The lyrics of Patti Smith’s best songs, from 1970 to today,
in an edition that includes unpublished handwritten documents and commemorates the 40 years of her most emblematic album,
Horses.
We all have a song.
They come suddenly, expressing joy or loneliness, and serve to dispel fear or celebrate a small triumph.
We hardly realize that we are composing them while we sing, often alone, almost to ourselves.
Finding the song within us is what drives us to sing.
It can be a chant of praise, a spark of rebellion, or an adolescent prayer.
We find inspiration wherever we can: in an old guitar tucked away or in a garage,
under the bed or hanging in the window of a pawnshop; in a phrase brought by the wind
as we walk or in the reflection of our face in a mirror.
Those tiny songs, made of poetry, of improvised performance and collaboration,
gave rise to these lyrics, written with the hope of reaching deep and touching someone
who discovers what they mean inside and sings them with us.
