"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind (1991), released on DGC Records. Written by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl and produced by Butch Vig, the song uses a verse-chorus form where the main four-chord riff is used during the intro and chorus to create an alternating loud and quiet dynamic.

The unexpected success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in late 1991 propelled Nevermind to the top of the charts at the start of 1992, an event often marked as the point where alternative rock entered the mainstream.^[1] "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was Nirvana's biggest hit, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and placing high on music industry charts all around the world in 1991 and 1992.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" received many critical plaudits, including topping the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll and winning two MTV Video Music Awards for its music video, which was in heavy rotation on music television. The song was dubbed an "anthem for apathetic kids" of Generation X,^[2][3] but the band grew uncomfortable with the success and attention it received as a result. In the years since Cobain's death, listeners and critics have continued to praise "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

Origins and recording[link]

In a January 1994 Rolling Stone interview, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain revealed that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to write a song in the style of the Pixies, a band he greatly admired. He explained:^[4]

I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.

Cobain did not begin to write "Smells Like Teen Spirit" until a few weeks before recording started on Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, in 1991.^[5] When he first presented the song to his bandmates, it comprised just the main riff and the chorus vocal melody,^[6][7] which bassist Krist Novoselic dismissed at the time as "ridiculous." In response, Cobain made the band play the riff for "an hour and a half."^[4] In a 2001 interview, Novoselic recalled that after playing the riff repeatedly, he thought, "'Wait a minute. Why don't we just kind of slow this down a bit?' So I started playing the verse part. And Dave [started] playing a drum beat."^[8] As a result, it is the only song on Nevermind to credit all three band members as authors.^[9]

Cobain came up with the song's title when his friend Kathleen Hanna, at the time the lead singer of the riot grrrl punk band Bikini Kill, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since they had been discussing anarchism, punk rock, and similar topics, Cobain interpreted the slogan as having a revolutionary meaning. What Hanna actually meant, however, was that Cobain smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit, which his then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain later claimed that he was unaware that it was a brand of deodorant until months after the single was released.^[10]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was, along with "Come as You Are", one of a few new songs that had been written since Nirvana's first recording sessions with producer Butch Vig in 1990. Prior to the start of the Nevermind recording sessions, the band sent Vig a rough cassette demo of song rehearsals that included "Teen Spirit". While the sound of the tape was wildly distorted due to the band playing at a loud volume, Vig could pick out some of the melody and felt the song had promise.^[11] Nirvana recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, California with Vig in May 1991.^[12] Vig suggested some arrangement changes to the song, including moving a guitar ad lib into the chorus, and trimming down the chorus length.^[13] The band recorded the basic track for the song in three takes, and decided to keep the second one.^[7] Vig incorporated some sonic corrections into the basic live band performance because Cobain had timing difficulties when switching between his guitar effects pedals. Vig was only able to get three vocal takes from Cobain; the producer commented, "I was lucky to ever get Kurt to do four takes".^[14]

Composition[link]

	"Smells Like Teen Spirit" noicon Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind. The sample illustrates the change in dynamics from verse to pre-chorus and chorus. The band maintains the F-B♭-A♭-D♭ chord progression throughout, relying on the changes in dynamics and the reintroduction of the main guitar riff at the end to indicate the shifts between sections.
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"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is written in the key of F minor, with the main guitar riff constructed from four power chords (F₅–B♭₅–A♭₅–D♭₅) played in a syncopated sixteenth note strum by Cobain.^[15] The guitar chords were double tracked because the band "wanted to make it sound more powerful," according to Vig.^[16] The chords occasionally lapse into suspended chord voicings as a result of Cobain playing the bottom four strings of the guitar for the thickness of sound.^[15] Due to being neither major nor minor, the occasional use of suspended chords also allows the chord progression used in the riff to be thought of as a I–IV–♭III–♭VI major chord progression. The song's chord progression has been described as "an ambiguous, harmonically dislocated sequence," and "it is the asymmetrical nature of Cobain's riff [...] that makes it so great."^[17] Musicologist Graeme Downes, who led the band The Verlaines, says that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" illustrates developing variation.^[18] Listeners made many comments that the song bore a passing resemblance to Boston's 1976 hit "More Than a Feeling".^[6] Cobain himself held similar opinions, saying that it "was such a clichéd riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or [The Kingsmen's] 'Louie Louie.'"^[4]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" uses a "somewhat conventional formal structure" consisting of four-, eight-, and twelve-bar sections that includes an eight-bar verse, an eight-bar first chorus (pre-chorus), and a twelve-bar second chorus (main chorus).^[19] Elements of the song's structure are marked off with shifts in volume and dynamics, going back and forth from quiet to loud a number of times during the length of the recording. This structure of "quiet verses with wobbly, chorused guitar, followed by big, loud hardcore-inspired choruses" became a much-emulated template in alternative rock because of "Teen Spirit".^[20]

