Punk rock's poet laureate, Patti Smith ranks among the most influential rock & rollers of all time. Unconventional and challenging, her music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan. She followed her muse wherever it took her, from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism, or even completely out of music at times. What's more, she became an icon to subsequent generations of female rockers. Smith never relied on sex appeal for her success; she was unabashedly intellectual and creatively uncompromising, and her appearance was usually lean, hard, and androgynous. She also never made an issue of her gender, dressing simply and performing in the spirit of her aggressive, male rock role models, as if no alternative had ever occurred to her.