were perfect. If they didn’t turn me on it was my fault because I knew they were right. It was the same with Georgia O’Keefe. I knew it was right but I couldn’t accept it. Now I see it as I age. that' the cool thing about aging, because as you age, you acquire. Your shield doesn’t drop or any thing but it does open more, so not only can you project more but there’s more intake—more to digest.
NWR: Your perception becomes finer?
Patti: You’re able to get finer perception and you’re more on the beam. Its like having a more sharpened pencil. Yet on the other hand the subtlety of muscle and things like that become more apparent.
“‘Ain’t It Strange’ was
like a mating call
to my creator.”
NWR: You’ve been accused of fascism
Patti: That’s the perfectionist in me. Perfection to me is like the human heart. It’s the most fascist instrument ever created. It’s perfect, and when it ceases to he perfect, we die. The fascist in me stems from my heart. It’s the artist in me, and I’m being very general when I say artist. The anarchist in me. The perfectionist male lascist, which has to do with the act of creating—not organically—but with the materials of man. Baby is like original art. I guess Cain was the first
piece ot art. Now it’s been tr a translated and have man-made art. Jackson Pollock . and I have that element in me, which is such an amazing expanse . . . it will take me years to explore it. It’s the part of me that wants the band to play like the Famous Flames. James Brown Flames. Rhythm It’s the part of me that admires drummers, that’s most Spartan, that’s self-preserving. Then there’s the part which is more infinite. |
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It’s like the female death . . . if I didn’t have a facist outlook on art and creation, I’d be gone, because I’d just leap off a cliff in a state of ecstasy. People would think I’d commited suicide when actually I’d have taken a leap in the mouth of love ... everything I do I think of in terms of preparation for the great work on earth of finding the person that is the other part of the trinity between you and God. I feel we can have those moments in creation. In terms of romantic concept, that’s my greatest romantic concept. The perfect mate on earth. Obviously the perfect mate is God, and in the search for mutual love are all these things. Our life is like a weaving a Tabriz. a prayer rug. I just think of every thing as preparation for the future. Playing guitar, playing piano, painting, eventually sculpture. Maybe, just maybe, at my last breath I’ll be some high junkie architect. Now I feel like I’m building a tallow.
Our body is like a tallow and our soul is like the wick. That’s how I feel, like a white candle, and my spine is a long black wick. A twisted one.
NWR: How has vow fall affected your stage performance?
Patti: There used to be dancing in "Ain't It Strange.” It was like my mating call to my creator. Now that song is more like a ritual. In one way it’s
“When I’m singing
I think of the people
— me, God and them.”
more aggressive, but there's also more humility in it because I don’t assault my Creator ith language anymore. That’s one reason why I play guitar. It’s an attempt to communicate with my Creator in a pure sense— sound—instead of spewing language. The words in it are directed totally to God, “C’mon God, make a move.” I don’t even understand now, why, but I did fall during a very significant part of the song. You can take it either as a technilogical boo-boo, or that there is a lesson to be learned. So the song has transcended into ritual instead of, for me, discovery.
Now Lenny is somewhat like me—the sacrificial lamb or Isaac. He represents the neo-vulnerability in the
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