, and Legs McNeil (2009). ''I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir'', Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743252160

McNeil, Legs, and Gillian McCain (1996). ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' (2d ed.), Penguin. ISBN 0140266909

Melnick, Monte A., and Frank Meyer (2003). ''On The Road with the Ramones'', Sanctuary. ISBN 1860745148

Miles, Barry, Grant Scott, and Johnny Morgan (2005). ''The Greatest Album Covers of All Time'', Collins & Brown. ISBN 1843403013

Ramone, Dee Dee, and Veronica Kofman (2000). ''Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones'', Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560252529

Roach, Martin (2003). ''The Strokes: The First Biography of the Strokes'', Omnibus Press. ISBN 0711996016

Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'', Elbury Press. ISBN 0091905117

Sandford, Christopher (2006). ''McCartney'', Century. ISBN 1844136027

Savage, Jon (1992). ''England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond'', St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312087748

Schinder, Scott, with Andy Schwartz (2007). ''Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever'', Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313338477

Spicer, Al (2003). "The Lurkers", in ''The Rough Guide to Rock'' (3d ed.), ed. Peter Buckley, p. 349, Rough Guides. ISBN 1843531054

Spitz, Mark, and Brendan Mullen (2001). ''We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk'', Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0609807749

Stim, Richard (2006). ''Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business'', Nolo. ISBN 1413305172

Strongman, Phil (2008). ''Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk'', Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556527527

Notes

External links

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name	Patti Smith
background	solo_singer
birth name	Patricia Lee Smith
birth date	December 30, 1946
birth place	Chicago, Illinois
origin	New York City, New York,United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, clarinet
genre	Protopunk, punk rock, art rock
occupation	Singer-songwriter, poet, artist
years active	1971–present
label	Arista, Columbia
associated acts	Tom Verlaine
website	}}

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work was a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir ''Just Kids.'' Recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

Early years

Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago. Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress, and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford Township, New Jersey, raised as a Jehovah's Witness. She had a strong religious upbringing and a Bible education, but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining; much later, she wrote the line "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" in her cover version of Them's "Gloria" in response to this experience. She has described having an avid interest in Tibetan Buddhism around the age of eleven or twelve, saying "I fell in love with Tibet because their essential mission was to keep a continual stream of prayer", but that as an adult she sees clear parallels between different forms of religion, and has come to the conclusion that religious dogmas are "...man-made laws that you can either decide to abide by or not." At this early age Smith was exposed to her first records, including ''Shrimp Boats'' by Harry Belafonte, Patience and Prudence doing ''The Money Tree'', and ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which her mother gave to her. Thurston http://bombsite.com/issues/54/articles/1928 “Patti Smith” in BOMB Magazine Winter, 1996. Retrieved August 9, 2011 Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption.

Career

1967–1973: New York

In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with a friend, poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality. Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be one of the most important people in her life, and in her book ''Just Kids'' refers to him as "the artist of my life". Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group LPs, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989. In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to New York City, she lived in the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe; they frequented Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Smith provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film ''Robert Having His Nipple Pierced'', starring Mapplethorpe. The same year Smith appeared with Wayne County in Jackie Curtis' play ''Femme Fatale''. As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 70's painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in ''Cowboy Mouth'', a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard (The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".) She wrote several poems, "for sam shepard" and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)" about her relationship with Shepard.

Smith was briefly considered for the lead singer position in Blue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several of the band's songs, including "Debbie Denise" (inspired by her poem "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise"), "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (on which she performs duet vocals), and "Shooting Shark". She was romantically involved at the time with the band's keyboardist Allen Lanier. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in ''Rolling Stone'' and ''Creem''.

1974–1979: Patti Smith Group

By 1974, Patti Smith was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums and Richard Sohl, on piano. Ivan Kral was a refugee from Czechoslovakia, fleeing in 1968 after the fall of Alexander Dubček. Financed by Sam Wagstaff, the band recorded a first single, "Hey Joe / Piss Factory", in 1974. The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst ("Patty Hearst, you're standing there in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army flag with your legs spread, I was wondering were you gettin' it every night from a black revolutionary man and his women..."). The B-side describes the helpless anger Smith had felt while working on a factory assembly line and the salvation she discovered in the form of a shoplifted book, the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud's ''Illuminations''.

The Patti Smith Group was signed by Clive Davis of Arista Records, and in 1975 recorded their first album, ''Horses'', produced by John Cale amid some tension. The album fused punk rock and spoken poetry and begins with a cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria", and Smith's opening words: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" (an excerpt from "Oath," one of her early poems). The austere cover photograph by Mapplethorpe has become one of rock's classic images. As the popularity of punk rock grew, Patti Smith Group toured the United States 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 regularly in concert. She has said that ''Radio Ethiopia'' was influenced by the band Black to Comm.

On January 23, 1977, while touring in support of ''Radio Ethiopia'', Smith accidentally danced off a high stage in Tampa, Florida and fell 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit, breaking several neck vertebrae. The injury required a period of rest and an intensive round of physical therapy, during which time she was able to reassess, re-energize and reorganize her life. Patti Smith Group produced two further albums before the end of the 1970s. ''Easter'' (1978) was her most commercially successful record, containing the single "Because the Night" co-written with Bruce Springsteen. ''Wave'' (1979) was less successful, although the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" both received commercial airplay.

