Yes I know we’ve already had Patti Smith as an inspiring Weekend Woman, but since this is the last WW post before Christmas, we thought we’d put up Patti singing carols. Not only does she sound good, but she’s wearing double plaits in her grey hair. Double plaits! How could we resist?
Patti caused a bit of a stir with this rendition of O Holy Night in 2013, when she performed at the Vatican Christmas carol service in Rome, what with the first few words to her Horses an’ all. But with her typically robust style, she gave short shrift to the moaners, saying “It’s a Christmas concert for the people, and it’s being televised. I like Pope Francis and I’m happy to sing for him. Anyone who would confine me to a line from 20 years ago is a fool! I don’t like being pinned down and I’ll do what the fuck I want, especially at my age … ” One of the reasons we love Patti is precisely because she is still causing a stir as a grown up. She’s definitely not fading away.
She so impressed Pope Francis he invited her back again this year to do it again. All religion-stuff aside, he seems a cool dude, that Pope Francis, with excellent taste in music.
You could feature her every weekend and I would be thrilled! She just keeps getting better- her essence just shining through- as she ages. What an inspiration.
And what a lovely, emotional version of the song.
Merry Christmas to you and yours and thanks for your wonderful blog.
Love Patti — always have, always will — and she’s amazing here as always. What struck me here is her skin – it’s smooth, luminous, little to no sagging or creasing. Furthermore she looks to be pretty makeup-free. The woman is 68! (well, 67 when this was filmed). Call it wishful thinking (naive adoration of her rebel ways?) but she doesn’t strike me as the type to go in for cosmetic procedures, more of a “let ’em fall where they may” type of woman (note the fab grey hair). Wonder what she does to take care of her skin and have it look like that approaching 70 years old?