Godmother of punk Patti Smith returns to complete unfinished business in Australia
Patti Smith performed “farewell” concerts in Australia a few years ago on doctor’s orders. But the love of her fans including a new generation of followers is bringing her back.
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Patti Smith dreamt of Uluru for three decades.
The seeds of her dreaming were planted in the 1980s, when she and her son Jackson would watch a Japanese anime series, Noozles, about the adventures of Blinky the koala and a young girl called Sandy Brown at the sacred rock.
As she reveals in her most recent memoir, The Year of the Monkey, she and her dear friend, playwright Sam Shepard had planned to travel there together to explore her dreams.
So when she finished her Horses tour of Australia in 2017, and with Shepard too ill to join her, the Godmother of Punk took herself to the red heart.
For three days, the poet and songwriter would sit and watch the sunrise over the ancient monolith and return for sunset, remaining in the dark, as the night sky became crowded with stars.
“Once I was there, I didn’t want to leave it. It was one of the great experiences of my life, going on this little trip by myself,” she says.
“It felt like the giants from the old testament, the angels that were giants, were sleeping beneath the earth. It felt like there were veins coming up from the earth and the blood from those veins created this monolith.
“I felt so many different things, the energy of the dreamers was there. I just sat, wrote, daydreamed, slept, woke up and just looked at it.
“I walked all the way around – which took a long time – and found one little section that was open so I could touch it, but other than that, I didn’t disturb it. But I did touch it, put my whole hands on it and said my prayer … I was in love.”
That Australian tour, her first in two decades, was meant to be Smith’s final visit to Australia. She had signalled as much to her fans.
Having suffered chronic bronchial problems for much of her seven decades on the planet, doctors had cautioned her against long distance flights for all of the reasons.
Smith fell ill after her flight from New York to Sydney for that tour, but valiantly struggled on — the loud and communal goodwill from fans who worshipped the uncompromising poet activist carrying her to greater heights at each performance, including at the Bluesfest festival.
No one complained about the strength of her voice, or the power of her performance.
But Smith felt she had unfinished business in Australia.
As she watched the horror of the bushfire crisis grip the country and the vexatious climate change debate continue to rage in its wake, she felt vindicated in her decision to ignore doctor’s order and come back to Bluesfest and perform a series of concerts.
“Well, I didn’t think that it was possible. I don’t do very well on long flights because I have bronchial problems, that’s why I thought I would never be able to come back. Then I turned 73, and I know my long tours are winding down and I thought if I don’t do it now … People were so great and it was just such a wonderful experience that I thought I could do this one last time if they would have me,” she says.
“Also, so much of my thoughts and prayers have been with the country and the people, so it will be nice to be there and just see everybody, make sure everybody is ok. It’s heartbreaking, really I can’t say how much every single waking day this has been on my mind.
“It’s so funny, but there is something about having been in one country for so long, which we never do, you start feeling like you know everybody, even if you’ve only been in small sections of it. It’s a funny illusion.”
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The pull to return was also fostered by the generational refresh of her audience she experienced during the 2017 tour.
For every boomer or Gen Xer who crowded the theatres and tents she performed in was a millennial fan well versed in Smith’s music and literary careers — stretching from the seminal 1975 album Horses, through to her poetry collections and acclaimed memoirs from 2010’s Just Kids to The Year of the Monkey.
There may be several of her peers still rocking into their 70s but few command a younger generation of fans in the same way Smith has done (perhaps with the exception of Iggy Pop).
“If there’s anything that is going to make me cry on stage, it’s seeing a sea of young people. And not just seeing them but hearing them sing some of our songs,” she says.
“It’s a privilege … I look at some of these young people and I am old enough to be their grandparent, even their great grandparent and yet I feel an absolute energetic connection with them. You know, it’s unconditional.
“We are actually quite lucky because I have been to concerts in arenas by certain of my peers who are much more successful than myself but I’ve seen one thing I have achieved that they haven’t and that’s having so many young people.
“It’s a thing where you are singing to the future but the future is there with you. Itt’s like you are communing with the future. It’s quite a beautiful thing. I’m happy to sing to all generations. Believe me, I’m happy to see everyone there, but this added layer of youthful affirmation is really extraordinary.”
That generational refresh is also apparent when you Google her name.
One of the questions “people also ask” is “Was Patti Smith married to Bruce Springsteen?”
They did write one of her most loved songs together – 1978’s ‘Because The Night’ – and while the rumour regularly resurfaces, Smith has only had one husband, MC5’s Fred “Sonic” Smith, who died of a heart attack in 1994.
Their son Jackson will join her as guitarist on the Australian tour.
“We did write our song together, not even in the same room, and I am very grateful for that song and I occasionally see Bruce and he’s a fine fella,” she says, laughing.
“I have only been married once and no one could match or surpass him.”
While her last tour centred on Horses, the 2020 setlist will draw more widely from her career and she expects it to feature songs which capture the tumult of the times and her reflections of them, including People Have The Power, Pissing In The River, Dancing Barefoot and Beneath The Southern Cross.
Midnight Oil’s Bed Are Burning will also take centrestage in her set, with Smith playing it often last year.
“I feel driven to come back, I don’t know why. Midnight Oil wrote a song that I used to listen to all the time when it first came out ... I loved it so much; and now, it’s the anthem of now. It was always relevant, but it’s even more so and with great respect to them, I am very excited to be able to sing it there.”
* Patti Smith performs at Bluesfest, Byron Bay on April 11 and then Enmore Theatre, Sydney on April 15 and 16 and The Forum, Melbourne on April 21 to 23.
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