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.
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.
Jun 6, 2022·edited Jun 6, 2022Liked by Sari Botton
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.