Just Kids

I fell in love with Patti in 1978. As a radio DJ and station music director, I broadcast "Because the Night" and "Space Monkey." I put her album "Easter" on the WARC FM playlist. I dropped the needle and danced about our dilapidated second floor summer apartment. Ah, spiritual NY punk, a reason for hope.

Smith promised artist Robert Mapplethorpe on his deathbed that she would write a memoir about them. At once honest, gritty, and spiritual—like both her and Robert's art—Just Kids is a must read if you have faith that your soul has no… show more.

I loved this book because Patti Smith paints a true portrait of a young woman burning with passion to become a poet and artist. The book shows the struggles of committing to a life with no assurances in a city teeming with aspiring artists and writers.

What I love the most is showing the years it took, the alliances she made, the risks she took, the hunger she felt, and the desperate circumstances she faced and overcame. When her lucky break came, I was rooting for her! She had paid her dues, and she rose to the occasion when a… show more.

Patti Smith writes like a poet who accidentally wandered into a rock concert and decided to stay. Her memoir is both a nostalgic love letter to a gritty, pre-gentrified New York City and a tender tribute to her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

What’s captivating is the way she captures the magic of artistic struggle—when life is simultaneously poverty-stricken and creatively rich. It's a reminder that the road to self-discovery is paved with both heartbreak and small, everyday miracles, all written with Smith’s signature blend of grit and grace.

I love this poetic elegy that Patti has written for her dear friend, lover, and comrade—artist and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It takes place in an exciting time and place—1969/1970s New York City. The city is just like I remember it; scum on the streets, hookers, pimps, rampant crime, triple-X movie theatres. But there is nowhere else these two innocent bohemians would rather be. 

I have the updated paperback edition, which includes a magical story about a young writer who read the book. Her mother had acquired Mapplethorpe’s old writing desk at auction. I return to this book often when I… show more.

I love Patti Smith’s writing. It’s honest and beautiful. I love how she brings the beauty of her songwriting, the attention to language and sound, to her prose writing. And never to the diminishment of the story; in fact, most people might not even notice it, which is even more artful.

The beauty of Smith’s language simply makes the dream of the story more vivid. You enter a world reading this book. Or better yet, you time-travel and soul-jump into Patti Smith’s life with Robert Maplethorpe. But beyond the beauty of the writing is the humanity, the compassion and intelligence… show more.

I consumed this book like a favorite meal after a fast. Patti Smith writes about the creative and destructive demimonde of the 1960s and 1970s in New York City from an insider’s perspective and with a unique poetic flair. This autographical account of the art and music (and drug) scene surrounding the iconic Chelsea Hotel is both keenly insightful and achingly personal.

Peppered with unavoidable historical depth about gender and sexuality, Just Kids reveals the glory and misery of creative pursuit in a changing urban context. Smith brings the same lyrical passion to the book that she’s bestowed upon her… show more.

I loved this book because it vividly illustrates how place can shape great art. I was familiar with the work of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe before reading this beautifully-written memoir, but I was unaware of how their deeply-intertwined lives—including their loft homes—influenced their photography, poetry, and music.

My favorite parts are Smith’s descriptions of renovating their shared loft across from the famous Chelsea Hotel and, later, of their work to make Mapplethorpe’s Lower Manhattan loft space habitable. These sections capture how artists found beauty in New York’s neglected industrial buildings, demonstrating how the process of renovating a home and… show more.

This might be my all-time favorite memoir. Every time I sit down to write, I tend to read a few pages of it to absorb the rhythm of Patti Smith’s unadorned, lyrical writing.

Like Taylor Swift, Patti Smith is a music icon, a poet, and a genius wordsmith. For me, this book totally captured the radiant nostalgia of a bygone era and a romantic love that evolves into something more permanent and transcendent.

Patti Smith’s memoir of her time moving to New York City in the 70s is the barometer by which all music memoirs should be measured. Heartfelt and nostalgic, her story of a youthful awakening to the world and building friendships, and creating art is one that will resonate with readers. The word “masterpiece” is thrown around a lot, but this is truly a masterpiece of the genre.

Or Just Kidding as friends like to call it, is a classic, a fast read, and a romanticized and fantasized rewrite of a unique and incredible love affair. 

It inspired me to write my own book. More straightforward than her 1975 groundbreaking record Horses but with the same ability to make you cry and laugh out loud at the same time.