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Books

Patti Smith grows old too gracefully

According to her memoir M Train, the high priestess of punk now lives a quiet life, watching ITV3 and feeding the cat

14 November 2015

9:00 AM

14 November 2015

9:00 AM

Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970–2015 Patti Smith

Bloomsbury, pp.320, £20, ISBN: 9781408863008

M Train Patti Smith

Bloomsbury, pp.272, £18.99, ISBN: 9781408867686

‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins/ but not mine’: the opening lines of Patti Smith’s 1975 debut album, Horses, find a young woman marking her territory with fierce conviction. Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, she was (or was treated as) an invalid for much of her New Jersey childhood. The restrictions were physical and spiritual.

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