1980–1995: Marriage

Before the release of ''Wave'', Smith, now separated from long-time partner Allen Lanier, met Fred "Sonic" Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 and his own Sonic's Rendezvous Band, who adored poetry as much as she did. (''Wave'''s "Dancing Barefoot" and "Frederick" were both dedicated to him.) The running joke at the time was that she only married Fred because she would not have to change her name. They had a son, Jackson (b. 1982) who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White in 2009, and a daughter, Jesse (b. 1987). Through most of the 1980s Patti Smith was in semi-retirement from music, living with her family north of Detroit in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. In June 1988, she released the album ''Dream of Life'', which included the song "People Have the Power". Fred Smith died on November 4, 1994 of a myocardial infarction. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother Todd and original keyboard player Richard Sohl. When her son Jackson turned 14, Smith decided to move back to New York. After the impact of these deaths, her friends Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Allen Ginsberg (whom she had known since her early years in New York) urged her to go back out on the road. She toured briefly with Bob Dylan in December 1995 (chronicled in a book of photographs by Stipe).

1996–2003: Re-emergence

In 1996, Smith worked with her long-time colleagues to record ''Gone Again,'' featuring "About a Boy", a tribute to Kurt Cobain. Smith was a fan of Cobain, but was more angered than saddened by his suicide. That same year she collaborated with Stipe on "E-Bow the Letter", a song on R.E.M.'s ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi,'' which she has also performed live with the band. After release of ''Gone Again,'' Patti Smith had recorded two new albums: ''Peace and Noise'' in 1997 (with the single "1959", about the invasion of Tibet) and ''Gung Ho'' in 2000 (with songs about Ho Chi Minh and Smith's late father). Songs "1959" and "Glitter in Their Eyes" were nominated for Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. A box set of her work up to that time, ''The Patti Smith Masters,'' came out in 1996, and 2002 saw the release of ''Land (1975–2002),'' a two-CD compilation that includes a memorable cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry". Smith's solo art exhibition ''Strange Messenger'' was hosted at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh on September 28, 2002.

2004–present

On April 27, 2004 Patti Smith released ''Trampin''' which included several songs about motherhood, partly in tribute to Smith's mother, who had died two years before. It was her first album on Columbia Records, soon to become a sister label to her previous home Arista Records. Smith curated the Meltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005, the penultimate event being the first live performance of ''Horses'' in its entirety. Guitarist Tom Verlaine took Oliver Ray's place. This live performance was released later in the year as ''Horses/Horses''.

On July 10, 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to her influence on rock music, the Minister also noted Smith's appreciation of Arthur Rimbaud. In August 2005, Smith gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith performed at the CBGB nightclub, with a 3½-hour ''tour de force'' to close out Manhattan's music venue. She took the stage at 9:30 p.m. (EDT) and closed for the night (and forever for the venue) at a few minutes after 1:00 a.m., performing her song "Elegie", and finally reading a list of punk rock musicians and advocates who had died in the previous years.

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. From November 2006 - January 2007, an exhibition called 'Sur les Traces' at Trolley Gallery, London, featured polaroid prints taken by Patti Smith and donated to Trolley to raise awareness and funds for the publication of Double Blind, a book on the war in Lebanon in 2006, with photographs by Paolo Pellegrin, a member of Magnum Photos. She also participated in the DVD commentary for ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters''. From March 28 to June 22, 2008, the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris hosted a major exhibition of the visual artwork of Patti Smith, ''Land 250'', drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. Smith is the subject of a 2008 documentary film, ''Patti Smith: Dream of Life''. A live album by Patti Smith and Kevin Shields, ''The Coral Sea'' was released in July 2008. On September 10, 2009, after a week of smaller events and exhibitions in the city, Smith played an open-air concert in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, commemorating her performance in the same city 30 years earlier. In 2010, Patti Smith's book, ''Just Kids'', a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, was published. On April 30, 2010 Patti Smith headlined a benefit concert headed by band-mate Tony Shanahan, for The Court Tavern of New Brunswick. Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power."

On May 17, 2010, Patti Smith received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pratt Institute, along with architect Daniel Libeskind, MoMA director Glenn Lowry, former NYC Landmarks Commissioner Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, novelist Jonathan Lethem, and director Steven Soderbergh. Following the conferral of her degree, Smith delivered the commencement address and sang/played two songs accompanied by long-time band member Lenny Kaye. In her remarks, Smith explained that in 1967 when she moved to New York City (Brooklyn), she would never have been accepted into Pratt, but most of her friends (including Mapplethorpe) were students at Pratt and she spent countless hours on the Pratt campus. She added that it was through her friends and their Pratt professors that she learned much of her own artistic skills, making the honour from the institute particularly poignant for Smith 43 years later.

