Patti’s Punk Standing

Patrick Goldstein wonders why Patti Smith’s new album, “Dream of Life,” has not sold well (“Superstar Comebacks Stall on the Charts,” Pop Eye, Oct. 9). Perhaps it is because many of those who have followed the punk music scene don’t buy the theory of some pop critics that New York was the birthplace of punk and that Patti Smith was punk’s high priestess.

To some of us, the punk music that mattered began with Britain’s Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Stranglers, etc.; not New York’s Smith, the Talking Heads or (for crying out loud) Blondie.

The high priestess of punk? Punk people will buy neither that nor Smith’s album.

JOHN WECKER

Huntington Beach