Patti Smith Awarded Key To NYC

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Mayor Bill de Blasio bestowed quite an honor on Patti Smith earlier this week - a key to New York City. And to say she was honored is an understatement.

“I wish I could give New York City the key to me, because that’s how I feel about our city," she said in her speech, "With all its challenges and difficulties, it remains—and I’m quite a traveler—the most diverse city in the world," noting, "To receive this at 75, it makes me look even more forward to the next 25 years.” She also preformed "Ghost Dance" with Lenny Kaye at the ceremony.

The mayor also shared some words about bestowing this honor to Smith, saying, “This is an extraordinary pleasure and honor for me, because for any of us who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, there were many, many voices out there, many artists out there, many musicians out there, but there was only one Patti Smith." He added, "To me, Patti Smith had an authenticity and has an authenticity that you just didn't find, in my view, that many other places—an ability to cut through all the swirl around us and speak some more profound truths.”

Source: Pitchfork