Smith is currently working on a crime novel set in London. "I've been working on a detective story that starts at the St Giles in the Fields church in London for the last two years," she told NME adding that she "loved detective stories" having been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and US crime author Mickey Spillane as a girl. Part of the book will be set in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 announced that Patti Smith is one of the winners of the Polar Music Prize: "By devoting her life to art in all its forms, Patti Smith has demonstrated how much rock’n'roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock’n'roll. Patti Smith is a Rimbaud with Marshall amps. She has transformed the way an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams. With her inimitable soul of an artist, Patti Smith proves over and over again that people have the power."

On June 19, 2011, Patti Smith made her acting debut on the TV series "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", appearing in an episode called "Icarus".

Smith has recorded a cover of Buddy Holly's classic "Words of Love" for the CD ''Rave On Buddy Holly'', a tribute album tied to Holly's seventy-fifth birthday year which was released June 28, 2011.

Influence

Smith has been a great source of inspiration for Michael Stipe of R.E.M. Listening to her album ''Horses'' when he was 15 made a huge impact on him; he said later, "I decided then that I was going to start a band." In 1998, Stipe published a collection of photos called ''Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith.'' Stipe sings backing vocals on Smith's songs "Last Call" and "Glitter in Their Eyes." Patti also sings background vocals on R.E.M.'s songs "E-Bow the Letter" and "Blue".

In 2004, Shirley Manson of Garbage spoke of Smith's influence on her in ''Rolling Stone'''s issue "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", in which Patti Smith was counted number 47. The Smiths members Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared an appreciation for Smith's ''Horses,'' and reveal that their song "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" is a reworking of one of the album's tracks, "Kimberly". In 2004, Sonic Youth released an album called ''Hidros 3 (to Patti Smith)''. U2 also cites Patti Smith as an influence. In 2005 Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall released the single "Suddenly I See" as a tribute of sorts to Patti Smith. Canadian actress Ellen Page frequently mentions Smith as one of her idols and has done various photo shoots replicating famous Smith photos. In 1978 and 1979, Gilda Radner portrayed a character called Candy Slice on ''Saturday Night Live'' based on Smith.

Activism

In 1993, Smith contributed "Memorial Tribute (Live)" to the AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Furthermore, Smith has been a supporter of the Green Party and backed Ralph Nader in the 2000 United States presidential election. She led the crowd singing "Over the Rainbow" and "People Have the Power" at the campaign's rallies, and also performed at several of Nader's subsequent "Democracy Rising" events. Smith was a speaker and singer at the first protests against the Iraq War organized by Lou Posner of Voter March on September 12, 2002, as U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. Smith supported Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election. Bruce Springsteen continued performing her "People Have the Power" at Vote for Change campaign events. In the winter of 2004/2005, Smith toured again with Nader in a series of rallies against the Iraq War and calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Smith premiered two new protest songs in London in September 2006. Louise Jury, writing in ''The Independent'', characterized them as "an emotional indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy". Song "Qana"^[mp3] was about the Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana. "Without Chains"^[mp3] is about Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany, held at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp for four years. Jury's article quotes Smith as saying:

In an interview, Smith stated that Kurnaz's family has contacted her and that she wrote a short preface for the book that he was writing. Kurnaz's book, "Five Years of My Life," was published in English by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2008, with Patti's introduction.

On March 26, 2003, ten days after Rachel Corrie's death, Smith appeared in Austin, Texas, and performed an anti-war concert. She prefaced her song "Wild Leaves" with the following comments and subsequently wrote a new song "Peaceable Kingdom" which was inspired by and is dedicated to Rachel Corrie.

In 2009, in her Meltdown concert in Festival Hall, she paid homage to the Iranians taking part in post-election protests by saying "Where is My Vote?" in a version of the song "People Have the Power".

Band members

Discography

;Studio albums

''Horses'' (1975)

''Radio Ethiopia'' (1976)

''Easter'' (1978)

''Wave'' (1979)

''Dream of Life'' (1988)

''Gone Again'' (1996)

''Peace and Noise'' (1997)

''Gung Ho'' (2000)

''Trampin''' (2004)

''Twelve'' (2007)

Bibliography

''Seventh Heaven'' (1972)

''Early Morning Dream'' (1972)

''Witt'' (1973)

''Ha! Ha! Houdini!'' (1977)

''Babel'' (1978)

''Woolgathering'' (1992)

''Early Work'' (1994)

''The Coral Sea'' (1996)

''Patti Smith Complete'' (1998)

''Strange Messenger'' (2003)

''Auguries of Innocence'' (2005)

''Poems (Vintage Classics)'' by William Blake. Edited by and with introduction by Patti Smith (2007)

''Land 250'' (2008)

''Trois'' (2008)

''Great Lyricists'' foreword Rick Moody (2008)

''Just Kids'' (2010)

References

Further reading

External links

Patti Smith Wins National Book Award - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

- Patti Smith interview,live and report Land 250 exhibition 2008

Category:1946 births Category:American female guitarists Category:American human rights activists Category:American poets Category:American punk rock singers Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American spoken word artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:American rock music groups Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Female punk rock singers Category:Living people Category:Patti Smith Group members Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Gloucester County, New Jersey Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Rowan University alumni Category:Outlaw poets Category:The Minus 5 members Category:Postmodern writers

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