Patti Smith

Poetry, protest music, and punk rock synergize in Patti Smith.

Born in Chicago in 1946, Smith grew up mainly in New Jersey before moving to Manhattan in 1967 and forming close artistic and personal relationships with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and playwright Sam Shepard.

She wrote lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult (“Career of Evil”) and criticism for Creem before channeling her experience of working in a baby-buggy factory into the free-jazz poetics of “Piss Factory,” the B-side to “Hey Joe,” released in 1974.