Patti Smith
Patti Smith (real name Patricia Lee Smith) was born 30th December 1946 and was born in Chicago and moved to New York when she was younger. She is also known as the "Godmother of Punk" for her rock and poetry outputs.
For over 40 years Patti Smith has been in the music industry, and in her early years she lived a hippy lifestyle and tried her hand at rock music, journalism and poetry.
In 1974, Patti Smith performed with a band and it was named The Patti Smith Band which originally compromised 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.
This would change over the years and from 2007 the band compromised Lenny Kaye – guitar, Jay Dee Daugherty – drums, Tony Shanahan – bass, keyboard Jackson Smith – guitar and Jack Petruzzelli - guitar, bass.
Their first album Horses (1975) was a combination of punk-rock and poetry and their second effort, Radio Ethiopia (1976) focused more on their punk-rock sound.
Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, tragedy struck with the death of her partner Fred Smith (from the band MC5) and Patti Smith decided to go back to her roots and head to New York.
During the 2000s, Smith collaborated with R.E.M on the track “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” and went on to emerge herself in making music.
Her musical talents were finally recognised in 2007, when she was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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