"And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency..."

"And then the little boy's face lit up with such naked joy": I wasn't conscious of Patti Smith's emergence on the New York Punk Rock scene with Horses back in 1975 (I was 3 at the time and wouldn't discover Punk Rock for another 10 years). Numerous lists such as Rolling Stone's "Greatest Albums of All Time," NME's "20 Near-as-Damn-It Perfect Initial Efforts," and Time's "All-time 100 Greatest Albums" put Smith's album in high rank. I discovered Horses in the late early 2000s after I had broadened my music tastes and was coming full circle to find the music I should have known but had missed. I found Patti Smith in a back room office of a library in 1997...

"If you seek the kingdom come, come along": Each morning I would sit in The Andover Harvard Theological Library processing book receipts or creating the most bare-bones MARC records for cataloguing new titles. Part of my time was spent working for (my now good friend) Al. He preferred to start his day very early, leaving time for other pursuits later in the day, including performing explosive Rock and Roll at the local Club Bohemia. We would often listen to music while we worked, listening to selections from our existing collections or our frequent purchases (often inspired from recommendations from other musically inclined friends). Always preceding a splurge of purchases on my part was Al's annual "best of the year" list. He would send out his thoughts to an email list which worked much like present day blogs, and had quite a following. The list was, in parts, a reaction to independent music critics' picks in Boston, his numerous musician friends' picks, and his own well-developed critical opinion. Patti Smith's Peace and Noise made the list in 1997. Al asked me if I had listened to any Patti Smith, and I confessed I had not, despite knowing how important she was supposed to be to music in general. Little did I know she was critical to the music I loved so much from the New York Punk Scene. So, Al turned me on to Peace and Noise...

"Just another wandering soul adrift among the stars": A few years after my time in Boston I was looking for something that scratched my Punk itch while perusing the racks at Toonerville Trolly in Williamstown, MA. Owner Hal March had old copies of music from Blue Note, Sub Pop, and 4AD. Given the trend of online downloads and sales, I was impressed that such a small town still had a store with a broad record and CD collection with an audiophile at the helm. I told Hal I was looking to brooding my collection with some old Punk Rock; he inquired about my Ramones and Clash holdings; I told him I was flush; he eventually countered with Horses by Patti Smith. I remembered Al's successful recommendation of Peace and Noise, thought that Al and Hal had much in common, and so eagerly took Hal's suggestion. [I had also since learned of Smith's frequent collaboration with other artists I like, like Michael Stipe of REM and Bob Dylan. In 1996 Smith had released Gone Again in reaction to the recent deaths of Smith's friends and colleagues, including Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.] So I discovered Horses 30 years after it's release and the wait was not disappointing...

"There must be something I can dream tonight": So why write about Patti Smith today? Recently, I saw a post come across my feed of a talk filmed in 2012. The Huffington Post covered the story, it was reposted in my FaceBook feed and I actually clicked on it. I'll let Smith's words speak for themselves...

I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry book that maybe, you know, 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling ... What matters is to know what you want and pursue it. And understand that it’s gonna be hard. Because life is really difficult. You’re gonna lose people you love, you’re gonna suffer heartbreak, sometimes you’ll be sick, sometimes you’ll have a really bad toothache. 

But on the other end, you’ll have the most beautiful experiences. Sometimes just the sky. Sometimes, you know, a piece of work that you do that feels so wonderful, or you find somebody to love, or your children. There’s beautiful things in life. So when you’re suffering … it’s part of the package.

I say, stay strong, try to have fun but stay clean, stay healthy, because you have a lot of challenges ahead, and be happy.

Smith goes on to tell a story about advice offered to her by the author Williams Burroughs. Although I am not sure I would place too much blind stock in advice from Burroughs, his words to Smith seem spot on to me:

When I was really young, William Burroughs told me, and I was really struggling, we never had any money, and the advice that William gave me was: "Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don't make compromises. Don't worry about making a bunch of money, or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work, and make the right choices, and protect your work, and if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency."

My lesson learned: When I lived in north Cambridge I had a 12 by 12 plot to garden. Two local women had the most fabulously producing plot and I asked them for advise. They told me to avoid using chemicals like MiracleGro, saying it acts like steroids for plants, feeding them directly and stressing them out too much. Their advice was to take care of the soil and let the plants take care of themselves. So I worked hard at tending the soil, and the plants tended themselves, and my garden flourished also. I think the gardeners' advise and Burroughs' advice are the same...