The song begins with Cobain strumming the main riff, adding distortion when the rest of the band joins in. During the verse Cobain plays a sparse two-note guitar line over Novoselic's eighth note bassline, which outlines the chord progression. In the pre-chorus, Cobain begins to play the same two notes on every beat of the measure and repeats the phrase "Hello, hello, hello, how low?" Cobain then resumes the main guitar riff for the chorus, where the band plays loudly and Cobain yells the lyrics. The first and second choruses both end with a brief four-bar interlude where Cobain shouts "Yeah!" twice over a new riff. After the second chorus, Cobain plays a 16-bar guitar solo that almost completely restates his vocal melody from the verse and pre-chorus.^[19] The band extends the third and final verse and chorus as Cobain sings the refrain "A denial" repeatedly. At this point Cobain's vocals become strained and his voice is almost shot from the force of yelling.^[16] The song ends with the feedback of the guitar.

Release, success, and acclaim[link]

Issued to radio on August 27, 1991, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released two weeks later on September 10 as the lead single from Nevermind, the band's major label debut on DGC Records. The song did not initially chart, and it sold well only in regions of the United States with an established fanbase for the group.^[21] "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was not expected to be a hit, for it was merely intended to be the base-building alternative rock cut from the album. It was anticipated that the follow-up single "Come as You Are" would be the song that could cross over to mainstream formats. However, campus radio and modern rock radio stations picked up on the track, and placed it on heavy rotation. Danny Goldberg of Nirvana's management firm Gold Mountain later admitted that "none of us heard it as a crossover song, but the public heard it and it was instantaneous [. . .] They heard it on alternative radio, and then they rushed out like lemmings to buy it."^[22] The video received its world premiere on MTV's late-night alternative rock program 120 Minutes, and proved so popular that the channel began to air it during its regular daytime rotation.^[23] MTV added the video to its "Buzz Bin" selection in October, where it stayed until mid-December. By the end of the year, the song, its accompanying video, and the Nevermind album had become hits. Both the song and Nevermind became a rare cross-format phenomenon, reaching all the major rock radio formats including modern rock, hard rock, album rock, and college radio.^[24]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a critical and commercial success. The song topped the 1991 Village Voice "Pazz & Jop" and Melody Maker year-end polls, and reached number two on Rolling Stone's list of best singles of the year. The single peaked at number six on the Billboard singles chart the same week that Nevermind reached number one on the albums chart.^[25] "Teen Spirit" hit number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and has since been certified platinum (one million copies shipped) by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[26] However, many American Top 40 stations were reluctant to play the song in regular rotation due to its sound, and restricted it to night-time play.^[27] The single was also successful in other countries. In the United Kingdom, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" reached number seven and charted for 184 weeks.^[28] The song was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal and Best Rock Song.^[29] Entertainment Weekly would later name Nirvana's loss to Eric Clapton in the Best Rock Song category as one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history.^[30]

In the wake of Nirvana's success, Michael Azerrad wrote in a 1992 Rolling Stone article, "'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is an anthem for (or is it against?) the 'Why Ask Why?' generation. Just don't call Cobain a spokesman for a generation."^[31] Nevertheless, the music press awarded the song an "anthem-of-a-generation" status, placing Cobain as a reluctant spokesman for Generation X.^[32] The New York Times observed that "'Smells Like Teen Spirit' could be this generation’s version of the Sex Pistols' 1976 single, 'Anarchy in the U.K.', if it weren’t for the bitter irony that pervades its title," and added, "As Nirvana knows only too well, teen spirit is routinely bottled, shrink-wrapped and sold."^[33] The band grew uncomfortable with the song's success, and in later concerts often pointedly excluded it from the set list.^[34] Prior to the release of the band's 1993 follow-up album In Utero, Novoselic remarked, "If it wasn't for 'Teen Spirit' I don't know how Nevermind would have done," and observed, "There are no 'Teen Spirits' on In Utero."^[35] Cobain said in 1994, "I still like playing 'Teen Spirit,' but it's almost an embarrassment to play it [. . .] Everyone has focused on that song so much."^[4]

