Posted on 09/01/2005 4:13:47 PM PDT by Kaslin
U.S. singer and musician Patti Smith attacked business and President George W. Bush at a press event in St. Petersburg on Thursday, where she received an excited response from the local journalists and fans.
“The world right now is really f***ed up,” she said addressing the 100-strong crowd that gathered at the “505” record shop on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa.
“The world right now is being run by a**holes like George Bush and pharmaceutical companies, these greedy people who don’t care about the environment, who don’t really understand the poor, who don’t understand other cultures. We are the underground and we have to get strong, because the world is being run by business.”
Smith performs at the Music Hall on Friday.
Boldly, Smith turned the press conference into something less formal; she never took her seat or used a microphone, standing up, speaking loud. She also took an acoustic guitar and gave an emotional performance of “In My Blakean Year” from the 2004 album “Trampin’,” her most recent.
“People Have the Power,” proclaimed Smith, 58, during a brief link-up with Radio ROKS, a local station. She wore a CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) badge and a small pin representing Commandeur of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s highest cultural decoration, that she received from the French Ministry of Culture in July.
According to Smith, who helped to change rock music as a punk singer and poet in the 1970s, major record companies are doomed to die out.
“They have been greedy and they will crumble, and I think that the independent industry is the only thing that will live,” Smith said.
“Now with today’s technology, young people don’t even need record companies. They can gather some money, make their own CDs, they can share them, they can download them. To me that’s fine,” Smith added.
“Rock and roll is not a business, it’s a voice that we can use politically, artistically, poetically. ... And hopefully new young people will infuse new blood into that idea. That’s what my band was trying to do,” Smith said.
Mustached ladies are always grumpy.
These people and their religion, Environmentalism, are the problem.
"A bout with scarlet fever at age 7 left her with recurring hallucinations."
Well, that explains a lot, but I'm not sure it was the scarlet fever that gave her hallucinations; probably it was more like the acid, LSD, and other drugs she did starting in the 60s and, apparently, continuing to today.
Yup, that's the cover of her Horses LP, from 1975 or so.
She used to be good on stage ..But who cares what she thinks about politics .She dosen't have a clue. Saw her last year by the way ..All but fell asleep standing up by the 4th song .
HAS BEEN !!!
And we care what she thinks because???
St. Petersburg, RUSSIA.
Wow.
Islam would be a good match for her. They are the most disorganized religions ever. And, bonus, they'll cover up that ugly hag mug with one of those one-man tents they make the ladies wear. Win-win situation!
Ok, I care about her opinions because . . . . . . ???
Never heard of her and couldn't care less.
I like the original and the Keel cover. The 10,000 Maniacs version was awful, elevator-music stuff.
Never a hippie, really, but one of the first punks: Patti Smith.
Pat Benatar sang "We Belong to the Night"
And Patty Smyth sang "Goodbye To You"
Your lesson for today in chick singers circa 1980.
Another aging hippy heard from. Patti, why the Hell should we care what you think?
But does Helen Thomas shave her armpits?
couldnt and don't WANT to be able to tell ya LOL
I honestly had never in my life heard of Patti Smith until your post.
Yuck!
E tu Patti?
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