When punk godmother Patti Smith was asked about modern music, she gave a two-pronged reply.
“Well, I think for the current state of rock and roll, we have two states,” she said. “Obviously, the state of the music business is in shambles. But that’s an entirely different subject. The state of the people, I think, is fine.”
Smith, of course, was one of the artists who brought music back to the people in the 1970s, helping rescue it from arguably its most self-indulgent era.
Her views and influence are examined in the new documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life. It premieres Wednesday, Dec. 30 (coincidentally, Smith’s 63rd birthday) on most PBS affiliates as part of the P.O.V. series.
Shot over 11 years by renowned fashion photographer Steven Sebring, Patti Smith: Dream of Life is an intimate portrait of the legendary rocker. It features rare performance clips and is narrated by Smith herself.
So why exactly did this sucker take 11 years to make?
“Filmmaking is expensive, and I didn’t plan it to be a film on a movie screen, really,” Sebring said. “I was just gathering and documenting footage of her, just getting to know Patti. And one day we got a call, eight or nine years (into the process).”
Despite her public reputation in the ’70s as something of a wild woman — remember Gilda Radner’s comic knockoff, Candy Slice? — Smith’s roots are in poetry and she is thoroughly thoughtful.
“I think we’re in a very democratic era of rock ’n’ roll,” said Smith, getting back to the present state of things.
“It’s not an era of the rock gods. You don’t have Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Grace Slick. There isn’t really the pantheon of gods and goddesses that we had in my time.
“But we have something equally as interesting, and I think rock ’n’ roll is really more than ever the people’s cultural voice.”
Certainly the way music gets transmitted has changed dramatically since Smith’s heyday.
“You go on different websites and there’s thousands and thousands and thousands of people making their own music, expressing themselves, exchanging files, and deciding how they want to hear music, how they want to distribute music,” Smith said. “Everything is changing, and I think that’s fine.
“Rock ’n’ roll was a revolutionary cultural voice that was people-based, and I think the people have taken it over.”
Even Smith finds herself going to YouTube from time to time, but she isn’t looking for what you might think.
“I’m a real opera (freak),” Smith said. “I go to YouTube and watch Glenn Gould.
“My son and daughter taught me that. You can find really great footage of Glenn Gould playing, or Maria Callas. I’m more opera and classical bent, myself.”
It’s Smith’s well-rounded approach to just about everything that makes Dream of Life so compelling.
“People will say to me (these days), ‘Didn’t you used to be Patti Smith?’ ” Smith said. “Or they’ll say, ‘What happened to your hair?’
“And I say, ‘Well, it turned 62.’”
