Patti, you've got to love her. She's either wonderful and sublime, or she falls flat on her face. Think about Radio Ethiopia, gems like Pissin in a river, combined with the incredibly self indulgent title cut. This book is a bit like that, all over the lot. Her poetry, however, sounds a lot better coming from her mouth than on the printed page. What we need from Patti is a live album, taken from her glory days. It would be one of the greatest ever, better than the new Clash live album.

Excellent compilation of the early stuff that would be hard to get now. I also have the "originals" small chap books containing most of the same works. It is great to have it all together on one book. Not for everyone, but for those who "know" her this is a "must" to add to your collection. Reading this work is highly inspirational to poets like myself. Those who are new to her works and those who are wanting to really "know" Patti should read this book of her early stuff. I have followed her since the ealy 1970's. A true Patti fan will not be disappointed. Buy this book !

FINE PIECE OF WORK. NICE PHOTOS,AND ALL. ANYTHING RELATED TO
PATTI IS A TRUE PLEASURED ART PIECE. THE WORLD WAS GIVEN A GIFT
WHEN PATTI SMITH ERRECTED INTO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.
GREAT BOOK TO GET TO LEARN ABOUT THE WOMAN OF PUNK AND POETRY.
WAY TO GO PATTI.

This book includes not just black and white photographs shot by Michael Stipe while on the road with Patti Smith, but also many polaroid photos taken by Patti Smith's guitarist Oliver Ray. Oliver Ray's photographs are designated by a little "O" near his photos.

While Stipe certainly has some real gems here, he doesn't demonstrate complete mastery over his camera equipment, which to my knowledge was a Leica M6. Many of the images here are blurry and/or out of focus. But that is ok, it evokes a certain frantic 'on the road touring with a rock band' style.

Oliver Ray's Polaroids are on the other hand, wonderful. Taken with a cheap Polaroid Land Camera 100 (circa 1960s) using instant Polaroid 667 black and white 'peel-apart' film (which is still sold), Ray achieves stunning results especially when you understand the' limited featured' camera he worked with. This book is an interesting study for anyone who is as fond of Polaroid photography as I am.

If you are an R.E.M. and Michael Stipe fan, or a Patti Smith fan, then of course you will enjoy this book. However if you are seeking true pristine photographic works of art, look elsewhere. Most of these images evoke a more 'grunge' (for lack of a better word) feel. There is some great prose by Stipe, Ray, and many others including Patti Smith. And, there are many famous people depicted including the likes of Allen Ginsberg.

One note about my copy of the book-after just one reading, the binding fell apart and the first quarter of the book fell apart into separate pages from the book. This was very dissappointing and should not have happend under normal reading...

Michael Stipe should be commended on this great book of photography being on the road with Patti Smith. What I find truly wonderful is his love and admiration of his dear friend Patti Smith. I am truly moved by this work. I am a fan of both Smith and Stipe. I too like Stipe have been blessed and inspired by Smith's poetry and music. The words included in the book are worth reading. The photos are terrific and presented in an artistic way. It allows the reader (or viewer) to see what is special about Patti Smith, her band, and friends in ways not seen before. It is a great addition for fans of both Patti Smith and REM.

I don't understand all the fuss being made about Michael Stipe's photography in this compelling book. How else would one go about capturing the dervish that is Patti Smith than by being a little out of focus? The images compliment perfectly her body of work, and her DIY aesthetic. As an artist who has picked up Smith's torch, Stipe has created a lovely valentine to her, and he has documented forever her "very big deal" tour with Bob Dylan. Thank Heaven we still have artists still humble enough to give credit where credit is due. This is a very nice addition to any Smith or Stipe collection......

As with many unauthorized biographies, Nick Johnstone's study of Patti Smith suffers from his lack of access to many of the key figures in her career. Instead, Johnstone attempts to make-do with a host of admiring, but often unconnnected, individuals who offer little beyond their worship and negligible opinions.

That said, Johnstone's book does concentrate information from a variety of largely available sources into a single volume and serves as a passable reference with regard to many key events in Smith's maturation and career. His interpretations of the meaning of lyrics, the choices for cover art, and other "insights", however, are often painful to wade through. Typos, misspellings (Jimmy "Lovine"), and factual errors (who brought "Because the Night" to whom?) are often a distraction and cause one to question the veracity of other "facts" presented. These errors are now more obvious when this work is compared to Patti's own Complete. Nonetheless, Complete does not attempt to approach the detail of this volume, so Johnstone's work will stand until an autobiography or authorized biography comes along.

