Patti self censored and it’s her prerogative to do so.
She didn’t use that word casually. She wanted to transform it and take the power out of it. She also claims there was humor in the effort and, if you know Patti, that’s believable. She was and is provocative and mischievous.
What made sense to her in 1978 stopped making sense to her in 2022, so she pulled it. 2022 was a different time and place and it’s not hard to imagine Patti deciding “This just isn’t right anymore.” I understand this in the context of her continuing activism.
Irrespective of the reasons to withdraw a piece of art from the public, it is an attempt at rewriting history and bossing the people. I just downloaded the full volume “Easter Rising Patti Smith Live In Oregon 1978 (Live)” at qobuz.com. This includes this particular song.
It can’t be „irrespective of the reason“ by definition because there IS a difference between an artist having control over their art and other actors (like companies or the government) controlling them.
2 Likes
SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
24
Nobody’s rewriting history. History notes that this track was recorded and released. It also notes that you can still acquire the track on physical media. History also notes changes. In this case an artist has withdrawn a track from streaming platforms.
I get what WKW means though and I tend to agree. Even if it is the artist herself who is the actor, it shows similarities with governments removing all mention of, say, a certain genocide from history textbooks.
SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
26
I didn’t mean similarities in graveness (if that wasn’t completely obvious). Of course a genocide is immeasurably more reprehensible than a song with offensive language. The similarity is in the fact that in both cases the actor is trying in some way or another to pretend something didn’t happen. Any way, we are getting off topic.
I don’t think most people object to profanity in music. It is very common. That’s why they are listed as explicit. Even f*** is common now.
SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
32
Nobody’s blocking anything. Nobody’s rewriting history. This is simply the case of an artist removing one track from streaming platforms because of contextual changes.
