An inspiration and true force of nature ... we asked figures from the world of Scotland's arts about the rock legend Patti Smith, ahead of her Kelvingrove Bandstand gig.

Cora Bissett, creator of What Girls Are Made Of at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

“I remember distinctly the first time I heard the album Horses by Patti Smith. I was 15 and in my mate Marcus’s house in Glenrothes. It hit me in the gut. There was something about that growl, the snarl in her voice, the complete dismissal of trying to sound ‘pretty’. The momentum in the tracks, there was a danger, a tornado of energy, a primal holler that just hit me somewhere deep. It was abandoned, it made me feel brave and excited about getting out into life and taking a great bite of it.”

Scottish singer and songwriter Horse McDonald:

“Favourite song? It has to be Because The Night. It literally hit me late teens when I was going to college, starting a band, growing up. In among all the other music and artists charting at the time, Patti was scary and enticing in equal measure. I could see someone who was being herself and frankly didn’t give a f*** – powers I would dearly have loved to have mustered for myself. I know it’s a co-write, but I don’t hear Springsteen in it. It’s a powerful, base, honest, carnal voice. I didn’t recognise her poetic brilliance at the time but the whiplash musical and personal influence from this track has been lifelong ... I did cover it, but there can only be one version.”

Scots singer/songwriter Emma Pollock, who is performing at Edinburgh Fringe on August 8 with a new trio:

“Funnily enough, I play a festival in Spain in a couple of weeks that Patti Smith is headlining – Festival Noroeste Estrella Galicia in A Coruna – so I’ve been thinking about her in recent weeks! I’ve seen some recent footage of her shows in 2018 and she’s just brilliant in them.

“I’ve always been hugely inspired by the way Patti Smith presents herself both artistically and musically. She’s always been a really unconventional and uncompromising artist, never pandering to the traditional beautified female image that would have been pushed by so many record companies in the 70s.

“The cover of Horses is probably my favourite album cover of all time as it’s just so direct and challenging. There’s a wonderful raw energy about her both personally and as a performer, an honesty and urgency that has remained throughout her career and seems no less evident now that she’s in her 70s. Quite incredible really.”

The National:

Bobby Bluebell, musician and songwriter, who is playing in the band Fat Cops during the Fringe:

"Patti Smith’s music was a gateway to that New York art and music hybrid. My favourite track by her is her cover of the song Privilege. However, my favourite Patti Smith lyrics are from Rock n Roll Nigger: ‘Outside of society, that’s where I want to be. Outside of society, they’re waitin’ for me’ ... And I just dig that she loves playing golf.

Musician Stuart Nisbet:

“When we were looking after the Burns An’ A’ That festival in 2003, we invited Patti to sing with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera at Culzean Castle. In my head I heard her singing Ye Jacobites By Name and the reality was every bit as fab as the idea. Not to mention the accidental close harmony singing with Mike Marra, which stays with me to this day. Two months later she sent a text to say she was singing Robert Burns in the Sabra and Shatilla camps in Palestine, and suddenly the work we do, just once, seemed to be worthwhile.”

LJ Findlay-Walsh, artistic director of Take Me Somewhere Festival and senior performance curator at Tramway:

“Patti Smith was the soundtrack that accompanied the decade I worked at renowned arts venue the Arches. It was a space and time full of wonderfully innovative and vibrant artists embracing risk.

“We played her 2004 album Trampin on repeat in the office and one of the most successful shows, Trilogy by Nic Green, where more than 100 local women danced proud and naked, used Ghost Dance as one of the main refrains.

“Patti has inspired a generation of makers and for me will always be indelibly linked to the city through this moment. My favourite song is Ghost Dance because of that memory of local women dancing naked and proud.”

Award-winning Scottish actress Sheila Grier:

“I’ve been a Patti Smith fan for years and have seen her in concert and in more intimate venues many times. She never fails to give her all, even now in her 70s. My favourite memory is seeing her at a Burns festival in Culzean Castle in 2003. She is a huge admirer of his work, and her rendition of Ye Jacobites By Name will always stay with me. It’s hard to choose my favourite song, but I think it has to be Gloria. She can still sing it with such gusto.”

