http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7798711
Just click 'Listen'. She talks about it beginning around the 9:00 minute mark.
It looks like this was recorded some time ago, so it might be old news.
Patti Smith talks about being a JW on NPR "Fresh Air" (March 9, 2007)
by mavie 9 Replies latest jw friends
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V
Interesting, thanks!
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Leolaia
The guy who talks in the beginning about her impact on him, what a flat monotone his voice is....
So I wonder what kind of painter Patti Smith would have become?
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mavie
Leo, that guy is Michael Stipe. Yes, he does have a rather monotone way of speaking. I find it to be engaging rather than boring, maybe because I grew up in a family who spoke with much emotion in the voice. I find his calm, logical, rational way of speaking to be refreshing.
He has a commanding presence when performing.
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Fleshybirdfodder
"I think they're a more benevelolent and understanding group right now."
She needs to go to my old hall.
FBF
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Madame Quixote
I heard part of an interview on Fresh Air with Patti Smith a few weeks ago, but missed a lot of it. They do a lot of old re-runs of that show in our area, so I suspect that must be the one I heard.
Thanks for posting this; I had no idea she had been a Witness.
She sounded so inspiring and her writing is very poetic and questioning of the status quo. I think that is a hallmark of many who leave the JWs. They tend to question everything - (sometimes even things that don't need to be questioned so much, perhaps).
memento mori
by smith/kaye/ray/daugherty/shanahan
the fans were whirlin'
like the blades of a 'copter
liftin' into the skies above some foreign land
soaked with the bodies of so many friends.
Johnny waved
he was on his way home
he waved goodbye to his comrades in arms,
and all the twisted things he'd seen.
he waved goodbye
and the blades hit
something
maybe just Fate, but the blades hit
the 'copter went up in flames
and Johnny never went marchin' home
Johnny never went marchin' home
they took his name
and they carved it on a slab of marble
with several thousand other names
all the fallen idols
the apples of their mother's eye
just another name
meanwhile
back on that burning shore
Johnny's comrades stood speechless
they looked with uh-uh-uh-uh disbelieving eyes
as those bits of metal and the embers
the embers of his eyes
fanned out into the air
black dust
flames
oh Johnny! some day they'll make a movie about you
and in the making of that movie
some mad apocalypse
it will become even stranger than the simple act
just a boy going up up up
just a boy going up
in flames in the smoke
just another life
just another breath
and who'll remember
oh eternity now
as eternal as a sheet of marble
eternal as a slab on a green hill
and your name
and all your fallen brothers
and all the ones not cut
all the ones remembered only in the hearts
a mother a father a brother a sister a lover a son a daughter
shall not shall not fade shall not fade
your ancestors salute you
and the gods of your ancestors salute you
having having been formed by the minds of your ancestors
the gods of your ancestors salute you
having been formed by your ancestors
the gods of your ancestors salute you
they draw you in they draw you through
they draw they draw you through that golden door
mornin' boy [come on in boy]
we remember you
we conceived of you
we conceived of your breath
we conceived of the whole human race
and we conceived it to be a beautiful thing
like a tulip bending in the wind
sometimes it comes back to us
in the form of a handful of dust
comes back in the form of a smitten child
our raped daughters, ah the broken bones
souls cleaved from hearts
they come back to us
and our hands are filled with their rotting tissues
but we turn not our backs
we press our lips
into their cancer into the dust into the remains of each one
and that love is there and will greet you, will greet you
mornin' boy [come on in boy]
it's eternal love
well here, go ahead, run through that flame
awww man, running through your mind
you took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tail
and you swirled it around your head
and you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of it
and you knew that it would be your own
but you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it die
because you know you would feel your own
you would feel your own
but you're remembered!
you're remembered!
you're remembered DEAD!
you're remembered DEAD!
you're remembered DEAD!
we remember
we remember
we remember
everything
everything -
mavie
She sounded so inspiring and her writing is very poetic and questioning of the status quo. I think that is a hallmark of many who leave the JWs. They tend to question everything - (sometimes even things that don't need to be questioned so much, perhaps).
Reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:
"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
- Rene Descartes
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Gayle
I am amazed how some like Patti, just could clearly see while young JW life wasn't for them. She doesn't seem to have any regret or resentment that her mom was a JW,,. of course, her dad was an atheist, so that may of helped to break down that JW control on her heart while young,,and maybe her Mom wasn't an extremely devoted JW. I know I talked to an xJW & she said she didn't hardly go in service because she just didn't like it. I told her 'what did that have to do with it?' I went in service and didn't like it & I even pioneered 5 yrs and didn't necessarily like it but thought I had to do it anyway. I find myself so disappointed in myself at times that I wasn't/couldn't have been more honest with myself. I guess I wasn't a natural rebel, I had to develop that over a lot of time, damn it!
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Madame Quixote
Great Quote from Descartes, mavie! I'm trying to listen to the PS interview and reading at the same time; I'm no multi-tasker.
'Blasphemy is exploration . . .'
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OnTheWayOut
"I think they're a more benevelolent and understanding group right now."
She needs to go to my old hall.
They would love her "blasphemous" works.
This probably means that since she was never a baptized witness,
the ones who know her, know she has money, so she's okay to them.