Scritta da Patti Smith e Fred “Sonic” Smith (marito di Patti), “People Have the Power” è stato il singolo principale dell’album Dream of Life uscito appunto, nel 1988.
Il videoclip è stato principalmente girato in bianco e nero, mentre in copertina Patti Smith è stata fotografata da Robert Mapplethorpe straordinario fotografo statunitense, lo stesso fotografo che immortalò anche Andy Warhol e che – forse più di tutti – riuscì a rappresentare l’avanguardia culturale dell’America degli anni ’70 e ’80.
I due – Robert Mapplethorpe e Patti Smith – condivisero anche un appartamento a New York nei primi anni ’70, precisamente lungo la 23esima strada. Mapplethorpe morì nel 1989 per via dell’AIDS, e di lui dirà Patti Smith:
Ci salutammo e lasciai la stanza. Qualcosa mi spinse a tornare indietro. Era scivolato in un sonno leggero. Restai a guardarlo. Così sereno, come un bambino vecchissimo. Aprì gli occhi e mi sorrise. “Sei già tornata?” Poi si riaddormentò. L’ultima immagine di lui fu come la prima. Un giovane che dormiva ammantato di luce, che riapriva gli occhi col sorriso di chi aveva riconosciuto colei che mai gli era stata sconosciuta”
Patti Smith: compie 35 anni “People Have the Power”
I was dreaming in my dreaming
Of an aspect bright and fair
And my sleeping it was broken
But my dream it lingered near
In the form of shining valleys
Where the pure air recognized
And my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
Upon the meek the graces shower
It’s decreed the people rule
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
Vengeful aspects became suspect
And bending low as if to hear
And the armies ceased advancing
Because the people had their ear
And the shepherds and the soldiers
Lay beneath the stars
Exchanging visions
And laying arms
To waste in the dust
In the form of shining valleys
Where the pure air recognized
And my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
Like cream the waters rise
And we strolled there together
With none to laugh or criticize
And the leopard
And the lamb
Lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
To recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
God knows a purer view
As I surrender to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The power to dream, to rule
To wrestle the world from fools
It’s decreed the people rule
It’s decreed the people rule
Listen
I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the earth’s revolution
We have the power
People have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The power to dream, to rule
To wrestle the world from fools
It’s decreed the people rule
It’s decreed the people rule
We have the power
People have the power
We have the power…
Immagine di copertina, cover del singolo.
