A Grand Funky Lady

“There is so much to talk about and think about, also remember to be happy, remember joy because there is so much strife around us, things that make us confused and things that go bad. We have to maintain our enthusiasm for life, helping people each other. Remember joy. This song is for you”

These were Patti Smith’s words on introducing her song “People have the power” to an audience in Stockholm for a Nobel prize ceremony. She has performed it with U2 in Paris. It’s a long video. Patti enters the stage half way through.

She’s singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet. Just Kids was her first book. She performed spoken poetry on “I Wake Up Screaming” from Ray Manzarek‘s The Whole Thing Started with Rock & Roll Now It’s Out of Control album.

What is remarkable is that the now 74 year old obviously has an enthusiasm for life. Born in Chicago she was exposed to music at an early age and raised as a Jehovahs Witness. Later she moved to New York where she married Roger Mapplethorpe a photographer of erotic art who died of HIV/Aids at 42.

In 2019, Smith performed her anthem “People Have the Power” with Stewart Copeland and Choir! Choir! Choir! at Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming, co-presented by The Public Theatre and Onassis USA. Later that year she released her latest book, Year of the Monkey. “A captivating, redemptive chronicle of a year in which Smith looked intently into the abyss”, stated Kirkus Reviews.(Wikipedia). This is a copy of that performance where the lyrics are clearer.

Folks the full lyrics are added here for those interested. Poetry fused into music.

“I was dreaming in my dreaming Of an aspect bright and fair And my sleeping it was broken But my dream it lingered near In the form of shining valleys Where the pure air recognized And my senses newly opened I awakened to the cry That the people have the power To redeem the work of fools Upon the meek the graces shower It’s decreed the people ruleThe people have the power The people have the power The people have the power The people have the powerVengeful aspects became suspect And bending low as if to hear And the armies ceased advancing Because the people had their ear And the shepherds and the soldiers Lay beneath the stars Exchanging visions And laying arms To waste in the dust In the form of shining valleys Where the pure air recognized And my senses newly opened I awakened to the cryThe people have the power The people have the power The people have the power The people have the powerWhere there were deserts I saw fountains Like cream the waters rise And we strolled there together With none to laugh or criticize And the leopard And the lamb Lay together truly bound I was hoping in my hoping To recall what I had found I was dreaming in my dreaming God knows a purer view As I surrender to my sleeping I commit my dream to youThe people have the power The people have the power The people have the power The people have the powerThe power to dream, to rule To wrestle the world from fools It’s decreed the people rule It’s decreed the people rule Listen I believe everything we dream Can come to pass through our union We can turn the world around We can turn the earth’s revolution We have the power People have the powerThe people have the power The people have the powerThe power to dream, to rule To wrestle the world from fools It’s decreed the people rule It’s decreed the people rule We have the power People have the power We have the power”.