Thank you for this. I was talking with a male collleague a few years ago about Bonnie Raitt (this was after she won a Grammy), and he actually told me that she shouldn't be performing because she was ugly (as in not pretty). I said, "you have to be kidding me." He said he wasn't, and that no women singers should be on the stage if they weren't attractive (to him) too. So ridiculous. I don't happen to think Mick Jagger is good looking (I never have), but I would never kick him off the stage for it.
Cool. I've always fallen for character, and have felt attracted by "good and ugly" since childhood. That may have something to do with my old dad's appreciation of his contemporary, movie star Fernand Contandin. Better known as Fernandel (so devoted to his wife that he was called Fernand d'elle by his mother-in-law, his looks were likened to that of a horse. As a teen I fell for my ex, an older, scientist (later rockstar) in the Netherlands, because of his rough looks, and I've felt the charisma of Mick Jagger up close in my thirties. In a way it's surprising I'm married 33+ years to quite a handsome guy.
Truth is as one of our family musicians once said “if you sound great no one really cares what you look like” maybe not entirely true but the sound is paramount.
I get great reassurance from knowing that Patti Smith published Just Kids when she was 63, and I get great reassurance from seeing how many of my undergrad creative writing students read "Just Kids" on their own, by choice. (I was their age when I discovered "Horses.") Hell, I get great reassurance from Patti Smith walking the earth. Thanks for this.
Absolutely this is right on and an apt metaphor for where we are in 2022. It's about doing the work whether we are musicians, writers, lawyers, politicians, physicians, scientists, academics or simply parents, grandparents, kids. Just "sweep the garden, any size" Poet Gary Snyder.
So much to say about Patti and about Caryn's book which is next in my TBR pile. I've loved Patti for years because of her poetry and music and because yes, she wrote the rules for women to exist in the rock music space by having no more f**ks to give long before anyone was talking about that. I remember seeing her at a sold-out show a few years ago in Ann Arbor where she received a standing ovation and she asked everyone "where were you twenty years ago when Fred and I were playing across the street to virtually no one? We lived here for ten years and you ignored me." She could be very bitter about so much, but she's not. A true philosopher. Thanks for this, Caryn. Can't wait to read your book!
Love Patti Smith so much and her extensive literary knowledge is beyond impressive especially since she reads only for herself. When she sang on Stephen Colbert recently, her voice was strong and other worldly. I can't wait for her new book either as she is a gifted writer as well. Great piece to read today, thank you.
As someone who is 62 and still working on a memoir whose contours have shifted radically a few times, and as someone who was fortunate enough to have Patti Smith as musician to serenade my very confused 20s...this all delights me. Also appreciate the author of the essay mocking the idiotic male music writers. Because any woman - and I will play the age card here and say especially any women over 55 - know this unreconstructed POV very well and have had to negotiate it even in totally unrelated fields like oh say being a theater director or a writer.. Both of which have zero relation to our bodies and yet still....Happily, Patti shows us how it's done and has the last laugh, by truly and heroically Not Giving a Fuck. And for that...she is my hero and an Oldster Icon. 🧡🎉
Thank you for this. I was talking with a male collleague a few years ago about Bonnie Raitt (this was after she won a Grammy), and he actually told me that she shouldn't be performing because she was ugly (as in not pretty). I said, "you have to be kidding me." He said he wasn't, and that no women singers should be on the stage if they weren't attractive (to him) too. So ridiculous. I don't happen to think Mick Jagger is good looking (I never have), but I would never kick him off the stage for it.
Cool. I've always fallen for character, and have felt attracted by "good and ugly" since childhood. That may have something to do with my old dad's appreciation of his contemporary, movie star Fernand Contandin. Better known as Fernandel (so devoted to his wife that he was called Fernand d'elle by his mother-in-law, his looks were likened to that of a horse. As a teen I fell for my ex, an older, scientist (later rockstar) in the Netherlands, because of his rough looks, and I've felt the charisma of Mick Jagger up close in my thirties. In a way it's surprising I'm married 33+ years to quite a handsome guy.
Truth is as one of our family musicians once said “if you sound great no one really cares what you look like” maybe not entirely true but the sound is paramount.
I get great reassurance from knowing that Patti Smith published Just Kids when she was 63, and I get great reassurance from seeing how many of my undergrad creative writing students read "Just Kids" on their own, by choice. (I was their age when I discovered "Horses.") Hell, I get great reassurance from Patti Smith walking the earth. Thanks for this.
Same!
Absolutely this is right on and an apt metaphor for where we are in 2022. It's about doing the work whether we are musicians, writers, lawyers, politicians, physicians, scientists, academics or simply parents, grandparents, kids. Just "sweep the garden, any size" Poet Gary Snyder.
So much to say about Patti and about Caryn's book which is next in my TBR pile. I've loved Patti for years because of her poetry and music and because yes, she wrote the rules for women to exist in the rock music space by having no more f**ks to give long before anyone was talking about that. I remember seeing her at a sold-out show a few years ago in Ann Arbor where she received a standing ovation and she asked everyone "where were you twenty years ago when Fred and I were playing across the street to virtually no one? We lived here for ten years and you ignored me." She could be very bitter about so much, but she's not. A true philosopher. Thanks for this, Caryn. Can't wait to read your book!
Love Patti Smith so much and her extensive literary knowledge is beyond impressive especially since she reads only for herself. When she sang on Stephen Colbert recently, her voice was strong and other worldly. I can't wait for her new book either as she is a gifted writer as well. Great piece to read today, thank you.
As someone who is 62 and still working on a memoir whose contours have shifted radically a few times, and as someone who was fortunate enough to have Patti Smith as musician to serenade my very confused 20s...this all delights me. Also appreciate the author of the essay mocking the idiotic male music writers. Because any woman - and I will play the age card here and say especially any women over 55 - know this unreconstructed POV very well and have had to negotiate it even in totally unrelated fields like oh say being a theater director or a writer.. Both of which have zero relation to our bodies and yet still....Happily, Patti shows us how it's done and has the last laugh, by truly and heroically Not Giving a Fuck. And for that...she is my hero and an Oldster Icon. 🧡🎉