2024/075: Just Kids — Patti Smith

2024/075: Just Kids — Patti Smith

I was thinking what a magical portal this lobby was when the heavy glass door opened as if swept by wind and a familiar figure in a black and scarlet cape entered. It was Salvador Dalí. He looked around the lobby nervously, and then, seeing my [stuffed] crow, smiled. He placed his elegant, bony hand atop my head and said: “You are like a crow, a gothic crow.”
“Well,” I said to Raymond [the crow], “just another day at the Chelsea.” [p. 126]

Being a great fan of Patti Smith, I've owned this book for years in different formats, but only now felt the urge to read it. Patti Smith's account of life in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, is a fascinating read: she seems to have met everyone who was anyone, from Lou Reed to Salvador Dalí, though her interactions in these pre-fame years are sometimes comically slight. (On Grace Slick: '“Hello,” I said, noticing I was taller. “Hello yourself,” she said.')

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