Happy Birthday Patti Smith

One of Patti Smith's claims to fame was helping jump start the New York City punk scene with her early 1970s poetry readings backed by guitarist/critic Lenny Kaye.

One key early venue was Bowery dive bar CBGB & OMFUG, at the time searching for its musical identity. After Patti became a regular, a horde of then unknown--many soon to become very well known--performers followed.

My first concert experience with Patti Smith was January 16, 1976 at the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C. The venue held maybe 100 people if you crammed them elbow to elbow.

Other performers that I saw there back in the day were singer and songwriter Jackie DeShannon, electric violinist and fusion pioneer Jean Luc Ponty (an occasional collaborator with musical iconoclast Frank Zappa), Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and other names lost in the haze of time (and perhaps a few hazy substances!).

Patti's opening act was Garland Jeffreys, who was completely unknown to me at the time, but performed a powerful set that made me an instant fan.

Also there was legendary record mogul Clive Davis, at that time the former extremely powerful head of Columbia Records and founder of Arista Records. I recall him pacing back and forth during the sets.

Patti was wearing her iconic Keith Richards t-shirt and her band was crammed onto the club's notoriously small stage. My girlfriend, Marian LeBlanc, and I were seated at a tiny table very close to center stage. We had tix for the early and late shows.

Early Show
We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together, One More Cup of Coffee (Bob Dylan) (fragment), Privilege (Set Me Free), Ain’t it Strange, Kimberly, Redondo Beach, Free Money, Pale Blue Eyes/Louie Louie, Pumping (My Heart), Jolene (Dolly Parton) (fragment), Birdland, Gloria, (encore): My Generation*

Late Show
We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together, Slavery Days (Burning Spear), Privilege (Set Me Free), Ain’t it Strange, One More Cup of Coffee (fragment), Kimberly, Redondo Beach, Free Money, Pale Blue Eyes/Louie Louie, Pumping (My Heart), Jolene, Birdland, Gloria, (encore): My Generation*

Note: *Special guest John Cale.

One of the more memorable but least pleasant parts of the evening happened when we left the club to find that the battery in my Gremlin had died. This meant a long and extremely cold walk back to our apartment in Roslyn, Va., that included hiking over the Francis Scott Key bridge as a lusty wind blew down the Potomac River.