Guest DJ Patti Smith

Clockwise from upper left: Neil Young with Patti Smith, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Maureen Gray.

Courtesy of the artists

On this edition of All Songs Considered, poet and singer Patti Smith joins host Bob Boilen to talk about her musical passions, including doing fancy dance steps with her siblings in South Jersey. She talks about meeting Jimi Hendrix as a young journalist and later recording in his dream studio Electric Lady Studios, where she and her band made their latest album, Banga. Smith connects her South Jersey drawl with the sounds of Hank Williams, and plays the songs that make her want to leap out of her seat.

"It's my one regret in all of my work," Smith says. "I don't know if I was ever successful to give the people a song where they had to leap up," But Bob immediately proves her wrong with her 1976 rocker, "Ask the Angels."

As Bob and Patti Smith play songs from the album, she talks about what influenced Banga, why she loves singing and playing Neil Young's songs, and what inspired her to write songs as disparate as a prayer to the Japanese people and Amy Winehouse.

Listen to Smith tell stories about seeing a young Stevie Wonder join Smokey Robinson live on stage, and going to her very first rock concert: The Rolling Stones.