Product 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.

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: #3937 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-27
• Number of discs: 1

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

Customer Reviews

One of the best.
If you like music that is poetic, intelligent and rocks like a Godzilla with his tail on fire then you will love Patti Smith. Horses is a good first choice for anyone who wants to know her music.

A unique masterpiece
I had never heard anyhting like this before I checked it out, I expected a mournful album of gravelly sung ballads - and got one!- but so much more that I really didn't understand straight away. It was only after repeated listens -as is usually the case with albums that you end up loving for a lifetime- that its spell worked itself on me. The almost psychadelic, free association poetry paints such vivid pictures in your mind as she narrates that she reminds you of a cross between; Dylan, a raving street preacher and a kindergaten teacher reading a story. How many artists can you say that about these days? A unique masterpiece.

You cannot improve on perfection...
Wow it's been over thirty years since I first heard this album (yes I'm that old now!) and yet listening to this again makes me feel like telling you, the reader, that this is perfection. My father had diverse tastes and this was one of the treats for a pre-teen to hear something that was full of soul, emotion and took the listener on a journey. A story is told to the listener in each song through the poetic lyrics and the distinctive voice of one of the greats.

Patti Smith went on to write other good albums, but this one couldn't truly be bettered. Let me just tell you about my favourite tracks.

* Gloria opens soulfully and builds to a gallop you can't resist singing "G, L, ORIA, Gloria". And with the opening lyrics "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" you realise that this isn't someone who just throws together their lyrics but instead they want them to mean something. That line is just so memorable in itself.
* Birdland is an amazing song, well more a story that meanders along and enthralls the ear and the mind. The story takes you on a journey for over nine minutes and yet you won't notice the time. It'll seem like twenty minutes and 2 minutes at the same time. At this point you'll think things cannot get better, but oh they do.
* We move onto another haunting intro. in Free Money. But don't get to comfortable because the beat will start your toes tapping in no time at all.
*Land: Horses/Land of a thousand Dances/La Mer (de) - if someone asks which Patti Smith song to listen to to get a real feel for what Patti Smith is about then it's got to be Land which consists of three sections which includes the title "track" Horses. This combines the poetry, the story telling, the emotion and soul, the toe tapping rhythms, the raw energy of Patti at her best. This combo of tracks weave images through one's head, this is "art" but not in any negative way as some might use the term, it's accessible to the listener. It's indulgent, but you feel that you are part of the indulgence. It's like reading a good enthralling book where at the end your head is filled with memories from the story as if you were part of it.

This IS Patti Smith, no one else could do this. Without doubt Patti demonstrates "a sea of possibilities".

I'm listening to this album again as I write this review and it doesn't seem dated in any way or form in fact it still feels like it's on the edge of what's normal in music. It is haunting and intelligent.