In the years following Cobain's 1994 death, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has continued to garner critical acclaim. In 2000, MTV and Rolling Stone ranked the song third on their joint list of the 100 best pop songs, trailing only The Beatles' "Yesterday" and The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".^[36] The Recording Industry Association of America's 2001 "Songs of the Century" project placed "Teen Spirit" at number 80.^[37] In 2002, NME awarded the song the number two spot on its list of "100 Greatest Singles of All Time",^[38] while in 2003 VH1 placed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" number one on its list of "100 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years".^[39] The song came third in a Q poll that same year.^[40] Rolling Stone ranked "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ninth in its 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and described its impact as "A shock wave of big-amp purity, [it] wiped the lingering jive of the Eighties off the pop map overnight."^[41] In the 2006 VH1 UK poll The Nation's Favourite Lyric, the line "I feel stupid and contagious/Here we are now, entertain us" was ranked as the third-favorite song lyric among over 13,000 voters.^[42] In 2009 the song was voted number one on Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time in Australia.^[43] In contrast, Time magazine proposed in its entry for Nevermind on "The All-TIME 100 Albums" from 2006 that "'Smells Like Teen Spirit' [. . .] may be the album's worst song.".^[44]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was re-released as a limited edition 7-inch vinyl single in December 2011. In an attempt to emulate a successful 2009 Facebook campaign to promote Rage Against the Machine's song "Killing in the Name", a similar online campaign has been launched to promote the Nirvana single to 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart in protest at the dealings of The X Factor television series with the children's charity Rhythmix.^[45] A similar campaign was also launched in Ireland to get the track to 2011 Christmas number one in the Irish Singles Chart.^[46] The campaign resulted in the song reaching number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, with 30,000 copies sold.^[47]

Lyrics and interpretation[link]

The lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" were often difficult for listeners to decipher, both due to their nonsensicality and because of Cobain's slurred, guttural singing voice. This problem was compounded by the fact that the Nevermind album liner notes did not include any lyrics for the songs aside from selected lyrical fragments. This incomprehensibility contributed to the early resistance from radio stations towards adding the song to their playlists; one Geffen promoter recalled that people from rock radio told her, "We can't play this. I can't understand what the guy is saying."^[48] MTV went as far as to prepare a version of the video that included the lyrics running across the bottom of the screen, which they aired when the video was added to their heavy rotation schedule.^[23] The lyrics for the album—and some from earlier or alternate versions of the songs—were later released with the liner notes of the "Lithium" single in 1992. American rock critic Dave Marsh noted comments by disc jockeys of the time that the song was "the 'Louie Louie' of the nineties" and wrote, "Like 'Louie,' only more so, 'Teen Spirit' reveals its secrets reluctantly and then often incoherently."^[49] Marsh, trying to decipher the lyrics of the song, felt after reading the correct lyrics from the song's sheet music that "what I imagined was quite a bit better (at least, more gratifying) than what Nirvana actually sang," and added, "Worst of all, I'm not sure that I know more about [the meaning of] 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' now than before I plunked down for the official version of the facts."^[50]

"Teen Spirit" is widely interpreted to be a teen revolution anthem, an interpretation reinforced by the song's music video.^[34] In an interview conducted the day Nevermind was released, Cobain stated the song was about his friends, explaining, "We still feel as if we're teenagers because we don't follow the guidelines of what's expected of us to be adults [. . .] It also has kind of a teen revolutionary theme". As Cobain did more interviews, he changed his explanation of the song and rarely gave specifics about the song's meaning.^[51] When discussing the song in Michael Azerrad's biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Cobain revealed that he felt a duty "to describe what I felt about my surroundings and my generation and people my age."^[10]

The book Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song describes "Teen Spirit" as "a typically murky Cobain exploration of meaning and meaninglessness."^[52] Azerrad plays upon the juxtaposition of Cobain's contradictory lyrics (such as "It's fun to lose and to pretend") and states "the point that emerges isn't just the conflict of two opposing ideas, but the confusion and anger that the conflict produces in the narrator—he's angry that he's confused." Azerrad's conclusion is that the song is "alternately a sarcastic reaction to the idea of actually having a revolution, yet it also embraces the idea."^[53] In Heavier Than Heaven, Charles R. Cross' biography of Kurt Cobain, the author argues that the song is a reference to Cobain's relationship with ex-girlfriend Tobi Vail. Cross cites the line "She's over-bored and self-assured" and states the song "could not have been about anyone else." Cross backs up his argument with lyrics which were present in earlier drafts, such as "Who will be the King & Queen of the outcasted [sic] teens."^[54][55]

Cobain has said, "The entire song is made up of contradictory ideas [. . .] It's just making fun of the thought of having a revolution. But it's a nice thought."^[53] Drummer Dave Grohl has stated he does not believe the song has any message, and said, "Just seeing Kurt write the lyrics to a song five minutes before he first sings them, you just kind of find it a little bit hard to believe that the song has a lot to say about something. You need syllables to fill up this space or you need something that rhymes."^[56]

Music video[link]

