Well, it would just be silly to miss off the first lady of punk, wouldn't it. Patti Smith is pretty much punk embodied. Never mind Sid Vicious (get it?!), Joey Ramone, and all those childish games. Smith is vitriol and revolution without needless violence or macho posturing. Smith's debut Horses, arguably her most popular album, shows that punk is much more than three chords and the truth. With songs both personal and as tribute, Horses is a partially improvised masterpiece with three-part, nine minutes songs you'd expect to see on a Dream Theater album if they weren't so stripped down. Smith released Horses in 1975, followed by a quick succession of now-classics with Radio Ethiopia in 1976, Easter in 1978, and Wave in 1979. It's Smith's activism and sense of social responsibility that really defines her as a punk legend. Smith was effusively against the Iraq War and called for the impeachment of George Bush. She has written several protest songs, responding to the airstrikes in Qana, the imprisonment of Murat Kurnaz in Guantanamo Bay, and the death of Rachel Corrie. Smith is an institution of punk and, lucky for us, is still going strong at the grand age of 66 (and hasn't appeared on ONE margarine advert)! If you can catch a show then do it, because Smith is the definition of a living legend.
