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Transcription: [00:48:08]

{SPEAKER name="David C. Ward"}
Evolution of religious views in what God means to Patti Smith
[00:48:12]

[[laughter]]
[00:48:13]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
well, lets, lets, [[cross talk]] sum that up in two minutes.
[00:48:16]

[[laughter]]
[00:48:17]

{SPEAKER name="David C. Ward"}
well, we've got ten.
[00:48:19]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
Well, I couldn't really express what god means to me in such a short period of time. Uh, since you know it's part of my whole being.
[00:48:28]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
But I received the idea of God, first, from my mother and prayer and then religion came. I went to bible school, I was a Jehovah Witness till I was twelve. I studied various faiths, I've looked into all faiths, I've been to all kinds of churches. I loved going in a church and sitting.
[00:48:58]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
Well, I've chosen not to have a religion. I've chosen to go back to the original moment where my mother gave me God and telling me of God and gave me prayer. And that's all I need. I do like to go into churches, especially when I'm on the road. You know churches are so beautiful, if, I'm certain Christ would agree, a bit material, but I find them beautiful.
[00:49:31]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
You know some of our greatest art has been committed for the church, so I like to go in churches and light a candle or a temple or a mosque, but its more aesthetic really.
[00:49:44]


{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
And I don't need any specific religion to have a relationship with God and to pray and that's part of my daily routine.
[00:49:54]

{SPEAKER name="David C. Ward"}
Somebody way in the back.
[00:49:57]

{SPEAKER name="Man In Audience"}
Can you tell us the inspiration for your song Radio Baghdad?
[00:50:01]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
Yes, he's asking about the Radio Baghdad, which was on a record-Trampin'
[00:50:09]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
My, of course, I was, like many of you, protested against the Bush Administration going into Iraq
[00:50:20]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
And I was just devastated when we went into Iraq and I wanted to respond to it not only as a human being but as an artist
[00:50:32]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
But I decided the way to do it would not be from a political view point but a more humanistic view point
[00:50:39]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
So I went in the recording studio with my band I had no specific lyrics, we had a riff, my guitarist, Oliver Ray, had written a guitar riff
[00:50:52]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
And I said just improvise and trust me and follow me
[00:50:58]

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
And I imagined being a mother in Baghdad trying to sing her children to sleep as the Americans were bombing.

{SPEAKER name="Patti Smith"}
I imagined, what tried to imagine being a mother myself, what that would have felt like, you know trying to you know, you know, you know wanting her children to feel safe but at the same time when bombs were falling, so its really from the point of view of a mother. And that's where the impulse came to improvise it.
[00:51:40]

Transcription Notes:
Whos talking? There is no indication of which person is speaking.