Patti Smith

• Patti Smith, whose seminal rock & roll album, Horses, was released in 1975, was presented with the prestigious insignia of Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters by French Cultural Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres at a ceremony in Paris on July 10, 2005. Cited as an esteemed rock & roll poet laureate, Patti was praised by the French Cultural Ministry as "one of the most influential artists in women's rock 'n' roll." The citation also noted Smith's deep appreciation of the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
  
  She was recently inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2007 along with R.E.M., Van Halen, the Ronettes, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five during a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. "It's a great honor to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame," said Smith.
  
  While her groundbreaking vision of "three chord rock merged with the power of the word" has ensured her place in rock & roll history, Patti Smith has, throughout her career, developed a reputation as one of pop music's foremost interpreters, visiting the songs of other musical artists and transforming them through the lens of her own understanding, appreciation and imagination. Beginning with her first single, "Hey Joe," in 1974 and her extrapolations of Van Morrison's "Gloria" and Chris Kenner's "Land of 1,000 Dances" on her seminal Horses album in 1975 through her live performances of songs ranging from "You Light Up My Life" to "My Generation" to her new album, Twelve, Patti Smith continues to reshape popular music's classic source materials and make them her own.
• http://www.pattismith.net
• http://www.myspace.com/pattismith