In 1942, a young American serviceman posed with his kit for a photograph. Like thousands of his fellow nationals he had been Japanese in the South Pacific. His name was Grant Smith.
He was in regions such as Papua New Guinea.
Four years later, the war safely negotiated and back home stateside, he and his wife Beverly had a daughter. They called her Patti.
She would use that photo as the cover for her 2000 album Gung Ho. Her father died the same year. Patti has related mother would say, "Look at your father, he was so gung-ho".
Sixty-five years on, he would have been so proud of her, too, says Smith. Earlier today the singer-songwriter, rock-poet laureate was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. It was an award for her accomplishments that her parents, now both dead, had thought she richly deserved, she has said.
As indeed it is. Smith boldly announced her arrival in rock with sins, but not mine." The delivery was slow and measured.
It was confrontational and confessional, both sacred hymn and rebellious incantation. The 29-year-old poet was putting down a marker. It was regarded as one of the most influential albums in rock, merging the time deconstructing it.
It was punk without the safety pins or spittle.
influences were as much musical as they were literary. Her heroes include William Burroughs, Bob Dylan, Rimbaud, William Blake (she would write a song entitled My Blakean Year), Jimi Hendrix, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison and Johnny Carson.
In fact, she was a She learnt from Carson how to command a stage and an audience.
power; she has only released nine albums in 30 years, yet in 2005 for her influence on rock music. For most of the 1980s, she took a break from performing to raise her children, re-emerging at the end of the decade.
heart failure within a few weeks of each other in 1994. The pianist in her band, Richard Sohl, had died a few years before that, as had her great friend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
artists such as Hendrix, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane and Nirvana.
In her book, Complete 1975-2006, the Rock rebels go to war with the world and then fade away. Smith is different; her art runs deep.
items, Townsville is reported as "Townsend".
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