Sometimes Cutting Your Hair Like Keith Richards Helps

Just Kids (book)--Patti Smith--Poet/rocker Patti Smith's book Just Kids had been sitting on the shelf at the Seekonk public library just waiting for somebody to read it. Not me, I thought. I liked some of her work, but figured I wasn't interested. I caved, and I'm glad I did.

Just Kids--which doesn't need my approval since it has already won a National Book Award--is one of the more enjoyable books I've read. First, it's well written and the story is paced nicely, not getting bogged down. Second, it's a compelling tale of Ms. Smith's years getting to know, live with, leave, and then mourn controversial artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989.

But it's about rock 'n' roll too--mid-to-late 1960s into the 1970s. She's hanging out with Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Paxton, Todd Rundgren and Narrows alums Roger McGuinn and Eric Andersen. She tells of watching Kris Kristofferson playing 'Me and Bobby McGee' for Janis Joplin, apparently for the first time. Ms. Joplin went on to have a hit with the song after her untimely death.

A big career breakthrough, though, happened when she cut her hair like Keith Richards. She heads to a favorite club, Max's Kansas City, where people go wild. Suddenly, she's offered new career possibilities. Figure that!

Don't pass Just Kids by if you're a music fan. And the next time you get your hair trimmed, maybe you should think about Keith...or maybe, since it's 2011, Lady Gaga...hmmm.