Patti Smith Celebrates Beatle George Harrison at Sarasota’s Selby Gardens
The new exhibition at Selby Gardens is George Harrison: A Gardner’s Life as part of the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series. It is on view from now until June 29th at the downtown Sarasota campus. For those who didn’t know, George loved music but he also loved gardening and spent much of his time after the Beatles disbanded toiling in the earth.
Selby’s artist in residence, musician & poet Patti Smith came to honor the opening of George’s exhibition with her music, stories and reading poetry from Olivia Harrison’s book dedicated to George and their life together entitled “Came the Lightening”. Patti was introduced by Selby CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. George’s wife also traveled to Sarasota to lecture on art & nature and share about George’s passion of gardening. She was in the audience for Patti’s performance.
It was a sold-out crowd for Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and who is named one of the greatest artists of all time, Patti Smith is a true renaissance woman. She opened with spoken word of “Grateful” and played a cover of the Beatles, “If I Needed Someone.” She was accompanied by her son Jackson Smith on guitar and longtime bandmate Tony Shanahan on guitar and keyboards. She is humble, humorous and brings wisdom to the sold out crowd in the evening balmy breeze and a bright full moon on beautiful Sarasota Bay. She jokes as she looks through her notes about being well prepared as the audience laughs along.
She performed a cover of a solo George Harrison tune, “Isn’t It A Pity.” There was the story of George’s orange pants that she saw in a photo during the Beatles Sgt, Pepper era which Patti loved and had to have. She looked everywhere and couldn’t find any orange pants. She bought white pants & Rit dye and dyed them in the bathtub and ruined the tub but she wore her orange pants all over New York’s Greenwich Village and you could just picture the whole scene it as she told it.
She recited excerpts from Olivia’s poetry and her own work. The Beatles “Blue Jay Way” was covered and she closed the evening with a rousing version of her hit, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, “Because the Night,” which had people up dancing. Her encore was most powerful leading the audience in song to “People Have The Power” and was joined by Robert Rominiecki onstage and then honoring the late Harrison with a poignant sing-along to George’s spiritual ode “My Sweet Lord” from his iconic album, “All Things Must Pass”.
This is a not-to-miss exhibition and going to Selby is always amazing time. Patti Smith’s photography exhibition “A Book of Days” is at the Historic Spanish Point Campus in Osprey. For all information on hours and admission please go to www.selby.org
Vicky Sullivan Photos for The Suncoast Post