Patti Smith: Patti Cracks Noggin, Raps On Regardless

Patti sounds plaintive, fragile, over the transatlantic wire. If you can imagine a voice sounding wan, you're near the mark. Reason being — "A swan dive. And there wasn't a pot to catch me." Rock's Queen Poetess dove off a 14-foot-high stage in Tampa, Florida at a gig in a huge amphitheatre. Being a support act, the band hadn't received adequate time to get used to the dimensions of the stage... "I didn't have my terrain worked out. Like, it was a new situation for us, a new stage set up. But I have all my faculties together."