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Patti Smith Pays Tribute to Amy Winehouse on Next Album

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Punk rock’s poet laureate is honoring the memory of retro-soul’s self-destructive queen. Patti Smith has written a song about Amy Winehouse, to appear on Smith’s next album, Uncut reports. Smith is quoted as saying she built the song around a poem she composed about the London-based singer after her death last summer at age 27.

“The little song for Amy just blossomed in the studio,” Smith told Uncut. “We were at [New York studio] Electric Lady doing a whole other song and I wrote Amy a little poem when she died and my bass player, Tony Shanahan, wrote a piece of music and the two matched perfectly.”

Smith said she also wrote a song for longtime friend Maria Schneider, the Last Tango in Paris actress who died last February at age 58. Uncut doesn’t give a title or release date for a new album from Smith, who recently wrapped up what looks to be her last annual year-end run at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. The singer-songwriter is also reportedly working on a film adaptation of Just Kids, Smith’s 2010 book focusing on her deep bond with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith’s musical tribute to Winehouse comes after similar dedications by M.I.A. and Green Day.