A few years ago I saw Patti Smith give a talk and reading from her memoir, M Train. I wasn’t familiar with her or her work, but I had a subscription to a series of talks and so I went to see what she had to say.
She captivated me. She alternated readings from her memoir with songs. It wasn’t a lecture, and it wasn’t a talk. But she was so authentic, and so talented, and I just couldn’t look away.
She ended with this one, and the crowd was memorized.
The night we saw Patti Smith turned out so differently than we expected, in fact we didn’t know what to expect. What we got was pure magic, she was so good, she drew the audience in with her stories that you didn’t want to miss a word of, and then her singing was as you say captivating. What a wonderful night that was, and listening to this song brought that magic back.