Horses

Ça me tentais pas vraiment d’écouter ce style là mais j’imagine que ça devait être cool d’entendre ça à l’époque

JESUS DIED FOR SOMEBODY’S SINS BUT NOT MINE!!!! 🗣️ raw, poetic and so so influential. Patti is one of the OG cool girls chanson préférée : Free Money P.S. ça fait trois albums déjà (Physical Graffiti, Neon Bible et celui-là) qui ont une toune « plage » pis je tiens juste à souligner à quel point j’haïs ça. why is this a thing

So this is the album with Redondo Beach!! Great + very creative musically. Loved something in every song. 4.5 stars cos the 0.5 needed a teney bit more dopamine scratching

I am slightly aware of Patti Smith, and I have 2 songs liked by her - with 1 song from this album ("Redondo Beach"). I can't remember why or when I first heard that song but I do like that. So, I'm very interested to dive deeper into this album. After 3 listens I ended up liking "Gloria", "Free Money", and "Elegie" - in addition to "Redondo Beach". The long spoken word parts of several of these songs remind me of the Jim Morrison/Doors "American Prayer" album - and not in a good way. Just didn't like most of that. Apparently this is supposed to be so ground breaking and innovative and influential. That might be, but it's not a perfect album by any stretch. It's just ok to my ears - having liked only half the songs. Liked songs on Spotify: 4/8 Rating: 3/5

Always a good listen. So many styles, timeless.

This album was around when I was growing up and into great music, but I never heard it in full. Now, far too late in the game, I’m hearing a young Patti Smith and I can’t believe how much she sounds like Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney. Wait, let’s reverse that. How much Carrie Brownstein sounds like Patti Smith. Godmother of punk indeed! Love the energy and showwomanship here. These songs must have been amazing live. This would probably move to a 5/5 with more time, my subjective 4/5 probably says more about my being a latecomer here.

Brilliant Album and artist. At the end, I was convinced that Patti just kept speaking and saying interesting things whether there was music or not. But the most amazing part to me was how beautifully interwoven her vocal style flowed with the music itself. The energy and intelligence and poetry is tight and impactful from beginning to end. What a great album.

Pretty fun, the opening track is energetic as anything. 'Free Money' is a banger. The rest of the album unfolds rather nicely. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

