Sometimes the key to a city goes to the wrong person and then sometimes it goes to Patti Smith.
The punk poet laureate has been given the keys to New York City. In one of his final acts as mayor, Bill de Blasio handed Smith the huge honour in a news conference at City Hall. Sadly the key is purely ceremonial and doesn’t actually unlock any important doors in New York. Spike Lee and Sen. Chuck Schumer were also given the honour by de Blasio.
“To me, Patti Smith had an authenticity, and has an authenticity, that you just didn’t find, in my view, in that many other places — an ability to cut through the swirl around us and speak some more profound truths,” de Blasio said at the ceremony.
“The punk movement in general was, to me, a bastion of truth-telling and something that helped address the hypocrisy in our society.” He also named her 1978 track ‘Ghost Dance’ as one of his personal favourites while gushing over her music.
Smith seemed proud of getting the keys. “It’s awesome,” she said when accepting the honour. She discussed first moving to New York from rural New Jersey in her youth, where she soon met other inspiring and like-minded punks and artists.
She also remembered moving back to the city after the death of her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith. “I wish that I could give New York City the key to me,” she also added endearingly during her acceptance speech (see below).
Smith was joined at the ceremony by her longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye, with both actually turning 75 years old this week. To mark their birthdays, de Blasio gave them both cupcakes.
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