Patti Smith at Webster Hall: “Is This Spiritual Alzheimer’s?”

“How was Francis?” “How is Francis?”

That’s what the people calling out to the stage from the front of the crowd at Patti Smith’s annual birthday concert at Webster Hall wanted to know. “How was Francis?” “How is Francis?”

She seemed not to understand the question, and then somebody put it more bluntly —- “How’s the Pope?” – and she got it. Oh yeah: she sang at the Vatican Christmas concert a couple weeks back and people read about it. “How was Francis? I dunno …” And then, in one of the guileless, charming verbal rambles that stitched the show together, she summarized what Francis told “all his guys in red gathered round him”: that they’ve all got spiritual Alzheimer’s.

That’s not what he said, exactly — he told them to be on the lookout for “spiritual Alzheimer’s” — but what Patti lacked in precision she more than made up for in wisdom. She went on: “I decided I’m gonna make this sorta my Jiminy Cricket for 2015. If I find I’m slackin’ off, I’m gonna ask myself, `Is this spiritual Alzheimer’s?’ `Is this musical Alzheimer’s?’ `Is this political Alzheimer’s?’ `Is this motherhood Alzheimer’s?’ I’m gonna ask myself how it is that we forget why we first got into something and how things go south. ’Cause at my age it’s no joke!”

Politically correct, yes – and Patti said so straight-out – but it’s a New Year’s resolution as good as any I’ve heard for 2015.

It’s strange to think that Patti Smith (who is now 68) and Pope Francis (who is now 78) belong to the same generational cohort. But Patti’s Webster Hall show — joyful, strident, pointed and unguarded all at once — made their spiritual affinities obvious.

• 31 December 2014
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