Patti Smith - Horses

Patti's Poetic Punk Horses

"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine"--Patti Smith.

With her 1975 debut album, Horses, Patti Smith managed to single-handedly fuse beat poetry with punk rock. At the time, Smith was a member of the NYC St. Mark's Poetry Project and the founding member of Patti Smith Group, featuring Lenny Kaye on guitars, Ivan Kral on bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, and Richard Sohl on piano. Produced by John Cale (with some inspiration from the spirit Jimi Hendrix), the album opens with an intense cover of Van Morrison's 1964 Them song, "Gloria," then transitions into "Redondo Beach" (a song Morrissey frequently performs live; Live at Earls Court). Smith based the lyrics of "Birdland" on a memoir of Wilhelm Reich, Book of Dreams (1973). Both Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths have said that Horses left them in awe. They are not alone. (Although Morrissey has always said he chose the name The Smiths because it was "the most ordinary name" he could think of, I have always wondered if he chose the name out of love for Patti Smith.) For me, Horses was a college favorite. A near-perfect album song sequence includes:

1. Gloria (Digitally Remastered 1996) 5:56
2. Redondo Beach (Digitally Remastered 1996) 3:27
3. Birdland (Digitally Remastered 1996) 9:15
4. Free Money (Digitally Remastered 1996) 3:52
5. Kimberly (Digitally Remastered 1996) 4:26
6. Break It Up (Digitally Remastered 1996) 4:02
7. Land (Digitally Remastered 1996) 9:28
8. Elegie (Digitally Remastered 1996) 2:42
9. My Generation (Bonus Track/Digitally Remastered 1996) 3:31

G. Merritt
June 11, 2008

I'll keep it short and sweet...

The word that comes most readily to mind is "catharsis." That's what this album, Patti Smith's masterful 1975 debut, is all about. Catharsis. A wave of tension being ripped from your spine, from your blood, from the cords of your bones and the fibers of your nerves and the red streaks in your eyes, love and sex and fear and hate and joy suddenly uncaged. Release. It's a forty-five minute scream. Articulate, poetic, emotive, and gorgeous, but a scream nonetheless. And there's a 60s garage rock cover! Two of `em, actually. This is rock `n' roll at its gutsiest and its brainiest, and no music fan should ever be without it. June 2, 2008

Horses

Patti Smith-Horses *****

Horses is a lot of things. It is one of the first and best punk albums of all time, it is Smiths finest record, one of the best albums of all time, one of the most important albums of all time, it's legendary, brilliant, poetic, socially conscious, angry, gentle...perfect.

From the feminist album cover featuring Patti in her Keith Richards outfit, the one she wore all the damn time back in the day, to the last notes of the mournful 'Elegie' Horses is one of the most eclectic and genius pieces of music ever. The cover of Them's 'Gloria' with the infamous opening line "Jesus died for somebody's sins/But not mine" is maybe better than the original if you can believe it. The ska of 'Redondo Beach' (which by the way she was the only Yankee to attempt ska and reggae other then the Brits) is refreshing. 'Birdland' is haunting while 'Free Money' is hopeful. 'Kimberly' and 'Break It Up' are equally melloncholly. 'Land' is maybe the greatest song in the history of punk, featuring a cover of 'Land Of A Thousand Dances' making it easily the most original song of all time to feature a cover. 'Elegie' is a suicide song the closes the album scarily. On some versions of the newly remastered album there is a bonus cover of The Who's 'My Generation' which is killer to say the least.

Whether it is the poetic beauty of the lyrics or the raw power of the music, Horses is an album worthy of every music collection, and of a listen from everyone. It is powerful and moving, more so than maybe any other album I have ever heard. Highly, highly, highly, recommended! May 2, 2008

Decade-defining rock album

I should preface this review by saying that I don't listen to rock anymore, having long since left it for Miles, Mingus, Monk, Coltrane, Coleman, Cecil, and Braxton. However, there are still some few albums that "do it" for me, and I think these are among the albums that are definitive of rock'n roll: Hendrix's Are You Experienced?, Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, The Velvet Underground and Nico, The Stooges' debut, Zappa's Hot Rats, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Joni Mitchell's Blue, Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, The Stones' Exile on Main Street, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, The Clash's London Calling, The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bullocks, The Violent Femmes' self-titled debut, the Pixies' Doolittle, Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, Nirvana's Nevermind, and, perhaps above all, Patti Smith's Horses. Smith's lyrics stand with Dylan's, Joni's, Leonard Cohen's, and Bob Marley's as the most influential popular poetry of the twentieth century. And her music is pretty good, too... March 8, 2008

Her greatest album of all time

This album is easily the best work Patti Smith has ever done, as it succeeds as a ground-breaking experimental work that is pre-punk and highly lyrical. January 27, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...