As a child, Patti Smith, who had been taught never to accept anything from strangers, had to regretfully refuse a pin from an electoral campaign that she nevertheless wanted.
That day, the future singer, poet and writer had sworn to herself that she would manage to have, one day, a medal to hang on the lapel of her jacket.
Mission accomplished, this Saturday, May 21, 2022: the American rock icon received, at the age of 75, the French Legion of Honor from the hand of the French ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne.
« It’s amazing to be adopted back »
After telling this anecdote, Patty Smith bewitched the public who came to attend the ceremony at the Brooklyn Public Library co-hosted by the Albertine villa, with some fiery songs alongside her daughter Jesse on the piano and her longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye .
It’s an indescribable honor, I take full measure of it
she told theAFP behind the scenes, once the tribute has been received.
For someone who has been largely shaped by French culture, French literature, French art and cinema, all my life, this is especially important
she smiled.
I have adopted France all my life, and it is something incredible to be adopted like this in return.
A « tremendous joy » to be « a kind of mini-ambassador »
Patti Smith said she would immediately use this inspiration to make more work, better work
.
To be chosen as a kind of mini-ambassador for the country is really a great joy for me.
she summarized.
An essential artist, a reference for her peers, Patti Smith has aroused the adoration of her fans for more than half a century. His music, his compositions, his poetry and his introspective writing on edge which earned him, for his memoirs, JustKids
to receive the US National Book Award in 2010.
Tribute to the poet René Daumal
True to form, the high priestess of rock concluded her speech by paying tribute to another artist, the French poet René Daumal, from whom she read – in English – part of the letter addressed before dying to his wife :
Seeing that we are nothing, we desire to become
she declaimed. Desiring to become, one lives.
Wearing her traditional black jacket, Patti Smith notably delighted her fans by playing her song People Have The Power
or in French “Power belongs to the people”.
« It’s the people who bring the change »
She then developed the idea with theAFPjudging that if artists can inspire people, rally people, give them hope, […] in the end, it’s not the artists who bring the change, it’s the people
.
By voting, by taking the initiative, by monster demonstrations, it is the people who bring change.
A responsibility that is all the more overwhelming because the world we live in is very bad
she underlined, referring to the unprecedented heat waves
the famines
and the climatic phenomena never seen
.
The only way to fix it is a global effort
said Patti Smith. Whatever the gesture, every gesture is important.