Music scholar/writer Simon Warner describes her as “a woman who carries Beat credentials,” and Smith has been connected to a wide swath of musicians ranging from Bob Dylan to Iggy Pop. Her style, presence, and status in the punk community from its very beginning in the Bowery on Manhattan's Lower East Side also serve as a testament to the idea that punk does not simply refer to the stripped down, amped up musical style associated with the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the entire hardcore scene.
Called the punk rock poet laureate and even the Godmother of Punk, Smith is an arguably atypical punk in terms of her music, and she has been known to say she never considered herself punk at all. Simply by nature of proximity to the music scene that emerged in the Lower East Side around CBGBs, she became associated with punk. Performing at the same time and in the same place as bands like the Ramones and Television, the punk label was inevitably applied, and Smith was certainly part of the community of bands and artists supporting each other. But more importantly, Smith’s presence and association simply broadened the definition of punk, assuring it was more about originality and authenticity than it was about speed and volume.
Truly, one of the earliest and most significant qualities of punk emerged from the one sacrosanct rule for performing at CBGBs – no covers. The only requirement owner Hilly Krystal had in the early days was that bands play their own music. Just like Thoreau, they heard a call to march to their own drum beat, and that spirit of originality has been the punk rock ethos, and that ethos is Thoreauvian Punk. As far as originals go, Patti Smith is in rarified air, and her place in the punk ecosystem is a testament to the idea that punk rock is more about intent than a specific chord progression, drum beat, or sound.
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