Patti Smith: So You Want to be a Rock'n'Roll Star (1979)

 |   |  <1 min read

Patti Smith: So You Want to be a Rock'n'Roll Star (1979)

Although the Byrds' 1967 original of this much covered rock classic has a significant sarcasm to it, the lyrical bite was ameliorated by the Byrds' close harmony and airy delivery, and the patched-in screams which added a sense of excitement.

By this time the Byrds had tuned in and turned on, and they were a little older than the stars coming up through the pages of Seventeen magazine so had some cynicism about pop and rock'n'roll stardom.

Patti Smith's version was on her album Wave -- and is now included on her Outside Society 18 song compilation, her first such collection of hits and favourites -- and has a more obviously bitter sneer.

In the liner notes she says it was recorded at Woodstock during a snow storm.

"The improvisation accesses the empowerment rock and roll affords the artists as well as the toll it can exact. It relates specifically to the violent attack by an emotionally torn Sid Vicious on my brother Todd with a broken bottle in a New York nightclub.

"Both of them are now deceased, but they are embedded, like strange brothers, within our performance."

For more on-offs or songs with an interesting back-story see From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

The Beatnix: Stairway to Heaven (date unknown)

The Beatnix: Stairway to Heaven (date unknown)

There are any number of bands who can convincingly replicate the look, sound and songs of Beatles (our money always goes to excellent Bootleg Beatles). But Australia's Beatnix took a different... > Read more

Bobby Rydell: Ghost Surfin' (c 1964)

Bobby Rydell: Ghost Surfin' (c 1964)

The cover of this British album from '64 gives the title as "Bobby Rydell Sings" . . . but the most interesting two tracks are where he doesn't. Rydell was one of those lightweight US... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE WHO, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT DVD REVIEWED (2004)

THE WHO, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT DVD REVIEWED (2004)

The first clip on the exceptional Who bio-doco The Kids Are Alright captures the band at their unpredictable best. It is late '67 and they are being interviewed on the US television show The... > Read more

Howard Devoto of Magazine: The floorboards creak . . .

Howard Devoto of Magazine: The floorboards creak . . .

Back at the dawn of time -- for two periods in 1980 and 1981 to be precise -- I had a programme on Radio Pacific on Saturday evening, sandwiched between the Rugger Buggers sports show and, of all... > Read more