The music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the first for director Samuel Bayer. Bayer stated he believed he was hired because his test-reel was so poor the band anticipated his production would be "punk" and "not corporate."^[16] The video was based on the concept of a school concert which ends in anarchy and riot. Inspiration was taken from Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 movie Over the Edge, as well as the Ramones' film Rock 'n' Roll High School.^[57] Filmed on a soundstage in Culver City, the video featured the band playing at a pep rally in a high school gym to an audience of apathetic students on bleachers, and cheerleaders wearing black dresses with the Circle-A anarchist symbol. The video ends with the assembled students destroying the set and the band's gear. The demolition of the set captured in the video's conclusion was the result of genuine discontent. The extras that filled the bleachers had been forced to stay seated through numerous replays of the song for an entire afternoon of filming. Cobain convinced Bayer to allow the extras to mosh, and the set became a scene of chaos. "Once the kids came out dancing they just said 'fuck you,' because they were so tired of this shit throughout the day," Cobain said.^[58] Cobain disliked Bayer's final edit and personally oversaw a re-edit of the video that resulted in the version finally aired.^[28] One of Cobain's major additions was the next-to-last shot of the video, which was a close-up of his own face after it had been obscured for most of the video.^[58] Bayer noted that unlike subsequent artists he worked with, Cobain did not care about vanity, rather that "the video had something that was truly about what they were about."^[57] The video had an estimated budget between $30,000 and $50,000.^[59]

Like the song itself, the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was well received by critics. Rolling Stone writer David Fricke described the video as looking like "the greatest gig you could ever imagine."^[16] In addition to a number one placing in the singles category, "Teen Spirit" also topped the music video category in the Village Voice's 1991 "Pazz & Jop" poll.^[60] The video won Nirvana the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Group awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards,^[61] and in 2000 the Guinness World Records named "Teen Spirit" the Most Played Video on MTV Europe.^[62] In subsequent years Amy Finnerty, formerly of MTV's Programming department, claimed the video "changed the entire look of MTV" by giving them "a whole new generation to sell to."^[16] VH1 placed the debut of the "Teen Spirit" video at number eighteen on its list of "100 Greatest Rock & Roll Moments on TV", noting that "the video [ushered] in alternative rock as a commercial and pop culture force."^[63] In 2001, VH1 ranked the video fourth on its "100 Greatest Videos" list.^[64] The video has been parodied at least twice: in "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for "Smells Like Nirvana" and in Bob Sinclar's 2006 music video for "Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)".

Live performances[link]

	"Smells Like Teen Spirit" (live) noicon Sample of "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, from the live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996). The band performs the song at a faster tempo than the studio recording.
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"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was first performed live on April 17, 1991 at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington.^[65] The performance is featured on the DVD of the 2004 box set With the Lights Out, while shorter clips are included on the Nevermind Classic Albums DVD, as well as the documentary film Hype! As the song's lyrics had not yet been entirely written, there are notable differences between it and the final version. For example, the first performance started with "Come out and play, make up the rules" instead of the eventual opening of "Load up on guns, bring your friends." A recording of the earlier version appears on With the Lights Out and again on Sliver: The Best of the Box. A similar early live performance of the song is found in the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke, filmed during a 1991 summer tour in Europe with Sonic Youth.

Nirvana often altered the song's lyrics and tempo for live performances. Some live performances of the song had the line "our little group has always been" changed to "our little tribe has always been," which can be heard on the 1996 live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. Rolling Stone remarked that the Wishkah version of "Teen Spirit" "[found] Cobain's guitar reeling outside the song's melodic boundaries and sparking new life in that nearly played-out hit."^[66] A notable alternate performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" occurred on BBC's Top of the Pops in 1991, during which the band refused to mime to the pre-recorded backing track and Cobain sang in a deliberately low voice and altered numerous lyrics in the song (for example, "Load up on guns, bring your friends" became "Load up on drugs, kill your friends"). Cobain later said he was trying to sound like former Smiths frontman Morrissey.^[67] When Top of the Pops was cancelled in 2006, The Observer listed Nirvana's performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as the third greatest in the show's history.^[68] This performance can be found on the 1994 home video Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!

Cover versions[link]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Tori Amos cover) noicon Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as covered by Tori Amos on the Crucify EP (1992). Amos performs the song by herself on piano, where she slows down the tempo and enunciates the lyrics to the chorus clearly. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Paul Anka cover) noicon Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as covered by Paul Anka on his album, Rock Swings (2005). Anka performs the song in an upbeat swing style.

