27 thoughts on “Summer”

  3. Frostfrog

    The dog must really like you. What timing for dog and frisbee and shutter! Especially ?iPhone? shutter. However short or long your moments at home are, I know they will be brief. Enjoy them – and the cats who hang out with you.

  9. Paul

    Ross Nolly…

    I’ve never been of Patti Smith as an artist. I must admit I haven’t heard much of her music, although what little I have listened to isn’t close to my taste. I’ve also always silently and secretly thought she is highly overrated and kept quiet about my suspicions that she is who she is because of the “right” friends and company.
    But thanks to your link I’ve discovered what seems like a lovely honest artist, living a fully creative life.

  10. mw

    I’ve also always silently and secretly thought she is highly overrated and kept quiet about my suspicions…

    Very wise, Paul. You’d sound silly saying that out loud. Her albums are spotty but her best songs, of which there are many, are truly great. If you have to check out just one album, I suggest “Easter.”

  11. mw

    Sorry to be posting so much today, but the idea that anyone would consider Patti Smith overrated has been gnawing at me all day. She’s probably one of the most underrated artists of all time. Sure, a lot of people know and revere Horses, Radio Ethiopia and Easter, but her later work is at least equally fantastic. Check out Gone Again, My Blakean Year and Waiting Underground, just to name a few out of many great songs.

    But as for overrated, if Wing had been the only song she’d ever written, Patti Smith would not be overrated.

    Interesting photographer as well. Anyone who’s seen the cover of the Clash’s London Calling has seen at least one of her photos.

  13. Imants

    The edge is gone from her new stuff she has stayed too long in that punk realm which is now a docile version of its past…. but that happens as we start living a more affluent and settled life

  14. Imants

    “Build a good name”, rock poet Patti Smith advises the young.” Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned about doing good work and protect your work”………. a statement that only those that have made it can afford to make

  15. Paul

    Few retain the same energy and age as time goes by. Perhaps they’ve “said” enough as it is. Even though their record companies and bank managers will disagree.

  17. mw

    About Patti Smith, why would she, or any artist, need to keep some kind of young person from the punk era’s type “edge” for the rest of her life? And despite the facile media portrayal, she was never much of a punk. There’s nothing remotely punk on Horses. One could argue Radio Ethiopia and Easter are punk influenced, but that’s about it in her large and growing oeuvre. And many of the songs she’s written in her middle to later years have far more edge than just about everything else out there. It’s just a very mature person’s edge, one who has experienced an unfortunate number of tragic deaths, contemplated them and howled about it. While it’s no doubt true that few retain the same energy as they age, one could certainly argue that Patti Smith is one of the few. In addition to her music career, she’s a photographer with books and gallery shows and a very talented and successful writer. So it’s fine if someone doesn’t like her work, but if you look into it a bit, you’ll find her life is unique and far, far, far from the stereotype where the spent artist plows on for the bank managers.

    Yea, I know. Said to much already. But if you’re interested in more, I’ve dug up an article about her later work (mow mid-late?) I wrote in 1977. It’s long and could use a serious revision, but makes a fee good points. Here.

  19. a civilian-mass audience

    oh,yeah…be ready in few days,YOU will fly…

    I love you ALLLLLLLLL

  20. Paul

    MW…
    Thanks for the article. I’ll read it later when the kids are fast asleep. BTW my previous post wasn’t referring to Patti Smith, I was just thinking about celebrities in general. ..

  22. Paul

    MW…

    I found I enjoyed your article way more than Patti Smith’s music you referred to. My problem, just isn’t my style of music. Songs rarely grow on me, they either hit me right in the heart or I feel nothing whatsoever.

  24. eduardo sepulveda

    Frostfrog

    Bill? Thank you very much for the link.

    Impressive. Also part of Europe had the ‘flood of the century’ those days, again, only ten years after the last ‘flood of the century’…

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