Fred “Sonic” Smith (born Frederick Dewey Smith; September 14, 1949 – November 4, 1994) was an American guitarist, best known as a member of the influential and political, Detroit rock band, the MC5. At age 31, he married and raised a family with poet and fellow rock musician, Patti Smith. The couple collaborated musically, and raised two children together. (More from Wikipedia)
Patti Smith Group’s previous album, Radio Ethiopia was influenced by the fiery 1960’s Detroit band MC5; and Patti Smith later met the band’s guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith. They married in 1980, and the couple raised two children. The joke at the time was that she married him only because she wouldn’t have to change her name. Their son, Jackson Smith married White Stripes drummer Meg White in 2009; interestingly, Meg didn’t have to change her name either when she had previously married the band’s guitarist Jack White.
The Patti Smith Group album Wave (1979) included a lovely tribute to her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith called “Frederick”; “Dancing Barefoot” on the same album was also dedicated to him.
Patti Smith suffered a series of losses in quick succession beginning with the death in November 1994 of her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, followed by the unexpected death of her brother Todd Smith – her band’s keyboard player Richard Sohl and her early love Robert Mapplethorpe had died four and five years earlier. She reemerged from that pain more visible than ever; her next album, Gone Again (1996) was perhaps her most self-assured effort and included a tribute to Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, “About a Boy”. The final track is a heartbreaking tribute to her late husband, “Farewell Reel”.
(February 2014)
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