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"Smells Like Teen Spirit" has been covered by numerous artists. One of the first cover recordings was an acoustic piano version by Tori Amos on her 1992 Crucify EP, which Cobain referred to as "a great breakfast cereal version".^[69] The jazz trio The Bad Plus recorded the track for its CD These Are the Vistas,^[70] the Melvins recorded a version featuring former child star Leif Garrett, and the industrial act Xorcist also released a tribute. The Moog Cookbook put out a synthesizer-based cover version on The Moog Cookbook and the Japanese Beatboxer Dokaka has recorded a beatboxed cover version. British group The Flying Pickets released an a cappella version of the song on their album The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1. Covers of the song on tribute albums include Blanks 77 on Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute to Nirvana, and Beki Bondage on Smells Like Nirvana; both released in 2000. In 2005, "Teen Spirit" was covered as a swing song by 1950s star Paul Anka. In 2006, the band Flyleaf covered the song for Yahoo!'s LAUNCHcast service. In 2007, Patti Smith included a cover version, which incorporated a piece of her poetry, on her album of cover songs Twelve.

The song has been adapted into other forms over the years. Germany's Atari Teenage Riot sampled "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in the song "Atari Teenage Riot" from their 1997 album, Burn, Berlin, Burn! DJ Balloon, a German techno DJ, also used the sample in his song "Monstersound".^[71] An instrumental cover version (slightly altered and named "Self High-Five" to avoid legal complications) was produced by World Championship Wrestling as the entrance music for wrestler Diamond Dallas Page.^[72]

In addition to cover versions, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has also inspired a few parodies. "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song in 1992 with "Smells Like Nirvana", a song about Nirvana itself. Yankovic parodied the difficulty in understanding Cobain's singing as well as the lyrics and their meaning. Yankovic has said Kurt Cobain told him he realized that Nirvana had "made it" when he heard the parody.^[73] In 1995, the queercore band Pansy Division recorded a parody of the song called "Smells Like Queer Spirit" for its Pile Up album. Pansy Division guitarist Jon Ginoli insisted that his band's version of the song was not a parody but "an affectionate tribute".^[18]

Formats and track listing[link]

Chart positions[link]

References[link]

• Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47199-8
• Classic Albums—Nirvana: Nevermind [DVD]. Isis Productions, 2004.
• Berkenstadt, Jim; Cross, Charles. Classic Rock Albums: Nevermind. Schirmer, 1998. ISBN 0-02-864775-0
• Crisafulli, Chuck. Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song. Carlton, 1996. ISBN 0-684-83356-5
• Cross, Charles R. Heavier Than Heaven. Hyperion, 2001. ISBN 0-7868-6505-9
• Marsh, Dave. Louie Louie. Hyperion, 1993. ISBN 1-56282-865-7
• Starr, Larry; Waterman, Christopher. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-510854-X

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• "Smells Like Teen Spirit" discography information
• Salon article on cultural impact of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
• Smells Like Teen Spirit at MusicBrainz
• "Smells Like Teen Spirit" official music video on YouTube

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
laut.de	[3]

Teen Spirit is the first studio album and second album overall by the A-Teens, released in 2001 by Stockholm Records.

Its thirteen tracks were recorded in Sweden with new producers and hit makers Grizzly and Tysper, among others. While musically it is generally perceived to be more American-driven than the Europop sound of their first record, it does include a varied mix of styles including: bass, soul, Latin music, and others. This album also marked a departure for the band from The ABBA Generation in that there is only one cover, Morning Light (originally recorded by fellow Swedish singer, E-Type). Also, the boys from the band (Amit Paul and Dhani Lennevald) collaborated more on the vocals.

Teen Spirit spawned 3 singles, including the hit "Upside Down". This song was renamed for the US and Canadian market to Bouncing off the Ceiling (Upside Down).

Teen Spirit was certified Gold in the US and Poland as well as Platinum in Sweden and many other countries. While not repeating the same level of success as their debut album, the album went on to sell over 1.5 million copies, despite bad reviews from the press.

A new version of the album with bonus tracks was released on 21 January 2002 in Scandinavia, Germany and Mexico including bonus tracks and the single used to promote the Disney movie The Princess Diaries, "Heartbreak Lullaby".

The songs, "Halfway Around The World", "Heartbreak Lullaby", and "Upside Down" were played frequently on Radio Disney.

Composition[link]

The album is generally pop, europop and dance-pop album, composed of love songs and live in the moment beats. "Upside Down" is the first track of the album, single, and their signature song which topped out all of their records. It is about how one's life is sent "upside-down" when in love. "...to the music" is a perfect summer song, quite similar to ABBA's "Thank You For The Music". "Halfway Around The World" is a song about how one won't stop loving their parter, regardless of the distance of half the world. it was the album's second single. "Firefly" is a metaphorical song of a lover who "lights up" their lover's life when they are close to each other. "Sugar Rush" was the album's third single, and another extremely popular song by the band. It features a slow melody with bubbly synths. It's music video was nominated and won three awards consecutively. "Rockin'" is a live in the moment type of song, a genre for which the band was quite famous. "Around The Corner of Your Eye" is the ballad of the album. it talks about how one will always be close to their lover no matter what. "Slammin' Kinda Love" is a club anthem. It has powerful, "eathshattering synths" which enance its love lyrics. "All My Love" is a love song similar to the other lovesongs on the album with less powerful synths. "For All That I Am" is another love ballad referring to a boyfriend not trusting his lover after she arrived home late the previous night. "That's What (It's All About)" is a power anthem of the young generation. "Morning Light" is the major song of the album. the album cover is designed after this song. "Back For More" refers to the band making another enterance into the music industry with the people coming back to them for more. Lyrically, it is a love song.