4/5

It had glimmers of promise but too much talking over itself for me

4.5 (43:10, 8 tracks, debut, 1975) Punk (Art Punk) Should this album be part of this list - 1000%, one of the most influential albums of all time. Do I love this album, not really, I love punk but it's a bit too artsy and not enough 'punk'; however I respect the hell out of this album. It's like a non-Christian reading the bible just because of how many cultural references and literary allusions point to bible passages. Not listening to this album before you die would be a shame for any audiophile. This album, more so than any other (this is #202) is the most important to have 'listened to before I died.' Still I give it a 4. It's just not a classic. If I was given 100 albums to take to the deserted island and which I'd never get off . . . this wouldn't be one (though if I did take it, I bet I would learn to love it more.) RESPECT! The album cover features a black-and-white photograph of Patti Smith slinging a jacket over her shoulder. Singles from Horses "Gloria" Smith, supported by her regular backing band, recorded the album at Electric Lady Studios in September 1975, choosing former Velvet Underground member John Cale as the album's producer. The music on Horses was part of the minimalist punk rock aesthetic of the time. Smith and her band composed the album's songs using simple chord progressions, but also breaking from punk tradition in their propensity for improvisation and embrace of ideas from avant-garde and other musical styles. With Horses, Smith drew upon her backgrounds in rock music and poetry, aiming to create an album combining both forms. Her lyrics were alternately rooted in her own personal experiences, particularly with her family, and in more fantastical imagery. Horses was additionally inspired by Smith's reflections on the previous era of rock music—with two of its songs being adapted in part from 1960s rock standards, and others containing lyrical allusions and tributes to past rock performers—and her hopes for the music's future. Horses experienced modest commercial success and reached the top 50 of the Billboard album chart, while being widely acclaimed by music critics. Recognized as a seminal recording in the history of punk and later rock movements, Horses has appeared in numerous lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 2009, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation into the National Recording Registry as a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" work. By 1974 Patti Smith and her backing band frequently performance live in NYC; a popular act in the underground rock music scene. Their highly attended two-month residency at the New York City club CBGB with the band Television created hype. Clive Davis, scouting for artists for his label Arista Records was impressed by her live performance. Davis offered Smith a seven-album recording deal with Arista. Smith had written poetry for several years before becoming a musician, and entered the music industry because she thought "the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough". For her debut album, her primary aim was to merge poetry and rock music, which then developed into a "larger mission" to "pump blood back into the heart of rock'n'roll". The title Horses reflected Smith's desire for a rejuvenation of rock music, which she found had grown "calm" in reaction to the social turmoil of the 1960s and the deaths of numerous prominent rock musicians of that era. "Psychologically, somewhere in our hearts," she stated shortly after the album's release, "we were all screwed up because those people died ... We all had to pull ourselves together. To me, that's why our record's called Horses. We had to pull the reins on ourselves to recharge ourselves ... We've gotten ourselves back together. It's time to let the horses loose again. We're ready to start moving again." Smith later reflected that she had envisioned Horses as a record bridging the "great artists that we had just lost" and the next generation of rockers, who she hoped would "be less materialistic, more bonded with the people and not so glamorous", and that from a more humanistic perspective, she had also aimed "to reach out to other disenfranchised people" like herself. Smith said, "I was consciously trying to make a record that would make a certain type of person not feel alone. People who were like me, different ... I wasn't targeting the whole world. I wasn't trying to make a hit record." At Smith's suggestion, the label planned to book with producer Tom Dowd at Criteria in Miami, but Dowd's close association with rival label Atlantic Records stalled these plans. Smith had a change of heart and instead set out to enlist Welsh musician John Cale, formerly of the New York City rock band the Velvet Underground, to produce Horses after she was impressed by the raw sound of his solo albums. Horses was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with Smith retaining the same backing band with whom she performed live at the time. They recorded several songs that were already fixtures of their live sets, including "Gloria", "Redondo Beach", "Birdland", and "Land". Allen Lanier of Blue Öyster Cult and Tom Verlaine of Television participated in the recording sessions as guest musicians, performing on the songs "Elegie" and "Break It Up", respectively. Cale recalled the band initially "sounded awful" and played out of tune due to their use of damaged instruments, compelling him to procure the band new instruments. Cale wished to augment the band's approach on certain songs with string instruments, but Smith vehemently opposed this idea. For