from cowboy mouth
by patti smith and sam shepard
I mean I can't be the
saint people dream of
now. People want a
street angel. They
want a saint but with
a cowboy mouth. Somebody
to get off on when
they can't get off on
themselves. I think
that's what Mick Jagger
is trying to do...what
Bob Dylan seemed to be for
a while. A sort of God in our
image...ya know? Mick Jagger came close but he got too conscious.
For a while he gave me hope... I want it to be perfect, 'cause it's
the only religion I got...in the old days people had a Jesus and
those people to embrace... They created a god with all their belief
energies... and when they didn't dig But it's too hard now. We're
earthy people and the old saints just don't make it, and the old God
is just too far away. He don't represent our pain no more. His words
don't shake through us no more. Any great motherfucker rock'n'roll
song can raise me higher than all of Revelations. We created
rock'n'roll from our own image, it's our child...
photo of patti performing in this play (117 Kb)
Copyright © Patti Smith & Sam Shepard 1971
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