Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye serenade New York voters with performance of "People Have The Power"

03 November 2020, 16:43 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

(News)

(Patti Smith)

Patti Smith and guitarist Lenny Kaye took to the streets of New York to encourage people to vote by performing "People Have The Power".

Smith and Kaye perform "People Have The Power" on a street corner in New York. Before singing, Smith removes her mask and says, "Thank you all for coming, I'm sorry I have to take my mask off 'cause I can't sing with it on, but then i'll put it back on."

In the second half of the video Smith is joined by the audience in singing the chorus of the song. Before ending the song, Smith says, "Don’t forget it, use your voice! Vote!"

The video was posted by election organisation Joy To The Polls, who wrote, "The People Have the Power. Singing to voters in the streets is so punk! We love Patti Smith bringing people power to the polls with this impromptu performance in NYC earlier this week."

View this post on Instagram
The People Have the Power Singing to voters in the streets is so punk! We love @thisispattismith bringing people power to the polls with this impromptu performance in NYC earlier this week. You don’t have to be the Godmother of Punk to surprise and delight voters in long voting lines! How are you bringing #JoyToThePolls on Tuesday? Check out the link in our bio for a toolkit for artists and performers. Repost @zoe_leonard_studio
A post shared by #JoyToThePolls (@joytothepolls) on Nov 1, 2020 at 12:30pm PST