Patti Smith is planning big things for the 40th anniversary of her seminal punk recording Horses next year, including playing the album in its entirety at various locations around the world.
The album, which had Smith's cover of "Gloria" on it (originally a song by Irish band Them, the Van Morrison-led outfit), was an influential part of New York's bustling punk scene in 1975, and Smith admits that the celebration will be well-deserved. "I think we continue to deliver all of these songs sometimes stronger than when I was young," she told Rolling Stone. "So I'm going to be happy to celebrate it, to perform the album with happiness, not with any kind of cynicism or a cashing-in thing. It will be a true, proud celebration."
Smith still plays with guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both of whom contributed to Horses. "If my pianist [Richard Sohl] hadn't died young, he would be right with us," she said. "My son and daughter often play with me."
Aside from planning for the 40th anniversary celebrations of her debut, Smith is finishing up her next book, the follow-up to 2010's critically acclaimed Just Kids. The finished draft is actually due Friday (Oct. 10), Smith said.
"I wanted to write a contemporary book or just write whatever I felt like writing about, and it's things going from literature to coffee to memories of Fred [Smith, Patti's deceased husband] in Michigan," she said about the new book. "It's whatever I felt. I hopped on a train and kept going."
Smith played Riot Fest last month and, as Huffington Post notes, she showed that her rebellious spirit is as fiery as ever. "We do have the power!" she said after a performance of "People Have the Power." "Our governments, our corporations would like us to feel defeated, but we have it with our numbers if we use it. Don't forget it!"
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