Nearly 40 years ago, Patti Smith announced herself to music fans with the cutting, iconoclastic lyric that led off "Gloria," the first track on her debut album, Horses: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine." Earlier this year, the poet and singer recorded the serene, Biblically inspired lullaby "Mercy Is" for director Darren Aronofsky's biblically huge film Noah.
"I wrote the first lines of 'Gloria' when I was 20," says the silver-haired singer, who is seated in the conference room of a Times Square office building. "I recorded it some years later for Horses, but really, it was a declaration of self, not so much about Jesus. He is the vehicle, but I was declaring my existence, my right to make my own mistakes, my right to make my own choices. I was defining the type of artist that was entering the domain of rock & roll and the type of artist that I was, one who was going to make her own decisions. I'm not groomed by anyone."
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