several years after the album's release, Smith often downplayed Cale's contributions to Horses and suggested that she and her band had ignored his suggestions entirely. My picking John was arbitrary, I looked at the cover of Fear and I said, 'Now there's a set of cheekbones.' In my mind I picked him because his records sounded good. But I hired the wrong guy. All I was really looking for was a technical person. Instead, I got a total maniac artist. I went to pick out an expensive watercolor painting and instead I got a mirror. It was really like A Season in Hell, for both of us. But inspiration doesn't always have to be someone sending me half a dozen American Beauty roses. There's a lotta inspiration going on between the murderer and the victim. And he had me so nuts I wound up doing this nine-minute cut that transcended anything I ever did before. Cale said in 1996 that Smith initially struck him as "someone with an incredibly volatile mouth who could handle any situation", and that as producer on Horses he wanted to capture the energy of her live performances, noting that there "was a lot of power in Patti's use of language, in the way images collided with one another." He likened their working relationship during recording to "an immutable force meeting an immovable object." Smith would later attribute much of the tension between herself and Cale to her inexperience with formal studio recording, recalling that she was "very, very suspicious, very guarded and hard to work with" and "made it difficult for him to do some of the things he had to do." She expressed gratitude for Cale's persistence in working with her and her band, and found that his production made the most out of their "adolescent and honest flaws". 1. "Gloria" 15:15. "Gloria" relies on a simple progression of three chords (E major, D major, and A major). Smith characterized Horses as "three-chord rock merged with the power of the word". Consequence's Lior Phillips noted that the minimalist quality of the album's music "matched the tone of" the nascent punk rock genre, which had emerged in NYC in the mid-1970s, and counted Smith, Television, and fellow CBGB regulars such as the Ramones as practitioners. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic cited Lenny Kaye's rudimentary guitar playing and the "anarchic spirit" of Smith's vocals as being representative of punk. Tarr wrote that the band "proudly flaunted a garage rock aesthetic" on Horses, while Smith "sang with the delirious release of an inspired amateur", emphasizing "honest passion" over technical proficiency. Smith's vocals on the album alternate between being sung and spoken, an approach that, according to Peter Murphy of Hot Press, "challenged the very notion of a demarcation" between the two forms. AllMusic critic Steve Huey observed that Horses borrowed ideas from the avant-garde, with the music showcasing the band's free jazz-inspired interplay and improvisation, while still remaining "firmly rooted in primal three-chord rock & roll. . . essentially the first art punk album." Smith and her band's musical improvisation differentiated them from most of their punk contemporaries, whose songs rarely diverged from straightforward three-chord structures. Throughout Horses, they also tempered their punk sound with elements of other musical styles, balancing more conventional rock songs with excursions into reggae ("Redondo Beach") and jazz ("Birdland"). Fiona Sturges of The Guardian described Smith's lyrics on Horses as being steeped in "intricate phrasing and imagery" that "deliberately blurred the lines between punk and poetry", while CMJ writer Steve Klinge found they recalled the energy of Beat poetry and the "revolutionary spirit" of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, one of Smith's primary influences. She left the genders of the songs' protagonists ambiguous, a stylistic choice she said was "learnt from Joan Baez, who often sang songs that had a male point of view", while also serving as a declaration "that as an artist, I can take any position, any voice, that I want." Smith's experiences with her family inspired specific songs on Horses. "Redondo Beach", whose lyrics concern a woman who commits suicide following a quarrel with the song's narrator, was written by Smith after an incident involving her and her sister Linda. The two had gotten into a heated argument, prompting Linda to leave their shared apartment and not return until the next day. "Kimberly" is a dedication to its namesake, Smith's younger sister, and finds the singer recounting a childhood memory of holding Kimberly in her arms during a lightning storm. In "Free Money", Smith describes growing up in poverty in New Jersey and recalls her mother fantasizing about winning the lottery. Other songs were penned by Smith about notable public figures. "Birdland" was inspired by A Book of Dreams, a 1973 memoir of Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich by his son Peter, and revolves around a narrative in which Peter, at his father's funeral, imagines leaving on a UFO piloted by his father's spirit. "Break It Up" was written about Jim Morrison based on Smith's recollection of her visit to Morrison's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery, as well as a dream in which she witnessed a winged Morrison stuck to a marble slab, trying and eventually succeeding in breaking free from the stone. "Elegie" is a requiem for rock musician Jimi Hendrix and quotes a line from his 1968 song "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)". It was recorded, at Smith's request, on the fifth anniversary of Hendrix's death, which fell on September 18, the final