Track Listing

1. Gloria
2. Redondo Beach
3. Birdland
4. Free Money
5. Kimberly
6. Break It Up
7. Land: horses, land of a thousand dances, la mer (de)
8. Elegie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3267 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
On her 1975 debut, Smith was full of piss and vinegar, seriously interested in bringing together high art and low three-chord rock & roll. As a result, her free-form poetry meshes with covers of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances", and the album centres on two long, highfalutin' pieces, including the three-part suite (warning! warning! art!) "Land". (The CD version appends a messy live take on The Who's "My Generation".) Led by Richard Sohl's piano, the arrangements don't exactly rock, and some of Smith's song-writing gets buried in its stylistic affectations (there's a great song under "Redondo Beach"'s fake reggae). But the point of Horses was Smith's persona of volume, cunning and exile, and it comes through distinctly. --Douglas Wolk

CD Description
With the exception of Bob Dylan, few rock n' rollers explored poetry within the rock format as thoroughly as Patti Smith. By the mid-70's, Smith had been a regular poetry-reader in New York City clubs for years, and with a deep admiration for The Rolling Stones, it was only natural to set these poems to music. With an exciting rock band to back her up (including renowned music critic Lenny Kaye on guitar), Smith built up a following on the strength of the band's thrilling and trance-inducing live shows.
Produced by ex-Velvet Underground bassist John Cale, HORSES was considered 'punk rock' when it was first released, but there was much more to it. Smith had a gift for being able to paint vivid pictures with her prose, as evidenced by a pair of 10-minute long epics, "Birdland" and "Land" (which consisted of 3 sections--"Horses", "Land of A Thousand Dances", and "La Mer"). Other tracks are more conventional, yet just as gripping--a cover of "Gloria", "Free Money", and "Kimberly", plus a ragged live coverof The Who's "My Generation" (included on the '96 remastered CD edition as a bonus track). HORSES is a classic.

Customer Reviews

SUBLIME POETIC ROCK
This was my first encounter with rock as poetry (well, perhaps barring some Rolling Stones songs) and it opened a new universe. The ominous Gloria, the lilting reggae of the sad Redondo Beach, the evocative surrealism of Kimberly and the violently erotic title track were like nothing else in rock music, and they're still unique and special. I'm not crazy about each & every track but they all have great worth and Horses will forever stand as a monument to the best in music. Excepting Horses (title track), the three I have mentioned are quite accessible and hummable to the mainstream (as opposed to Art Rock) fan. Aaah and Patti looks so sexy on the cover.

Debut full of passion�(corrected version)
I first came across Patti Smith on the B.B.C. 2 music show "The Old Grey Whistle Test", I can't remember the year but I think it was round the middle of the 70's.

I remember she was strangely dressed for being on stage, wearing a big black coat and black hat on stage, I thought strange what's all this about and then she proceeded to perform the track "Land" which is in 3 parts, horses, land of a 1,000 dances and La mer (de) nothing could have prepared me for the all out assault on the senses that Ms Smith performed.
The performance that I witnessed was incredible; she was jumping up and down, throwing herself around the floor and this was for the full length of the song and runs at nearly 10 minutes long.

After watching this on TV. I thought to myself I must get a copy of this album, the next day I preceded to my nearest "music emporium", I asked the shop assistant if they had this title in stock, to my great delight they did. I handed my money post haste rushed home and slapped it on my turntable.

As the record played I inspected the cover more closely, the black and white photograph on the front was very intriguing, the image was very androgynous, the sleeve credit was to Robert Mapplethorpe, if you look very carefully you will notice a very small badge of a horse on the lapel of the jacket draped over her shoulder.

The opening track to the album was a hybrid version of "Gloria" by Van Morrison this song had as much passion in it as had the live performance on TV. The following track "Redondo Beach" was a change of pace more reggae in nature than rock with its rock steady guitar sound and off beat hi- hat sound.

As the song "Free Money" started I thought to myself this is more like a 3 chord rock work-out, but nothing previous to this on the album had given any indication of the contents of the track "Birdland" this track clocks in at just over 9 minutes long, what an audio attack she really lets fly, very similar to the emotional displays that made Janis Joplin famous.

Most of the songs on the album were written by Patti Smith and her long time guitarist Lenny Kaye, but the following "Break it up" was co-written by Tom Verlaine of Television fame; the song also contains some excellent guitar work by Mr Verlaine.
Then you get to the studio version of "Land" this is even more of a Rolla coaster ride than "the test" performance.

As the album closes with the song "Elegie" the understated piano sound is welcome rest bite from intenseness of the rest of the album.

When this album was re-issued on C.D. in 1988 the sound of the album was very disappointing, but this 1996 version is a 20 bit re-master with a bonus live track with the producer of the album John Cale from the Velvet Underground playing bass on it which after the bass solo from Mr Cale soon becomes a howling mess of feedback and swearing, and Patti Smith shouting "We created it, lets control it".

This is a collection not for the faint - hearted but for music fans that like their music full on....

Perfection from 1975
im still in love with this album today as i was back in 1975. Ok so whats it like, well.... how about beautifully structured, simplistic songs with lyrics that are at times cryptic and yet seem to cry out at you as if you could almost be standing beside Patti as she sings and breathes into your ear, throw in some striped bare electric guitar, bass and drums with piano and hey what do you have, perfection and a true original.