Libby McArthur. actress:

“I was a fan from the age of 12. My big brother Peter was a punk and devoted to radical music and politics. Horses was the first album he played to me. When I was 14, I presented and won a school debate on ‘Punk Is A Political Movement’ and my references were Iggy Pop, The Stooges and Patti Smith. Her androgynous look ... I wanted to be that kind of girl. I started wearing braces! To this day, I still just love her poetry and the way she looked at the world. Dancing Barefoot is still one of my all-time favourites.

Karine Polwart, award-winning songwriter, musician, theatre-maker, storyteller and published writer:

“I’m a sloppy sucker for a lullaby so I love The Jackson Song from her 1988 album Dream Of Life (not her best album by any means). She wrote it with her husband Fred for their newborn son. If you’ve only ever heard her sing all spike and spleen, it’s disarmingly sweet and direct, with just piano, harp and strings. She writes so much about grief and rage and loss, that it feels like a wee window into this softer, quiet place.”

Alan Bissett, author, who is performing at Edinburgh Fringe this summer:

“Patti Smith occupies a unique place in rock history, not only representing the nascent punk revolution in the mid-70s, but bringing to it the vibe and intelligence of performance poetry, which was certainly beyond more lunk-headed contemporaries such as The Ramones.

“As a female artist she was unprecedented, shunning all ideas of the conventional marketing of young women in the music industry and instead projecting an androgynous and sometimes dangerous presence that freed female rock singers up forever.

“She is the very definition of creative integrity and restless political energy, and Horses is a near-perfect album that every generation will rediscover. My favourite track is her cover of Gloria.”

The National:

Janice Forsyth, broadcaster:

“Unlike so many Patti Smith fans who were blown away by her music when they were teenagers, I’ve come to appreciate her work later in life. And what a body of work. She’s the real deal – a true artist – a consummate lyricist, poet, performer and rock and roll ragamuffin who has pursued her own vision through the decades.

“I’m sure she’d hate the idea of being a role model, but there’s no denying her influence on generations of women. How brilliant that she’s still on the road – a fearless female in her 70s.

“My favourite track is Dancing Barefoot from the Wave album, a timeless, atmospheric gem.”

Ben Harrison, co-artistic director of Grid Iron:

“Patti is a huge influence and a show I made with Cora Bissett at the Arches in 2000, Horses, Horses, Coming In In All Directions, was inspired by her music.

“Her fearlessness in following her own path and celebrating those who came before and after is inspiring and humbling. My two favourite tracks are Land and her cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

“Her memoir, Just Kids, of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, is beautiful and heartbreaking. I burst into tears when I first read it on a train.”

Grahame Skinner, singer, Hipsway:

‘‘Patti Smith embodies the spirit of rock and roll. She creates a hypnotic wave, both sexual and intellectual, and surfs it to its crashing climax. My favourite song is Dancing Barefoot.”

Christopher Baker, director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery where there is a Robert Mapplethorpe portrait of Smith:

“Patti Smith is a formidable creative force, whose extraordinary career has encompassed powerful music, memoir, poetry, photography and protest. Few have succeeded across all these art forms and activities. She is particularly associated with the birth of the punk movement of the 1970s, but now has a soaring reputation that bridges the generations.”

Gerard Burns, artist:

“Because The Night really stuck out for me. It was the late 70s. I was puffed out with punk and all that noise, all the mess. She was part of that but always more poet than punk. Incredibly melodic. I can clearly remember the album cover [for Easter].

"She was a contradiction – a really powerful, strong female while completely vulnerable and unique and the arms upraised, the hairy oxster exposed, fragile and beautiful but not in a conventional sense, and that slightly off, husky vocal. She just had everything."

Clare Hemphill, actress:

“Patti actually gets that people have the power – never more relevant than today.”

Shirley Manson, singer , Garbage:

"When I was 19, I was in a band called Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and the lead singer of that band, Martin Metcalfe, decided to educate me in the types of records he thought I should be listening to. Patti Smith was his number one and I just fell madly in love with her.

"When you’re young, your compass is spinning so fast that you tend to gravitate towards artists who help you define yourself. Patti Smith taught me I can draw my own door and walk right through. When I feel the weight of ageism and the weight of sexism pushing down on my shoulders, I think of her and try to negotiate my life in the same way she has hers.

