Big Girls Don’t Cry

In Patti Smith’s new memoir, ‘M Train’, the 68-year-old author reveals an interior life that seems to befit a 19th-century poet more than a 21st-century rocker Bobby Fischer was an aficionado of ’50s rock. One surreal encounter that Ms. Smith describes – and has discussed publicly – is an all-night meeting with the chess prodigy in Reykjavík. After some initial awkwardness the two found common ground by singing the songs of Buddy Holly and others from the golden age of rock ’n’ roll. At one point, Ms. Smith recalls, Fischer’s bodyguard burst in on the meeting, alarmed by hearing “something strange”. It turned out to be the chess champ singing the falsetto chorus from “Big Girls Don’t Cry”. [Read more].

• Ethan Smith, ‘M Train’ Reveals Patti Smith’s Interior Life, The Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2015

Robert James Fischer in his last days in Reykjavík
Photo: Icelandic Review Online