Track listing[link]

International[link]

1. Upside Down – 3:14 (Jonsson; Sepehmanesh; Tysper)
2. ...to the Music – 3:22 (Flame; Hortlund; J. Boogie; RedOne)
3. Halfway Around the World – 3:41 (Jonsson; Sepehmanesh; Tysper)
4. Firefly – 3:07 (Anders Wikström; Fredrik Thomander; Wikstrom)
5. Sugar Rush – 3:03 (Anders Wikström; Fredrik Thomander; Wikstrom)
6. Rockin' – 3:27 (Sigurd Rosnes)
7. Around the Corner of Your Eye – 4:12 (Anders Wikström; Fredrik Thomander; Wikstrom)
8. Slammin' Kinda Love – 3:04 (Jan Kask; Peter Mansson)
9. All My Love – 3:17 (Leif Sundin; Thomas Jansson)
10. For All That I Am – 3:19 (Claeson; Hjalmarsson; Norberg)
11. That's What (It's All About) – 3:17 (Nee; Tysper)
12. Morning Light – 3:10 (E-Type; Kristian Lundin; Mud)
13. Back for More – 3:13 (Anders Wikström; Fredrik Thomander; Wikstrom)

United States and Canada[link]

• The track "Upside Down," was renamed "Bouncing off the Ceiling (Upside Down)"
• 13 tracks as standard edition plus the bonus track "Don't Even Know Your Name" (3:46) and the video for "Bouncing off the Ceiling (Upside Down)."

Japan[link]

• 13 tracks as standard edition plus bonus track "Can't Stop the Pop" (3:00).

United Kingdom[link]

• 13 tracks as standard edition plus two bonus tracks "Mamma Mia" (3:47) and "Super Trouper" (3:52).

Re-releases[link]

Thailand[link]

In Thailand, Teen Spirit was a total smash hit, so Universal Music re-issued the album there with new artwork and bonus remixes and music videos.

1. Upside Down – 3:14
2. ...to the Music – 3:22
3. Halfway Around the World – 3:41
4. Firefly – 3:07
5. Sugar Rush – 3:03
6. Rockin' – 3:27
7. Around the Corner of Your Eye – 4:12
8. Slammin' Kinda Love – 3:04
9. All My Love – 3:17
10. For All That I Am – 3:19
11. That's What (It's All About) – 3:17
12. Morning Light – 3:10
13. Back for More – 3:13
14. Give It Up – 3:42
15. Upside Down [Almighty Radio mix] - 4:15
16. Halfway Around the World [M12 Massive Remix] – 6:57

Music videos: Upside Down and Halfway Around the World

Teen Spirit - New Version[link]

After the success of Teen Spirit in 2001 and the single "Heartbreak Lullaby" Universal Music thought it would be good to re-release the album in the Scandinavia, Germany and Mexico, where the album sold relatively well, the re-issue was released on 21 January 2002 on the name Teen Spirit - New Version.

1. Upside Down – 3:14
2. ...To the Music – 3:22
3. Halfway Around the World – 3:41
4. Firefly – 3:07
5. Sugar Rush – 3:03
6. Rockin' – 3:27
7. Around the Corner of Your Eye – 4:12
8. Slammin' Kinda Love – 3:04
9. All My Love – 3:17
10. For All That I Am – 3:19
11. That's What (It's All About) – 3:17
12. Morning Light – 3:10
13. Back for More – 3:13
14. Heartbreak Lullaby [Ray Hedges 7" Mix] – 4:07
15. Don't Even Know Your Name – 3:46
16. Can't Stop the Pop – 3:00
17. Give It Up – 3:42

Singles[link]

• "Bouncing off the Ceiling (Upside Down)" (4 December 2000)
• "Halfway Around the World" (26 March 2001)
• "Sugar Rush" (31 July 2001)
• "...to the Music" (9 October 2001)
• "Firefly" (3 February 2002) Shoot for the music video was cancelled. It was not released to the radio.

