I read a review of Just Kids by Patti Smith over at my friend Bad Tempered Zombie’s place. Barbara writes about music all the time and when she recommended this book, I told Tuffy P about it right away. Tuffy came home with a copy shortly after. We had both recently really enjoyed Keith Richards’ book, Life and were both ready for another biography.

I’ve known and admired Patti Smith’s music since I was in my teens, but I didn’t know all that much about her life nor her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe – so I was in for many surprises with this book. To start with I had no idea the poverty they endured in those early years. They had a really tough time just getting food to eat and a roof over their heads. And yet they managed somehow to get a room in that curious artistic hub known as the Chelsea Hotel. I’m reminded of the line from Bob Dylan’s Sara, “I’d taken the cure and had just gotten through, staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you.”  One of the characters we’re introduced to is an eccentric fellow named Harry Smith. As soon as I read the name, I thought, Harry Smith, wasn’t that the name of the guy who put together the  Anthology of American Folk Music back in the 50’s (the recording that inspired so many young singers and musicians). I thought it couldn’t be the same guy, but in fact it was. Harry Smith lived in the Chelsea until his death in 1991. He was also well known as an experimental film maker. All this is of course just colour, the noise around the real story, the story of Patti and Robert.

Just Kids chronicles the bond that developed between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe amidst all their adventures trying to survive and thrive artistically. It’s a beautiful story, although necessarily a very sad one, as Robert Mapplethorpe died from AIDs in 1989 in his early 40s. Along the way we meet many characters – from Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs to Janis, and Jimi to Bobby Neuwirth, who suggested Patti Smith write a song. These characters, and places like the Chelsea and Max’s Kansas City form the backdrop to the book.

Here’s Patti Smith reading from the book…

and more….

an interview…

Read the book.