HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTI SMITH!
Like some heroine, you remain strong and defiant. You honestly believe that Rock and Roll can change the world for the better; it takes more than flashing peace signs and crowing useless platitudes to achieve unity. Like a nurturing matriarch, you give solace and comfort to the Rock and Roll Niggers of the world. You assure us that we can move forward, but only when we continue to take on an establishment of entertainment corporations and wanna-be impresarios who exploit the vulnerable. Outside of society is where you'll find me, with artists, poets and madmen; the brilliant, broken disenfranchised who shred their souls to bring beauty and substance to the world, yet remain vilified as abnormal, indigent, unpleasant eccentrics...
Patti, you've taught me that if our songs are our children, as so many have said, then I must
defend them with the ferocity of Ursula, the mother bear. You've taught me that art is the truncheon with which we will smash the state. You've taught me that tilting at a few windmills is not as futile as it would seem. Most importantly, you've reminded me that art, music, Rock and Roll is indeed a noble vocation, that suffering for art is not a cliche`, and when music and art can teach true understanding, compassion and acceptance, only then will it change the world.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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