Already what one might call “New York Famous” in 1971, a young Patti Smith turned down more offers from publishers, directors, and producers in that year alone than most people could dream of entertaining in a lifetime. Stricken with remorse and confusion in the wake of Jim Morrison’s death, Patti made a pilgrimage to Paris in July of 1972. The trip and her revelations at his gravesite during a torrential downpour brought about a radical change in her poetry. Upon returning to the arms of Robert Mapplethorpe and her adopted home of New York City, biographer Dave Thompson notes, “She wrote as she thought… having determined that her thought processes themselves were worth preserving…” It was then, Thompson believes, that Patti abandoned her old heroes and began to look within for inspiration. For the remainder of her career, indeed to this very day, it would be all she ever needed.
Dancing Barefoot recalls many events that may already be familiar to fans of Smith’s career and readers of NYC music history. But the author does bring a deeper insight to the artist’s motivations and a great deal of much-needed perspective on the era in which she blossomed. Thompson brings Patti’s machinations into greater focus by detailing the context of her surroundings, the music industry of the 1970s, and the burgeoning women’s movement therein which found a prominent place for Patti in its hierarchy that, to her credit, she herself never actively pursued.
Dancing Barefoot will broaden the understanding of even the most ardent Patti Smith fans. Revelations about the size of the audience for Patti’s first reading in London make a good case in point. Mythologized over the years to such an extent that the decidedly small turn-out of a mere 15 attendees has swelled over the years with repeated retellings to a crowd ten times that size, her debut U.K. appearance was still considered a major victory for a young poet who’d only just seen the publication of her first collection of writings.
It is curious to observe how her reputation and status grew in New York City during those early years, while her exploits attained no measurable amount of fame for her outside the city. No doubt her inspiration was genuine, and her poetry powerful stuff. From the moment she made her landmark appearance at a reading in St. Mark’s Church in the East Village with guitarist Lenny Kaye at her side for the first time, it was only a matter of time before New York City would be forced to relinquish their shy but towering artist-in-residence to the international fame that would soon be hers.