day of recording. Smith said that the song was also intended to pay tribute to other deceased rock artists such as Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, and Janis Joplin. Two songs on Horses are partial adaptations of rock standards: "Gloria", a radical reimagining of the 1964 Them song incorporating verses from Smith's own poem "Oath", and "Land", which features the first verse of Chris Kenner's 1962 song "Land of a Thousand Dances". In "Land", Smith weaves the imagery of the Kenner song into an elaborate narrative about a character named Johnny—an allusion to the similarly named homoerotic protagonist of the 1971 William S. Burroughs novel The Wild Boys—while additionally referencing Arthur Rimbaud and, indirectly, Jimi Hendrix, whom Smith imagined to be the song's protagonist, "dreaming a simple rock-and-roll song, and it takes him into all these other realms." The characterization of Johnny in "Land" was also inspired by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe—who was a close friend of Smith and shot the picture of her used for the Horses album cover—and his experiences in the New York S&M scene; in her memoir Just Kids (2010), Smith refers to Mapplethorpe and Burroughs, sitting together in CBGB, as "Johnny and the horse". The cover photograph for Horses was taken by Robert Mapplethorpe at the Greenwich Village penthouse apartment of his partner Sam Wagstaff. Smith, shrouded in natural light, is seen wearing a plain white shirt, which she had purchased at a Salvation Army shop on the Bowery, and slinging a black jacket over her shoulder and her favorite black ribbon around her collar. Embedded on the jacket is a horse pin that Allen Lanier had given her. Smith described her appearance as recalling those of French poet Charles Baudelaire and, in the slinging of the jacket, American singer and actor Frank Sinatra. She recounted that Mapplethorpe "took, like, twelve pictures, and at about the eighth one, he said, 'I have it.' I said, 'How do you know?' and he said, 'I just know,' and I said, 'Okay.' And that was it." The black-and-white treatment and androgynous pose were a departure from the typical promotional images of female singers of the time. Arista executives wanted to make various changes to the photograph, but Smith overruled their suggestions. Clive Davis wrote in 2013 that he was initially conflicted about the image, recognizing its "power" but feeling that it would confuse audiences unfamiliar with Smith and her style of music. He put aside his reservations and approved the cover after realizing that he needed "to trust her artistic instincts thoroughly". Feminist writer Camille Paglia later referred to the Horses cover photograph as "one of the greatest pictures ever taken of a woman." In 2017, World Cafe presenter Talia Schlanger wrote that "Smith's unapologetic androgyny predates a time when that was an en vogue or even available option for women, and represents a seminal moment in the reversal of the female gaze. Smith is looking at you, and could care less what you think about looking at her. That was radical for a woman in 1975. It is still radical today." Smith herself stated that she had not intended to make a "big statement" with the cover, which she said simply reflected the way she dressed. "I wasn't thinking that I was going to break any boundaries. I just like dressing like Baudelaire," she remarked in 1996. On September 18, 1975, the same day that they finished recording Horses, Smith and her band performed a promotional live concert at an Arista convention held at the New York City Center, where they were personally introduced by Clive Davis. They previewed five songs from the album: "Birdland", "Redondo Beach", "Break It Up", "Land", and, as their encore, "Free Money". Lisa Robinson reported afterward in NME that the "stupendous, truly exciting" performance was met with a highly ecstatic response from the Arista executives in attendance. Smith had originally requested for the album to be issued on October 20, the birthday of Arthur Rimbaud, but due to a shortage of vinyl, the release date was postponed, in what Smith described as a "magical" coincidence, to November 10, the anniversary of Rimbaud's death. Commercially, it performed respectably for a debut album, despite receiving little radio airplay. In the United States, Horses peaked at number 47 on the Billboard 200 album chart, remaining on the chart for 17 weeks. The album also managed chart placings in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, where it reached number 18. To promote Horses, Smith and her band toured the US and made their network television debut performing on the NBC variety show Saturday Night Live, then traveled to Europe for an appearance on the BBC Two music show The Old Grey Whistle Test and a short tour. "Gloria" was released as a single in April 1976. Smith's cover of the Who's "My Generation", performed live in Cleveland, served as the single's B-side. Horses was met with near-universal acclaim from critics. Music journalist Mary Anne Cassata said that it was roundly hailed as "one of the most original first albums ever recorded." Reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, John Rockwell wrote that Horses is "wonderful in large measure because it recognizes the overwhelming importance of words" in Smith's work, covering a range of themes "far beyond what most rock records even dream of." Rockwell highlighted Smith's adaptations of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances" as the most striking moments on the record, finding that she had rendered the songs "far more expansive than their original creators could have