Patti Smith burst on the music scene in 1975 with her debut album Horses which fused punk, new wave and beat poetry. The album cover featured a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph, also seen in the 1975 magazine advertisement at left, which showed Smith's lanky androgynous body. Smith was a key figure in the New York 1970's art scene, performing in underground theatre productions with the noted transgender performer Jayne County and residing at the famous Chelsea Hotel with Mapplethorpe. Smith made her reputation on reformulating standard forms of spoken word poetry, theatre and street performance into her own blend of live punk rock poetry. Smith also applied this innovative spirit to her styling and outward sexuality which vacillated between asexual and powerful spokeswoman for an entire generation of women rockers.
Patti Smith
