Patti Smith interview and singing at the historic Orpheum Theater

On Monday evening I went to the historic Orpheum Theater on Broadway in L.A. to an interview with Patti Smith.  She is a poet, song writer, punk rock singer, and national book award winner for "Just Kids" published about 5 years ago that chronicles her life with Robert Mapplethorpe, who both arrived in New York as late teenagers, and their adventures in survival and creativity.  Mapplethorpe asked her to write the book about their young lives the day before he died of AIDS.  She has written a new memoir about another period of her adventurous life entitled "M. Train."  She was promoting her book and the sold out theater was there to appreciate her.

She was interviewed by Jonathan Lethem, a novelist who is with Pomona College and who had interviewed her 5 years ago.  She describe writing this new book as free of responsibility and as a long rant-free flow.  This "one stream" has little subtitles to help organize it.  It was written over a two year span of time.

She describe her musical career as having no musical training and just began by performing her poetry and then fussed poetry and rock and roll.  She said the word always comes out first.  She said Fred, her deceased husband, seeped through into this book.  She described her music career as putting out four albums and then she married Fred, moved to Detroit, had kids, and then became a widow. She said you can go on YouTube and hear "You light up my life" on "Kids Are People Too" which is dedicated to Fred.

She said she measures success by "if it feels really good to you."

She then joined her guitarist and sang several songs ending with "Because the Night" with the entire audience standing and singing along.

Here are some photos from the ALOUD, L.A. Public Library web site that sponsored the evening: