Stockholm Has the Power

Patti Smith, a Longtime Fan of the City, on the Spots She Never Misses When in Town

- Amy Fleming

IN DECEMBER 2016, Patti Smith performed at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden’s capital. She was honoring the laureate for literature, Bob Dylan, and her choice of music was “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” a song she has loved since she was a teenager. Smith was visibly emotional singing it, and because of those intense feelings and nerves, she had to stop at one point.

The crowd didn’t mind. “I could see the king and queen looking up at me,” she says now, “and they were pressing me on. I had an uncharacteristically difficult moment, and I could feel everyone was with me, and that’s typical of my relationship with the people of Stockholm.”