book data
74 ratings,
4.23
average rating, 10 reviews
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published
November 1979
by Berkley Pub Group
(first published 1978)
details
Mass Market Paperback
isbn
0425042308
(isbn13: 9780425042304)
find at:
Amazon • WorldCat • more options…
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avg 4.23
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in April, 2004
recommends it for:
rimbaugh, new-york-scene punk historians
Upon finding this book tucked away in a dusty antique store a few years ago, it was like striking gold. A first edition, out of print, collection of Patti Smith's poetical works. I devoured neo boy the son of a neck rilke and the pseudo epic munich, but was unsatisfied by the overall collection. At least, initially.
After three years I picked Babel up again and began to appreciate her written work. I was unsatisfied initially by the way her words laid lifelessly on the pages, but this...more
After three years I picked Babel up again and began to appreciate her written work. I was unsatisfied initially by the way her words laid lifelessly on the pages, but this...more
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I checked out this book because lately I've been really obsessed with Patti Smith. It's practically cliche to say so at this point, but her music really does capture a certain NYC feeling in a way nobody else does. And of course, her lyrics are often really great. Lately, I've been really into the lyrics of her song, "Piss Factory," which was originally a poem and one of the first she read after she moved here. It's really long so I won't post it here and it definitely has a lot of fla...more
Read this book when it came out. I carried this around with me all the time it seems. I remember it being beautiful, magical prose/poetry. I was a huge patti fan at the time, and have still not totally deserted her music. horses is brilliant rock overflowing with poetic entergy, which overflows into this, book. I really should get this off the shelf and re-read it to see if it holds up.
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Read in January, 1978
recommends it for:
Patti Smith fans
This is a kooky book of poetry by Patti Lee Smith, embellished with family photos, drawings, and at least one Robert Mapplethorpe picture that I think I recognize. Stream of consciousness is probably the best way to describe most of her poetry. This book is of interest to fans of her music, particularly because of the many references to ideas that became song lyrics. I don't think everything she does is art, and sometimes I lose patience with her, but I admire Smith for her unabashed enthusia...more
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Read in September, 2000
Rimbaud she's not, and she's got that penchant for writing just about exclusively in lowercase (although at the time she was writing it might have been more of an innovation; readers coming to it now, though, might find it just a bit affected). Still, there is a rock and roll edginess to it, and some fun neologisms, like "radiopium." Something to read if you are looking for something in the line of Baudelaire or Burroughs or Acker.
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Owns a copy
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Read in January, 2010
P is a wordplay artist. This doesn't come across so much in her music. There's only enough room(s) for art every place.
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Read in November, 2008
recommended to Gusmenary by:
David Puskivech- the somewhat hard nosed stage administrator at recommends it for: anyone who likes poetry, warrior womyn, Sam Shepherd devotees
There's something strangely magical and wreckless about Patti Smith's writings. An eclectic grouping of phrases and themes from space to a kind of sandherin/arabia/morroco type feel- with the brazen indecency of her music. It's lyrical, beautiful and sad. I highly reccomend it.
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nice. especially nice if you like her music. the images are a little punk-dated now perhaps, but fun.
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the freedom i live for. if more people were like patti smith..god..it'd be good.
"Everything comes down so pasteurized
everything comes down 16 degrees
they say your amplifier is too loud
turn your amplifier down
are we high all alone on our knees
memory is just hips that swing
like a clock
the past projects fantastic scenes
tic/toc tic/toc tic/toc
fuck the clock!" —
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