I confess that when I first browsed through this book over a year ago, I really didn't like it. It seemed like quite a hostile work, and I put down a lot of the apparent bias to Bockris also being Deborah Harry's biographer and the Smith-Harry relationship, such as it ever was, being one of oil and water. However. On rereading, this book doesn't look as bad as all that. Smith won't enjoy reading it, but it certainly does not trash her--the clips and quotes from her most demented phases are kept to a minimum and the balance of what people have to say about her to this biographer is respectful, if somewhat baffled. There is a great deal of overlap between this treatment of Smith and Patricia Morrissey's far more detailed and professional biography of Robert Mapplethorpe, the Diego Rivera to Smith's Frida Kahlo. If one reads it as a supplement to that book, rounding out the picture of Smith as professional acquaintances and non-intimate friends saw her, the result is reasonably consistent. This in itself is an achievement. Bockris does not exactly get inside Smith's head, but that may be an impossibility for anyone other than Smith; she comes across as a powerful but fragmented personality. And this may be the mark of the born performer, the man or the woman with a sixth sense for their effect on others but little cohesive sense of self in private, giving them the talent for battening onto any symbols that project (and supply) their personal subjectivity, and fueling the combination of selflessness and narcissism that allows a person to take the blows on the path to fame. Smith's peculiar genius--the word is not too strong--is that of a long line of American artists who have been able to take this aspect of their personalities and use it to mirror the intense ambition, puritanism, fragmentation, and self-consciousness that typify the American character. She may have been obsessed with foreign influences--what American isn't?--but her unique talent was to be in some measure conscious of the source of this obsession, and use it, at her best, actually to find and channel links between the dementia of all nations and an indigenous spiritual lineage going back to John Brown at least. And as a working-class hero from the Rust Belt, her obsession with transcendence parallels that of a country whose greatest appeal and danger lies in the promise it holds out of being able to transcend one's origins--not to rise above them, but to bring them to a higher level, through a combination of courage, vision, and Napoleonic megalomania. Patti Smith remains dangerous long after punk has ceased to be; she remains dangerous because America does.

The trouble is that Smith's fans already know all this, and consequently there is only limited interest in hearing one more anecdote about the artist's eccentricities or one more piece of speculation about how she got that way. This book is not really a biography in the usual sense. It amounts to a superior compilation of stories and press clippings, most of which are not salacious (Smith always wanted you to believe she was bigger and badder than she was). But in the absence of the context provided by testimony from family members and others who know Smith best, and who naturally are not talking, the one or two pieces of interesting information sound like a tease and take on a pejorative quality. This effect can be observed in the little that we get to know about Fred Smith, Patti's late husband and, after Mapplethorpe, the biggest influence on her life and work. There is no doubt that his American populist aesthetic harmonized with hers, and may have rescued her from the manic "Radio Ethiopia" kitsch into which she was disappearing at the time of a near-fatal accident (she danced off a stage) that temporarily stymied her career. But depending on who you talk to, Fred Smith was either a kind and considerate husband, or a creep who stopped his wife's career, crushed her spirit, may have belted Patti around. The anecdotes to either effect are just that, anecdotes, and do not transcend the feeling of being breaches of privacy. And what does anyone mean by charging that the two albums Patti cut in the wake of his death are "careerist" or "professional mourning," just because he may not always have been good for her and she still misses him deeply? Sheesh.

The true biography of Patti Smith remains to be written. As for most important artists, it may need to wait till she is gone: Smith guards her privacy closely and there's no reason why she shouldn't. But by all means, read this one: it will take you back. And the pictures are good.

I just finished this book & I have mixed feelings about it.

The book is based on interviews that Smith and others have given over the years--it is not so much a biography as a pastiche. While I had the feeling that Bockris tried to maintain a fair account of Smith's life, I often felt that there was too much conjecture by the authors & by people who claim to have known Smith.

It is an interesting note that he wrote Blondie's biography as well. Pattie Smith & Blondie are not on good terms and never have been. According to Bockris, this is Pattie's fault & Blondie has done her best to ignore Pattie's hostility--true? Who knows?

I also wonder about Bockris/Bayley's account of Pattie's marriage to Fred. I had always heard that it was a happy one, based on mutual love & respect for each other & their art--this book claims that Fred was a drunk and suggests that he may have even been phyiscally abusive?

The authors also spend a lot of time on Pattie's physical appearance, partiucularly during the time of her comeback--by suggesting that she looked old & haggard, the authors claim that this is evidence of her unhappy life with Fred & her kids. Seems a bit fishy to me, although the idea came from Wayne Kramer and others.

I do not regret reading this book as there are many interviews quoted directly--those interviews provide some insight into Smith's music & philosophy, even if she does sound like she is on acid at times.

Also, I thought the descriptions of her concerts and onstage antics were accurate--I actually saw Pattie perform in Atlanta a couple of years ago (just before Bob Dylan, ironically enough, with whom Smith has had a long & productive friendship)& her concert was the one of the closest things to a religous experience I have ever had. She left the crowd in awe--some teenage girls in front of me didn't know who she was & we ended up having a nice conversation about her. Pattie is still reaching people after all these years--which is why people want to read about her.

I see that most of these people hate this book. I admit it has its faults. Lots of 'em. The cover is supremely nasty. Not really because Patti has her hands stuck down her pants. The authors manage to mention themselves enough to slightly annoy the reader, and Victor even put a picture of himself in it (of course Patti's in the picture, too, but you get the feeling there were LOTS more photos to choose from, and he just put that one in there to feel all special). More than a few times, we get bombarded with images of Patti enjoying carnal pleasures -by herself. I'm not easily offended, but it was just unnecessary. All of that other stuff already mentioned, it's informative, and it's really the only Patti Smith bio out there. All in all, an okay read. Plus, you can't beat the price- I just happened to see it in a store and was able to buy it with scrounged-up pocket money.