Patti Smith: the debut of rock's greatest female role model

Patti Smith had left a factory job to work in bookshops, act in plays and dream of transcendence. Piss Factory, the B-side to her debut single, Hey Joe, offered that transcendence. Channelling the Beat poets and tapping into the disgust that would climax as punk, Smith made riveting rock'n'roll out of a poem about the dehumanising effects of piece work and the desire for escape.