Early Work 1970-1979

By Patti Smith

Book Overview

Collected here are selections from Patti Smith's writings over the decade in which she made a lasting impact on America's underground literary and rock scene. Smith's work evokes the experimentation and the desire to break boundaries of those pre-punk days. Over one-quarter of the works selected are unpublished pieces from journals, performances, and Smith's personal papers. Heavily illustrated with photographs by Judy Linn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Edward Maxey, and others, Early Work brings together all sides of Patti Smith, from the thoughtful intellectual to the explosive performer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393313018
• ISBN13: 9780393313017
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Few have crafted modern mythology so well...

EARLY WORK is an ideal intro to Patti Smith the writer, and - if you're already a fan of the music - it's an essential companion. Compiling material that appeared in earlier chapbooks and the BABEL collection from 1978, the selection of poems and prose-poems appearing here dive farther into the varied personas and philosophies suggested on her many engaging recordings. Here we have Patti the priestess, Patti the punk generalissimo, Patti the diva, Patti the provocateur... Most provocatively, I will always love her splintering of sexual roles - ostensibly within the context of her rock world (posing like Keith Richards, the diva-as-cock-rocker), but with implicit greater applications as well. And her conflicted spirituality comes through quite eloquently. EARLY WORK presents some of the key work of New York's grass-roots artistic comeback. Not to be missed. -David Alston

I love Patti, but...

Regarding this book, my main gripe with Patti is that she edited some of the poems from Seventh Heaven so that they're missing the lesbian erotic content. This change seems both deceptive and cowardly, and I think Patti needs to have her [...] kicked for it.

Patti, at her most mythic and provocative

Patti's fans (and foes) will find plenty of ammunition in this collection of lyrics and poetry from the 1970s. From the earliest, it is obvious that Patti's a romantic mythmaker at heart, with syntax and meaning almost losing out to the sheer power and rhythm of the word. It's difficult to read her lyrics without hearing the rock'n'roll that carried them aloft. Patti's subject matter on the earliest albums -- art, drugs, and mysticism in full romantic swoon -- she delivered with nearly Biblical passion. Her lyric styles and confessional soul-searching owe a debt to Jim Morrison, which Patti has always acknowledged, and the power of Patti's words (like Morrison's) is often in their performance and not on the printed page. Her fans will appreciate having a written record of Patti's earliest lyrics, but the simply curious may not be converted.

PATTI "THE DIVA OF PUNK"

FINE PIECE OF WORK. NICE PHOTOS,AND ALL. ANYTHING RELATED TO PATTI IS A TRUE PLEASURED ART PIECE. THE WORLD WAS GIVEN A GIFTWHEN PATTI SMITH ERRECTED INTO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. GREAT BOOK TO GET TO LEARN ABOUT THE WOMAN OF PUNK AND POETRY.WAY TO GO PATTI.

Early Work: 1970-1979 By Patti Smith

Excellent compilation of the early stuff that would be hard to get now. I also have the "originals" small chap books containing most of the same works. It is great to have it all together on one book. Not for everyone, but for those who "know" her this is a "must" to add to your collection. Reading this work is highly inspirational to poets like myself. Those who are new to her works and those who are wanting to really "know" Patti should read this book of her early stuff. I have followed her since the ealy 1970's. A true Patti fan will not be disappointed. Buy this book !