No one, not even the great Patti Smith, is immune to nerves. The world first learned the 77-year-old punk-rock poet laureate’s name through perhaps the audacious opening line in musical history: Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine. Fusing rock and poetry, Smith became an influential figure in music and literary circles alike. Still, stage fright comes for us all. Watch the performance that prompted Patti Smith to issue a public apology on this day in 2016.
Patti Smith Didn’t Want to Displease Bob Dylan
The legendary Bob Dylan received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Unfortunately, Dylan could not accept his award in person due to “pre-existing commitments.” That left Patti Smith to perform Dylan’s song, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” at the Nobel Banquet on Dec. 10, 2016, in Stockholm, Sweden.
About two minutes into her performance, Smith stumbles over the lyrics in the song’s second verse. “I’m sorry, could we start that section?” the Grammy Hall of Fame member asks. “I apologize. I’m so nervous.”
In an essay later published by The New Yorker, Smith clarified that she had not, in fact, “forgotten the words that were now a part of me.”
“I was simply unable to draw them out,” wrote the “Because the Night” singer.
Initially, Smith planned on performing one of her own songs at the ceremony. However, after learning that Dylan had won the prize, she decided on “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” a favorite of her late husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith.
Still, Smith admitted to feeling “conflicting emotions.”In his absence, was I qualified for this task?” she wrote. “Would this displease Bob Dylan, whom I would never desire to displease?”
A Legendary Friendship
The world didn’t yet know Bob Dylan’s name when Patti Smith learned it from folk-rock icon Joan Baez.
“He, for me, brought together—especially when he went electric—rock and roll, his image, his language, his poetry,” Smith said. “He just had everything that I was looking for in my own personal evolution.”
The two met in 1975 during a Patti Smith Group gig at New York City’s The Bitter End, kicking off a long friendship.
“It just shows ya how life can unfold in the most beautiful, unexpected way,” Smith said.