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.
Wow, some people's best years are behind them. And some people never had any 'best years.' ;-)
"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."
Speaking of cultures...
I love how people who got rich in show business have such a pithy way of expressing their view of the world. If class warfare actually broke out, and the poor decided to actually loot the wealthy instead of destroying small businesses operated by people who work for a living, the entertainment industry a**h*l*s would be begging for federal troops to protect Long Island, Cape Cod, Martha's Vinyard, and the like.
She looks like my Swiffer.
Eeeeeewwwwwwww, that is some nasty picture! My cat used to kill better looking things than that!
Has she done anything since "The Warrior?"
Is she still alive?
I wish the world was run by pharmaceutical companies. I would've retired a rich man 6 years ago. As it is, we haven't made money since 1991.
Whoops. In that case, I never heard of Patti Smith.
I remember reading a story in the late 70's how Ted Nugent placed dozens of GONZO bumper stickers on her tour bus. I thought that was exteremly funny!
"Candy Slice" get's up off the floor long enough to spout nonsense.
LOL... Gilda Radner's portrayal still provides a good laugh!
Wow, patti smith! I remember that name. A punk rocker from the 70's who used to screech like yoko ono. Talk about a trivia question.
Patti who?
In the 1970s she appeared on SNL, but not from the studio, from CBGB's, a club that was punk HQ for some bands (Tuff Darts, Talking Heads, etc) back when you and I were in colleges. :') Anyway, she charted with a Bruce Springsteen composition, "Because the Night", then married someone ex- of the MC5, who later died. Before she appeared in the music scene, she lived with various artists in NYC for a while, reaching back into the 1960s. One of her own tunes from her musical period was "Rock and Roll N*****."
Looks like "Rock and Roll N*****" was later recorded by another reprehensivo, Marilyn Manson.
I have and have the album. Great soundtrack.
Hey!
*You* must be the other person that was sitting in the theater....:))
I still have the soundtrack on vinyl.
One of these days I'm gonna convert it to CD.
Uck!
The *do* make refills for those ya know and considering, I'd say yours must be overdue about now...;))
That's what I've been saying for almost 20 years. It has a bunch of great music on it. I went to make sure I still have it and it's a 2 album set.
Please tell me that pic has been photoshopped.
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