Charts[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rate Your Music Review

Patti Smith
Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, October 6, 1976
Background information
Birth name	Patricia Lee Smith
Born	(1946-12-30) December 30, 1946 (age 65) Chicago, Illinois, USA
Origin	New York City, New York
Genres	Protopunk, punk rock, art rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, poet, artist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, clarinet
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Arista, Columbia
Associated acts	Tom Verlaine
Website	www.pattismith.net

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946)^[1] 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.^[2]

Called the "Godmother of Punk",^[3] 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.^[2] In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture,^[4] and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[5] On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids.^[6] She is also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

Life and career[link]

1946–1973: Early life[link]

Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago.^[1] Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress, and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her early childhood in Germantown ^[7], before her family moved to Woodbury Gardens, Deptford Township, New Jersey,^[8][9] raised 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.^[10] 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."^[11] 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. ^[12] Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory.^[2][13] She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption.^[13]

1967–1973: New York[link]

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.^[14] In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art.^[8] 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,^[15] 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"^[16] and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)"^[17] 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.^[18]

1974–1979: Patti Smith Group[link]

Smith performing with the Patti Smith Group, in Germany, 1978

By 1974, Patti Smith was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist, bassist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on guitar and 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...").^[19] 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.^[2]

	"Gloria" noicon "Because the Night" noicon "Dancing Barefoot" noicon
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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.^[20] 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.^[21] She has said that Radio Ethiopia was influenced by the band MC5. ^[12]

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.^[22] 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.^[23]

It was around this time Mick Jagger uttered his famous quote about her^[24]:

"I think it's crap! I think she's so awful...she's full of rubbish, she's full of words and crap. I mean, she's a poseur of the worst kind, intellectual bullshit, trying to be a street girl when she doesn't seem to me to be one, I mean, everything...a useless guitar player, a bad singer, not attractive. She's got her heart in the right place but she's such a POSER! She's not really together musically, she's...all right.

Patti Smith also has had other artists comment about her. Flo and Eddie did a part in their act where they suggested she used Industrial Strength Janitor in a Drum as a feminine-hygiene spray.^[25] Southside Johnny was heard to shout: "She tries too hard!" at a party once. ^[25]

She's never directly replied but in later years her interest in the Stones seems to have waned. When asked if she still listened to the Rolling Stones, she replied^[26]

Not as much as I used to. If I'm somewhere and hear a Rolling Stones song come over the radio, it's still exciting. I don't sit around listening to them. I listen to a lot of opera records. A lot of Glenn Gould. If I'm in a car, and the Rolling Stones, you know -- "Gimmie Shelter" or "Under My Thumb," and something comes on and it's "19th Nervous Breakdown" - it's still exciting.

1980–1995: Marriage[link]

	"People Have the Power" noicon
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Smith with her daughter Jesse Smith at the 2011 Time 100 gala

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.)^[27] The running joke at the time was that she married Fred only because she would not have to change her name.^[28] They had a son, Jackson (b. 1982) who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White in 2009^{[citation needed]}; 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 heart attack. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother Todd^[8] 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).^[15]

1996–2003: Re-emergence[link]

	"Summer Cannibals" noicon
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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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[29] 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.^[30] 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.^[31]

2004–present[link]

	"Jubilee" noicon
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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.^[32] Guitarist Tom Verlaine took Oliver Ray's place. This live performance was released later in the year as Horses/Horses.

TIM festival, Marina da Glória,
Rio de Janeiro, October 28, 2006

On July 10, 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.^[4] In addition to Smith's influence on rock music, the Minister also noted her 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.^[33]

On November 10, 2005, Smith received the Woman of Valor Award from ROCKRGRL Magazine at the ROCKRGRL Music Conference, marking the 30th Anniversary of the release of "Horses."

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007.^[5] She dedicated her award to the memory of her late husband, Fred, and gave a performance of The Rolling Stones staple "Gimme Shelter". As the closing number of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Smith's "People Have the Power" was used for the big celebrity jam that always ends the program.^[34]
From November 2006 - January 2007, an exhibition called 'Sur les Traces'^[35] 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.^[36] At the 2008 Rowan Commencement ceremony, Smith received an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture.

Smith with National Book Critics Circle President Jane Ciabattari and NBCC board member John Reed. Smith's memoir Just Kids was an NBCC autobiography finalist at the 2010 awards.^[37]

Smith is the subject of a 2008 documentary film, Patti Smith: Dream of Life.^[38] 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.^[39] In 2010, Patti Smith's book, Just Kids, a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, was published; it later won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.^[6][40] On April 30, 2010, Patti Smith headlined a benefit concert headed by band-mate Tony Shanahan, for The Court Tavern of New Brunswick.^[41] Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power." She has a brief cameo in Jean-Luc Godard's 2010 Film Socialisme, which was first screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. ^[42]

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.^[43] Following the conferral of her degree, Smith delivered the commencement address^[44] 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.^[45]

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.^[46] Part of the book will be set in Gothenburg, Sweden.^[47]

On May 3, 2011, it was 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 television acting debut on the TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, appearing in an episode called "Icarus".^[48]

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.^[49]

Smith is also contributing a track to "AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered", a U2 covers album due to be released through Q Magazine on October 25th. Smith recorded a cover of "Until The End Of The World" for the compilation.

