Patti Smith – Beds R Burnin’
Life is hard. In addition the ongoing responsibilities of being a good partner, friend, parent, child, etc, we are faced with circumstances beyond our control. Mass shootings, environmental degradation, dismantling of our democracy and the values of decency and compassion becoming relics of the past. In order to counter the ugliness that is out there, Susan and I turn to live music to soothe our souls. One show last spring we saw was Patty Smith at the beautiful newly refurbished Metropolitan Opera House. The Met is majestic; filled with history, but with an upgraded sound system. And Patty Smith, the original punk, unbelievable poet and all around bad ass. I had never seen her in concert and I was mostly struck by how joyful she was. Yes her words and songs can be angry, but there is a joy and hopefulness that is stunning. And she has not lost her edge. When someone yelled out, ”They are not letting us stand up and dance.” She yelled back, “Who cares, man. There are kids being locked in cages, man. And you can’t stand up and dance. Boo fucking hoo.” The crowd went nuts.
She recited a poem of how we are destroying our earth and launched into a song that barely registered for me during the 80s, “The Beds are Burning” by Midnight Oil. And I went somewhere else. I remember jumping to my feet and screaming the lyrics and dancing as hard as I remember dancing in a very long time. And it was so completely therapeutic that when I need a break from the world- I put this video on very, very loud and dance really, really hard.
rexmaps 