Songfacts®:

• Patti Smith explained to New York Rocker: "'Citizen Ship' is just a song talking about what it was like in 1968, when Ivan Kral escaped from Czechoslovakia to America and Patti Smith escaped from New Jersey to New York City."
  
  Kral, who wrote the song with Smith, played bass in Patti Smith Group and often contributed to the songwriting. He was born in Prague and came to America as a teenager. The song describes the immigrant experience.
• "Citizen Ship" is part of Patti Smith's 1979 Wave album, produced by Todd Rundgren. It was her last album until 1988, when she returned with Dream Of Life. During that break, Patti married another Smith: MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, and had two children. Ivan Kral went on to work with Iggy Pop, playing on his 1980 album Soldier.