In February 2012, she was a guest at the Sanremo Music Festival.

Influence[link]

Provinssirock festival, Seinäjoki, Finland, June 16, 2007

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."^[50] 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".

The Australian alternative rock band, The Go-Betweens dedicated a track off their 1994 album The Friends of Rachel Worth, When She Sang About Angels in reference to Smith's long time influence on themselves.^[51]

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.^[52] 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".^[53] In 2004, Sonic Youth released an album called Hidros 3 (to Patti Smith).^[54] U2 also cites Patti Smith as an influence.^[55] In 2005 Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall released the single "Suddenly I See" as a tribute of sorts to Patti Smith.^[56] Canadian actress Ellen Page frequently mentions Smith as one of her idols and has done various photo shoots replicating famous Smith photos.^[57] In 1978 and 1979, Gilda Radner portrayed a character called Candy Slice on Saturday Night Live based on Smith.

American pop-dance singer Madonna has also named Smith as one of her biggest influences.^[58]

Activism[link]

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.^[59] 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.^{[60][dead link]} 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.^[59]

Smith premiered two new protest songs in London in September 2006.^[61] Louise Jury, writing in The Independent, characterized them as "an emotional indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy". The song "Qana"^[62] was about the Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana. "Without Chains"^[63] 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:

I wrote both these songs directly in response to events that I felt outraged about. These are injustices against children and the young men and women who are being incarcerated. I'm an American, I pay taxes in my name and they are giving millions and millions of dollars to a country such as Israel and cluster bombs and defense technology and those bombs were dropped on common citizens in Qana. It's terrible. It's a human rights violation.

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.^[64] Kurnaz's book, "Five Years of My Life," was published in English by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2008, with Patti's introduction.^[65]

On March 26, 2003, ten days after Rachel Corrie's death, Smith appeared in Austin, Texas, and performed an anti-war concert. She subsequently wrote a song "Peaceable Kingdom" which was inspired by and is dedicated to Rachel Corrie.^[66]

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".^[67]

Band members[link]

Bowery Ballroom, New York City, December 31, 2007

Discography[link]

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)
• Banga (2012)

Bibliography[link]

• 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[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Patti Smith

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Patti Smith

• Official website
• Patti Smith at Allmusic
• Patti Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• Patti Smith on Charlie Rose
• Patti Smith at the Open Directory Project

Tori Amos
Tori Amos at the 2008 Comic-Con
Background information
Birth name	Myra Ellen Amos
Born	(1963-08-22) August 22, 1963 (age 48) Newton, North Carolina, United States
Genres	Piano rock, art pop, alternative rock, electronica
Occupations	Musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Piano, harpsichord, clavichord, Hammond organ, harmonium, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Kurzweil, clavinet, vocals
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Atlantic Epic Universal Republic Deutsche Grammophon
Associated acts	Y Kant Tori Read
Website	toriamos.com everythingtori.com
Notable instruments
Bösendorfer piano[1]

Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.^[2]

As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide.^[3] She has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. Amos was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1996.^[4]

Early life[link]

Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music.^[5] Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music.^[5] In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father, Reverend Edison Amos, became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.^[5][6]

Amos first came to local notice by winning a county teen talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend". As a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, she co-wrote "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a B-side, "Walking With You". Prior to this period she performed under her middle name, Ellen, but permanently adopted Tori after a friend's boyfriend told her it suited her.^[7] At age 21, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the D.C. area.^[8]

Atlantic years (1986–2001)[link]

Y Kant Tori Read[link]

In 1986, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read, the name of which was a reference to her days at the Peabody Conservatory, where she was able to play songs on her piano by ear, but was never successful at sight reading.^[9] In addition to Amos, the group was composed of Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all her subsequent albums until 1999), drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber. Following several phases of writing and recording, during which Amos has since asserted that the band lost their musical edge and direction due to interference from record executives, in July 1988, the Y Kant Tori Read's self-titled debut album was released. Although its producer, Joe Chiccarelli, has stated that Amos was very happy with the album at the time,^[10] it is now out of print and Amos has expressed no interest in reissuing it.^[11] Following the album's commercial failure and the group's subsequent disbanding, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" for the film China O'Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called Tess Makes Good.^[12] It was the only song recorded by the band, and its only commercial release was in the film.