ANOTHER MUSIC IN A DIFFERENT KITCHEN: WOMEN SHOULD BE SEEN AND HEARD
The cover was a stark functional photograph: black and white with a lightly tinted grayish line. In the background was a wall, in the foreground was Patti Smith, chin slightly tilted with an indifferent, knowing look, her plain face flanked by dank dark hair.
ANOTHER MUSIC IN A DIFFERENT KITCHEN: WOMEN SHOULD BE SEEN AND HEARD
Iman Lababedi
The cover was a stark functional photograph: black and white with a lightly tinted grayish line. In the background was a wall, in the foreground was Patti Smith, chin slightly tilted with an indifferent, knowing look, her plain face flanked by dank dark hair. With one hand she held a black jacket over her shoulder, with the other she twisted the suspenders holding her trousers, her sleeves rolled nearly to her elbows.
Despite the cover’s androgynous effect, this wasn’t the picture of defiance, but of a strong personality projecting itself with no excuses and no explanations. For rock circles, it was another way to play: women had used the genre to rebel in a very fe/male manner before, and if that was Patti’s reason it came across as something other. This quasi-bohemian Manhattanbased poet, explicating the power of rock to her own soul, social not political, and through her sheer subjectiveness past the feminists’ ideals, seemed witheringly wary of the normal games.