Jackson Smith (musician)

Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and author whose 1975 debut album Horses elevated her as an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement of the 1970s.

Smith has fused rock and poetry in her work.

Smith was born on December 30, 1946, at Grant Hospital in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago, to Beverly Smith, a jazz singer turned waitress, and Grant Smith, a Honeywell machinist.

The family was of part Irish ancestry, and Patti was the eldest of four children, with siblings Linda, Kimberly, and Todd.

When Smith was four, the family moved from Chicago to the Germantown section of Philadelphia, then to Pitman, New Jersey, and finally settled in the Woodbury Gardens section of Deptford Township, New Jersey.

At an early age, Smith was exposed to music, including the albums Shrimp Boats by Harry Belafonte, The Money Tree by Patience and Prudence, and Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan's fourth album, released in 1964, which her mother gave her.

In 1964, Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School, and began working in a factory.

She briefly attended Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Kral was a refugee from Czechoslovakia who had moved to the U.S. in 1966 with his parents, who were both diplomats.

In 1967 Smith left Glassboro State College, and moved to Manhattan, New York City, where she met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe while working at a bookstore with friend and poet Janet Hamill.

She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with poverty and Mapplethorpe's sexuality.

Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be among the most influential and important people in her life, and referred to him as "the artist of my life" in her book Just Kids.

After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Kral decided not to return.

In 1969, Smith went to Paris with her sister, and started busking and doing performance art.

When Smith returned to Manhattan, she lived at the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe.

They frequented Max's Kansas City on Park Avenue, and Smith provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film Robert Having His Nipple Pierced, starring Mapplethorpe.

The same year, Smith appeared with Jayne County in Jackie Curtis's play Femme Fatale.

She also starred in Anthony Ingrassia's play Island.

In 1969, Smith also performed in the one-act play Cowboy Mouth, which she co-wrote with Sam Shepard.

The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".

As a member of the Poetry Project, she spent the early 1970s painting, writing, and performing.

On February 10, 1971, Smith, accompanied by Lenny Kaye on electric guitar, opening for Gerard Malanga, which was her first public poetry performance.

Smith was briefly considered as lead singer for Blue Öyster Cult.

She contributed lyrics to several Blue Öyster Cult songs, including "Debbie Denise", which was inspired by her poems "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise", "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", on which she performs duet vocals, and "Shooting Shark".

At the time, she was romantically involved Allen Lanier, Blue Öyster Cult's keyboardist.

During these years, Smith was also a rock music journalist, writing periodically for Rolling Stone and Creem.

In 1973, Smith teamed up again with musician and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later added Richard Sohl on piano.

The trio developed into a full band with the addition of Ivan Král on guitar and bass and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums.

Financed by Sam Wagstaff, the band recorded their first single, "Hey Joe/Piss Factory" in 1974.

The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece about Patty Hearst, a fugitive heiress.

The B-side describes the helpless alienation Smith felt while working on a factory assembly line and the salvation she dreams of achieving by escaping to New York City.

She wrote several poems about Shepard and her relationship with him, including "for Sam Shepard" and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)", that were published in Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class & Other Plays (1976).

In 1978, her most widely known song, "Because the Night", co-written with Bruce Springsteen, reached 13th on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and fifth on the UK Singles Chart.

Mapplethorpe's photographs of Smith were used as covers for Smith's albums, and they remained lifelong friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989.

Smith's book and album The Coral Sea is an homage to Mapplethorpe and Just Kids tells the story of their relationship.

She also wrote essays for several of Mapplethorpe's books, including his posthumous Flowers, which she authored at his request.

In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In November 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids, which fulfilled a promise she made to her former long-time partner Robert Mapplethorpe to author her autobiography.

She is ranked 47th on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, published in 2010, and was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2011.