Two years ago, Swifties were Googling Joni Mitchell due to “whispers” of Taylor Swift portraying the folk legend in a biopic.
Mitchell responded with “If she’s going to sing and play me, good luck.” But that’s neither here nor there.
The association inspired many among her fan base to dig into one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, and one who certainly influenced their pop heroine.
Now, the searches are for a punk icon.
Since the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, worldwide Google searches for Patti Smith are up 430%, according to Nieuwe Casinos which — for some reason — looked that up. Google Trends illustrates the impact too, with interest sharply spiking in tandem with its release.
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Smith’s name is invoked on the title track of Swift’s album in a song believed to be directed at Matt Healy of The 1975 because of its references to typewriters, tattoos and an admiration for Charlie Puth.
In one of the album’s standout lines, Swift sings, “I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas / I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel / We’re modern idiots.’”
Smith is among the long list of artists, musicians and writers who lived or stayed at the Chelsea Hotel. In the late ‘60s, she frequented the Manhattan landmark while in a relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.
The book “The Downtown Pop Underground” notes that “On another evening, Patti Smith wandered into the restaurant connected to the lobby of the Chelsea and came across Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, and other rockers who were downing mounds of shrimp, paella, sangria, and bottles of tequila. She was amazed, but didn’t feel like an interloper because they were on her turf.”
Her own career as a performer began in early 1971 when guitarist Lenny Kaye accompanied her poetry reading on guitar. She went on to form the Patti Smith Group in 1973 and then debuted in 1975 with “Horses,” a groundbreaking album that arrived with the birth of punk.
The first look at Smith, for most people, was in 1976 when she delivered one of the classic performances on “Saturday Night Live” doing “Gloria.” Since then, her 11-album career has been a model of artistic integrity.
The 77-year-old Smith responded to Swift’s mention with an Instagram photo of herself holding a copy of Thomas’ “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog” and the caption “This is saying I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Thank you, Taylor.”
A post shared by This is Patti Smith (@thisispattismith)
“This is amazing,” wrote one fan on Reddit. “‘Horses’ was a really important album to me in my early 20’s and Patti is an absolute icon. If I were Taylor, I’d frame this.”
Swifties going to Smith’s Spotify page will be greeted by “Because the Night,” the transcendent rocker she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen (249 million plays), the shockingly intense “Gloria” and the anthemic “People Have the Power,” among other gems.
In a 2019 New York Times profile, Smith was asked about whether Swift should be more politically engaged and replied, “She’s a pop star who’s under tremendous scrutiny all the time, and one can’t imagine what that’s like. It’s unbelievable to not be able to go anywhere, do anything, have messy hair. And I’m sure that she’s trying to do something good. She’s not trying to do something bad. And if it influences some of her avid fans to open up their thoughts, what does it matter?”
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