Dec. 30: the "Godmother of Punk," singer and poet, Patti Smith is 64 today.

Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago in 1946. She became an iconic singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, and a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Unconventional to say the least, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since early Bob Dylan.

Her work has been a fusion of rock and poetry. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night," which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids.

 

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In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with a friend, poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as they dealt with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality.

Photo by Robert Mapplethorpe

Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be one of the most important people in her life, and in her book Just Kids refers to him as "the artist of my life." Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group LPs, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989.

In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to New York City, she provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film Robert Having His Nipple Pierced, starring Mapplethorpe. The same year Smith appeared in Jackie Curtis' play Femme Fatale.

As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 70's painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in Cowboy Mouth, a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard.

Smith was briefly considered for the lead singer position in Blue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several of the band's songs, including "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." She was romantically involved at the time with the band's keyboardist Allen Lanier. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in Rolling Stone and Creem.

 

 

On March 12, 2007, Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Van Halen, the Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and R.E.M. She released an album of typically eclectic covers, Twelve, that same year.

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Dec. 30: Bo Diddley - bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp - was born on this date in 1928...

... he died on June 2, 2008.

Born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi, Bo Diddley was known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock & roll.  Diddley originated insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound to music.

He influenced a host of legendary acts including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Clash,The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton; and the list goes on and on...

 

Bo Diddley only had a few hits in the 1950s and early '60s, but he produced greater and more influential music than all but a handful of the best early rockers. The Bo Diddley beat - bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp - is one of rock & roll's bedrock rhythms. His vibrating, fuzzy guitar style did much to bring the electric guitar into prominence.

Before taking up blues and R&B, Diddley had actually studied classical violin, but switched after hearing John Lee Hooker. In the early '50s, he began playing with his longtime partner, maraca player Jerome Green, to get what Bo's called "that freight train sound."

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Billy Boy Arnold, a well-known blues harmonica player and singer,  was also performing with Diddley when the guitarist got a recording contract with Chess in the mid-'50s.  His first single, "Bo Diddley"/"I'm a Man" in 1955, featured futuristic waves of tremolo guitar, set to an ageless nursery rhyme. The "B" side was a bump-and-grind, harmonica-driven shuffle, based around a blues riff. The result was a new kind of guitar-based rock & roll, soaked in the blues and R&B.

 

Diddley was never a top seller like his label-mate Chuck Berry, but over the next few years, he'd produce a catalog of classics that rival Berry's in quality. "You Don't Love Me," "Diddley Daddy," "Pretty Thing," "Diddy Wah Diddy," "Who Do You Love?," "Mona," "Road Runner" and "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover."

On stage, Diddley was charismatic, with his square guitars and distorted amplification to produce novel sounds.  In Great Britain, he was revered as a giant on the order of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. The Rolling Stones borrowed a lot from Bo's rhythms and attitude in their early days. Other British R&B groups like the Yardbirds and Animals covered Diddley standards in their early days.

 

In the U.S., Buddy Holly covered "Bo Diddley" and used a modified Bo Diddley beat on "Not Fade Away"; when the Stones gave the song the full-on Bo, giving them their first big hit record.  

After 1963, he never wrote or recorded a record that matched his early standards.

Bo Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was known in particular for his technical innovations, including his trademark rectangular guitar.

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