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Singer and writer Patti Smith made a surprise appearance at MoMA on Sunday, December 18th, delighting visitors both tipped-off and caught unawares. As The New York Times’ Jonah Engel Bromwich reported, Smith’s performance, during which she read a selection of her poems and performed four songs, was her latest in a string of near-yearly tributes…
(JTA) — Punk-rock singer Patti Smith was so nervous when performing a Bob Dylan song at the Nobel Prize ceremony that she forgot the lyrics to one of his songs. She was accepting the award for literature on behalf of the Jewish singer, who said he could not attend the ceremony on Saturday in Stockholm,…
Amid a somewhat dour and all-too-respectful crowd who gathered today for the 2016 Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden, Patti Smith took the stage to deliver a perhaps all-too-reverential performance of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Smith was subbing for the absent Dylan who did not attend the ceremony to accept his prize before…
Health has been an issue in this presidential election, with Donald Trump accusing Hillary Clinton of lacking the physical stamina to lead the nation. Punk rocker Patti Smith has a message to her Jewish fans — don’t believe the Donald’s hype. “I have a chronic cough. If I have a coughing spell… don’t think I got…
The first words ever uttered by Patti Smith on a recording were “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” the opening line of “Gloria” on her debut album, “Horses,” released 40 years ago this December. That line pretty much set the tone for what was to come over the next four decades. Much of…
If you ever need someone to move an entire room — including herself — to tears, just give Patti Smith a call. The rocker gave a moving tribute to her friend, the late great Lou Reed, during his posthumous induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this weekend. Smith had previously eulogized the…
Not many pop-rock artists are inspired by Franz Rosenzweig’s “Star of Redemption” or “Totality and Infinity” by Emmanuel Levinas, but then again, Ruth Gerson is not your usual singer-songwriter. “Most often, I start writing a song because of something I am reading,” Gerson said. Given her academic background (she studied Jewish existentialism at Princeton), she…
When I phoned Gary Lucas this week he was right in the middle of renewing his Forward subscription. “I’m a religious reader,” he punned effortlessly. He also had his cell phone pressed to his other ear, waiting to buy concert tickets. It comes as little shock that the prolific composer, songwriter, guitar legend and musical…
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