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# Patti Smith Remembers Operation Iraqi Freedom
- URL: https://www.merip.org/2012/03/patti-smith-remembers-operation-iraqi-freedom/
- Published: 2012-03-20T19:45:05.000Z
- Updated: 2012-03-20T19:45:05.000Z
- Description: On September 8, 2011, just a few days before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the intrepid rocker Patti Smith performed at Webster Hall in New York City.
- Author: Ted Swedenburg
- Tags: Current Analysis, Iraq War (2003- ), Pop Culture, #wp, #wp-post

On September 8, 2011, just a few days before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the intrepid rocker Patti Smith performed at Webster Hall in New York City.

She opened the song “My Blakean Years” (you can watch it [here](http://youtu.be/tUusiTz35JE)) by singing these lines, which were apparently composed for the occasion:

*It was the first day of spring*  
*March 21*  
*I remember it well*  
*An afternoon of hell*  
*I had a migraine*  
*My mother was dead*  
*I lay in my bed*  
*And the TV was on*  
*And we were advancing*  
*With shock and awe*  
*And the mothers held their children close*  
*In Baghdad*  
*It was the first day of spring*  
*That’s what I’m remembering*  
*This week*

And then she went into the lyrics of the song as it is conventionally known, as recorded on her 2004 album *Trampin’*.

How audacious for a rock star who is so closely identified with New York, to state, in performance in the city, that what she remembers on the anniversary of 9/11 is the US invasion of Baghdad, and the Iraqi mothers and children.

Patti usually introduces this number by saying something like, “This is a song that I wrote when I was feeling really bad, and then I remembered William Blake, who kept struggling and writing and maintaining an optimistic spirit, in the face of great difficulty and frequent ridicule, and despite the fact that he enjoyed no success or recognition as an artist during his lifetime.” The lesson, says Patti, is that whenever we are facing a rough patch, we should remember that there are others who have it worse.

On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom (launched at 5:34 am Baghdad time on March 20, 2003, or 9:34 pm on March 19 EST), on the eve of the first day of spring, let’s remember Baghdad and its civilians.