Fanspot
One Fifth Avenue
“To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It’s freedom.”
Patti Smith
1967. Patti Smith arrives in the Big Apple. Broke, she held various jobs before meeting by chance the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Together, the two artists inspire each other, draw and discuss. After a brief stay in Paris, during which she played in the street to earn a few coins, she found Mapplethorpe in New York on Delancey Street. The couple moved and ended up staying at the Chelsea Hotel.
One thing led to another and she crossed paths with guitarist Lenny Kaye, with whom she formed the Patti Smith Group. Robert Mapplethorpe finances the first single, a cover of Hey Joe that the musician has totally appropriated. Then it’s the turn of the first album, Horses, to be released. Recorded at the Electric Lady Studios, which her friend Jimi Hendrix created shortly before his death, the singer, with her rage in her belly, impresses with a mature and embodied record.
On production, John Cale of the Velvet Underground manages to showcase the talent of this new punk figure. When it came time to choose an illustration for Horses, Patti Smith simply went to Robert Mapplethorpe’s penthouse at One Fifth Avenue, near Washington Square. In the heart of Greenwich Village, in an immaculate setting, she poses simply in natural light wearing a white shirt purchased in the Bowery at the Salvation Army and a black jacket.
Cult! music: 100 mythical music places [French Edition]
Want to know more about this place and its connection to Patti Smith? Find the whole story and 99 others in the book Cult! music!
The number of books published in the United States by Patti Smith since 1972. Works that she has writtenalone or accompanied, including Just Kids, her autobiography.
One Fifth Avenue Apartment
Opened in 1927, the One Fifth Avenue apartment complex has not failed to unleash passions. One of the iconic buildings on Fifth Avenue.
Both described as “a building of rare beauty” and “a modern skyscraper in a brownstone neighborhood,” One Fifth Avenue stands out as a fine example of Art Deco and modern architecture, with a few touches of Gothic. Painted by Niles Spencer in his painting Behind the Square, used as a film location by Woody Allen in Crimes and Misdemeanors, this building has nevertheless managed to stand out in a skyline rich in exceptional buildings. It remains to this day one of the symbols of the artery from which it took its name.
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Horses, Patti Smith - vinyl album
Complete your vinyl collection with this edition of Patti Smith’s Horses album.
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By Gilles Rolland
Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.