Punk rock and feminist as fuck

Book review: Why Patti Smith Matters by Caryn Rose

This is one of those books that when you’ve finished you think to yourself “I’m GLAD I read that.”

And not just because I agree with the title. To the extent that I wrote a blog post with the same title many years ago. 

It’s because, I think, it’s life affirming to hear from someone who really loves the artist they are writing about, and makes you feel the same about them. And at the same time, someone who has the skill to go above and beyond fangirl stuff. 

My top 10 music books

Jarvis Cocker has written about his top 10 music books for the Guardian. So I thought I'd write about mine.

Why Patti Smith is important part 2

I was right all along. In fact, I was on trend three decades ago.

So what's the next big thing? According to ‘Catriona MacNab, trendsetter’:

We're working on autumn/winter 09/10 right now. Patti Smith will be a big influence.

Why Patti Smith matters

I’ve been to see a film with the 16-year-old heroine who says her favourite musicians are the Stooges, Patti Smith and the Runaways. I would love to believe that such 16-year-olds exist. I’m not sure whether I do. But it made me think back.

It’s hard to explain to a man why Patti Smith was so important. It’s hard to explain to someone who cares about guitar solos why punk rock mattered. Maybe it didn’t matter that the Sex Pistols sang God Save the Queen in Silver Jubilee year and were banned from being number one (the past really is a different country). Maybe it didn’t matter that English people finally started making records in English accents. Maybe it didn’t matter that people were making music, and writing about music, who had never been allowed to before.