Patti Smith debut at St. Mark's Church. Leads to a recording contract as the queen of punk goddess as a performer "brave, funny, relentlessly self-revealing" (think of Gilda Radnor skit).
Her attraction to star power moves to Shep who moves into her 23St. loft and later to the Chelsea Hotel, the famous rock n' roll hangout a few months Shep back to his wife and newborn son. Quotes O Lan???? "If he's gonna have an affair," she told a friend, "I'm gonna have one too." ???
Tatoos from a Mexican gypsy. Hawk moon and lightning bolt. She turns him onto the surrealist poets Rimbaud, Villon Nerval Baudelaire.
He writes prose poems published in Hawk Moon dedicated to Patti Lee.
March 1971, Mad Dog Blues at Theatre Genesis. O-Lan as Mae West, Kosmo mental and physical journey and Yahoodi. Shep on guitar, tamborine and sound effects.
"Shep's personal and professional life had hit its lowest point."
"A meandering, drug-drenched meditation on the rock deaths of the period, a warm up for Tooth."
April 1971 Back Bog Beast Bait at American Place Theatre, directed by Tony Barsha. Quote on directing this play "inspired rather than crafted writing." Where he came from Living Theatre, Open Theatre Viola Spolin, improvisational spontaneity you could find it. Olan has problems with Gris Gris as we rehearsed it, Shep rewrote it originally sweeter but as it developed (says with Smith influence). Olan was not right for the part. Don Plumley directed Shep in Eggs of the Devil and played Mickey Free in Sidewinder, replaced Beeson Carrol in Back Bog final performance for the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich where tourists from "around the world could view imprisoned Rapunzels yelling down messages from their prison tower to friends and lovers standing on Sixth Street below. NOTE: Living Theatre connection.
On Plumley leaving the performance "Who cares? She tries to stick in these comments for a sense of the ambience but who cares?"
Slim and Shadow (a Shep nom de plume), the characters who track down the swamp monster". quasi Indian ritual. Olan as Gris Gris.
"Many cryptic references in the play suggest it may be an allegory about drug addition." Again a suggestion without any analysis. Songs by Shep, Antonio Duren and Steve Weber of the Rounders and Lou Reed from the Velvet Underground.
April 1971 Cowboy Mouth at American Place Theatre "one of the rawest and most exciting works Shepard has produced." Quote on shoving the typewriter back and forth. "A documentary account of their life together..."
An infantile game Shepard performed for the dress and a few previews. Shep quote on why he left "to exhibit myself like that, playing my life onstage..." Leaves for Vermont where the Rounders were playing. Back Bog continues but ends Cowboy Mouth.
"Shepard was a family man to the core, but early in 1970 he fell under the powerful spell of the wild, brilliant rock poet Smith..." O'Conner leaves next door when Shep moves in with Smith chelsae(?) "over the Blarney Stone...they became friends later. Wynne Handiman's account of how Mouth goes to the American Place.
Guardian article on his no show.
Hart on Shep in performance, "His was a great performance. It was very difficult times then, which I won't go into."
O Lan had moved to Brooklyn.
Comment on Shep: "When I write for the movies..." affects Shep's style in Tooth and Back Bog...
Patti Smith as the female Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger, long time idols of Shep's poetry which opened for rock acts at the Mercer Arts Center. Lenny Kaye's guitar 4 albums.
Tearing Shepard up in NYC..."The tension betwen the cowboy and the genius his city life and his country roots, his marriage to Olan and his fling with Patti Smith was tearing Shep up. The program for Cowboy Mouth "written by someone who was clearly out of control: listening to ole Bobby Dylan..." Lists his favorite words "writing is neat because you do it on a very physical level. Just like rock and roll" Bravura(?) list of his loves...
"Killing himself with drugs and that he had to get out of New York."
"He had dipped a bit too deeply into the well of his darker consciousness and was in danger of tumbling in."
To England by ship to be a rock n roll star EO quotes Shep reasons for coming to England and Nothing communicates emotions better than music, not even the greatest play in the world."
EO Shep quote on the 60s and on reviewing.
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