Fred Smith died young, of heart failure, in 1994 and, after a period of mourning, Patti Smith returned to New York and the music scene. If anything, it belonged to the language of platitudes and affirmations, far removed from punk’s mutinous liturgy. That there might be a connection between liberated sex and getting pregnant seems not to have occurred to McNeil. Nevertheless, for women artists, motherhood — venerated in theory, belittled in practice — is still seen, by others and often themselves, as an obstacle, if not the end. This year, as the mother of a 9-month-old, she revealed that she was pregnant again.

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Persons: Patti Smith, Fred “, ” Smith, Dad —, Fred Smith, “, Smith, Legs McNeil, “ I’m, ”, McNeil, Griswold, . Connecticut —, Baird —, Roe, Wade, Eisenstadt, —, Rihanna, hadn’t Organizations: Times, . Connecticut, “ Entertainment Locations: New York, Detroit, St . Clair Shores, American, United States, ., Eisenstadt