"It just seems to me like she’s not reduced by her age. Instead, she becomes like one of these tribal leaders – she gets more magnificent and more impressive. She is one of the very few female artists who continues to be captain of her own ship. I’m so grateful to her, next to my mother and my grandmother she’s had the most influence in my life of any woman. I’ve had the honour of meeting her several times and we’ve played with her. The first time I met her I was speechless – and I’m not speechless very often. I felt overwhelmed and I burst into tears! I think she understood why I’d responded to her that way because she just put her hand on my shoulder and sort of smiled and said: ‘I’d like to introduce you to my band.’ Which was such a gorgeous thing to say because it stopped all the awkwardness and allowed me to pull myself together.

The National:

"The irony is she was opening for us that night, which remains a source of embarrassment for me because it shows you how ludicrous the music industry is. When we came off stage, she’d slipped a note under my dressing room door. It said something about our show and then underneath she’d written: ‘Power to the people, Patti Smith.’ A spectacular moment. You can’t top that, can you?"

As originally told to The Guardian

Pam Hogg, fashion designer:

“They say never judge a book by the cover, but I bought Horses on sight. She looked incredible, so low-key but absolutely vital. I couldn’t wait to get it on my turntable, it was such a joy. Free Money may be my favourite track, a great one to play out.”

Christine Bovill, award-winning singer and songwriter who specialises in French chanson and who is appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe:

"Patti Smith is original and unapologetically true to herself and her artistic journey. As a songwriter forever devoted to the power of the lyric, I have been long inspired by the poetic voice of her work and her courageous, iconoclastic, beautiful lyrics. Favourite song? I love her interpretations of other people’s songs, but I would go for Frederick.”

Phamie Gow, composer/performer, who tours internationally, including in New York with Patti Smith’s band:

“Patti Smith to me is beyond a universe of dappled creativity, force and inspiration as a human being, not just as an artist and creator. It meant so much to me to have her backing band accompany me in 2008 in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Amazingly enough, Gow means the same as Smith! My favourite song is Because the Night."

Fleur Darkin, former artistic director of Scottish Dance Theatre:

"Patti Smith’s album Horses came out two years before I was born but I discovered it when I was 21 years old.

"I liked the depth of the sound and when, suddenly, Jonny gets the feeling he’s surrounded by horses, I felt maybe I was Jonny in his leather jacket and the horses were coming at me. I didn’t know whether to fall in love with Jonny or be Jonny.

"That is a feeling I still grapple with, a woman putting the muse out there on to everyone else.

"But the thing with Patti is, she wears the jackets too; the writer musing on Jonny is the muse herself.

"She wears her male influences strongly, whether covering a Kurt Cobain song or photographing Rimbaud’s grave, and she brings herself into the equation.

"The important thing is Patti is being an artist and she’s a woman, and if you have to only listen to one track of hers, make it Kimberley.

"After an intensely difficult professional experience working on a high-profile (read high-pressure) project, I fell out with the director, who was a friend and long-term collaborator.

"Reading Smith’s Just Kids helped me understand the loss and ultimately recover the friendship.

"The book centres on an alreadyheavily fabled time in 1970s’ NYC but it is the pure-hearted tone of the writing that is the revelation.

"Patti the Romantic takes what must have been quite painful experiences and crafts them into a book of sorrow transcended.

"Just Kids is less about the Chelsea Hotel and more about forgiveness and faithfulness.

"The French philosopher Julia Kristeva said that fame is the radiant mourning of unhappiness, and certainly Patti’s voice radiates light over the adrenalised period in one’s life of searching for identity, and cradles the retrospective ache that accompanies the irreversibility of living.

"Patti’s book introduced me to Robert Mapplethorpe and his polaroids became the inspiration for the piece Velvet Petal which I made in Scotland and Mexico with many dancers and musicians and which has toured for the past four years.

"Her commitment to doing things well and for the right reasons is unusual.

"She seems to have taken a path to artistry through starting out as a fan of artists who are worthy of her devotion.

"In 2015 I took a group of dancers to the Edinburgh Playhouse to see Patti reading the poetry of Allen Ginsberg alongside Philip Glass on the piano.

"The dancers were arrested by her voice and it was hard to even leave the seats of the theatre.

"To me, she is a figure of love. What becomes most vital in life, as the politics of adulthood plays out, is an artist’s line of integrity. This is not the same as popularity or power. Patti has kept that to that line for a long time and her commitment continues to inspire."