silence

“historically, the English had banned the Irish (Gaelic) language - books in Gaelic were confiscated. Now, Gaelic history and culture is largely oral, so this effectively meant banning everything about the culture. In an attempt to try preserve the language, they loaded this ship with a ton of Gaelic books and old manuscripts filled with all kinds of knowledge. Sort of as their perceived last hope at preserving the language, which is over 2000 years old, but the ship hit a rock not far from shore and sank in full view of the people. So this song is a lament of the loss of all that knowledge and, ultimately, the culture” - Bri

“…when David Tudor sat at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds and never played a note, there wasn't silence. The audience could hear the sounds of nature all around them. And that's what Cage was after. He wanted his audience to listen to 4 minutes and 33 seconds of the world with the same attention and the same concentration that they would normally devote to four and a half minutes of Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms.”

“As an artist, she is totally and utterly informed by writers like Arthur Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg, Albert Camus and countless others who inspired a young Smith to leave her hometown and seek out a poetic lifestyle. Whether she’s referencing her seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of classic works, drawing links to the beat generation she caught the tail end of, or even reworking her own poetry into song, almost every Patti Smith song has a connection to literature somewhere. “

“Many variations of wording can be found in both versions of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ as they have been set down over the years. In fact, surviving manuscript copies in Burns’s own hand are not identically worded.”