dreamed." Jonh Ingham of Sounds penned a five-star review of Horses, naming it "the record of the year" and "one of the most stunning, commanding, engrossing platters to come down the turnpike since John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band". NME critic Charles Shaar Murray called it "an album in a thousand" and "an important album in terms of what rock can encompass without losing its identity as a musical form, in that it introduces an artist of greater vision than has been seen in rock for far too long." At the end of 1975, Horses was voted the second-best album of the year, behind Bob Dylan and the Band's The Basement Tapes, in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published in The Village Voice. Horses cemented Smith's reputation as a central figure of the New York City punk rock scene. It has frequently been cited as the first punk rock album, as well as one of the key recordings of the punk movement, appearing in professional lists of the best punk albums of all time. "Pipping the Ramones' first album to the post by five months," Simon Reynolds wrote in The Observer, "Horses is generally considered not just one of the most startling debuts in rock history but the spark that ignited the punk explosion." Horses has been described as a landmark for both punk and its offshoot genre new wave, inspiring "a raw, almost amateurish energy for the former and critical, engaging reflexivity for the latter." "intelligent and self-conscious, yet visceral and exciting" sensibility, identifying its influence on the alternative rock, indie rock, and grunge movements that followed the punk era. “I still feel the chill of Patti Smith's suspicious gaze when I look at the cover of Horses, but now I feel like I can explain it a little better." Various musicians have credited Horses as an influence. Viv Albertine of the Slits said that the album "absolutely and completely changed" her life, adding: "Us girls never stood in front of a mirror posing as if we had a guitar because we had no role models. So, when Patti Smith came along, it was huge. She was groundbreakingly different." Siouxsie and the Banshees frontwoman Siouxsie Sioux, naming "Land" as a recording she considered particularly influential on her, remarked that "apart from Nico, Patti was the first real female writer in rock." R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe bought a copy of Horses as a high school student and later stated that the album "tore [his] limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order", citing Smith as his primary inspiration for becoming a musician. Similarly, his R.E.M. bandmate Peter Buck cited attending the four Atlanta shows Smith played on her first US tour as the moment he started to seriously consider forming a group. Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared an appreciation for the record, and one of their early compositions for the Smiths, "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", uses a melody based on that of "Kimberly".[97] Courtney Love of Hole recounted that listening to Horses as a teenager helped encourage her to pursue a career in rock music, while PJ Harvey recalled hearing the album and finding it "brilliant—not so much her music but her delivery, words, and her articulation. Her honesty." KT Tunstall wrote her hit single "Suddenly I See" (2004) about how she felt inspired to embrace her musical ambitions after seeing Smith on the cover of Horses. Horses has often been named by music critics as one of the all-time greatest albums. Lars Brandle of Billboard wrote that the album had come to be regarded as "one of the finest in recorded music history." In 2003 and 2012, Horses was ranked at number 44 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, later #26 in 2020. NME named it the 12th-greatest album of all time in a similar list published in 2013. In 2006, Time named Horses as one of the "All-Time 100 Albums", and The Observer listed it as one of 50 albums that changed music history. 1 "Gloria" is a radical reimagining of the original 1964 song by Van Morrison. It retains the iconic "G-L-O-R-I-A" chorus, Smith transforms it into a fierce anthem of artistic independence, religious defiance, and sexual fluidity. The song famously opens with the line, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine," adapted from Smith's 1970 poem "Oath". This serves as a bold dismissal of her Jehovah’s Witness upbringing and a claim of personal responsibility for her own "sins". Smith described the track as a "declaration of existence," using it to both acknowledge and disclaim her musical and spiritual heritage. For her, the song represents the "right to create without apology" from a stance that transcends social or gender definitions. Though often interpreted as a lesbian anthem due to its female muse, Smith has stated she chose to keep the feminine pronouns to sing from a male perspective, a technique she learned from Joan Baez. This approach highlights her goal of being an artist "beyond gender". The lyrics describe a raw, almost feverish encounter with a woman named Gloria. This imagery subverts the male-dominated garage rock of the 1960s, reclaiming the narrative for a new, more explicit and self-empowered era. "Gloria" is widely considered a foundational moment for punk rock, influencing future icons like Michael Stipe and Bono. 2 "Redondo Beach" is a tragic narrative about a woman who dies by suicide by drowning following an argument with the song's narrator. While the upbeat reggae-inspired rhythm feels jaunty, the meaning is deeply rooted in grief and remorse. Smith wrote the lyrics in 1971 as a poem after a rare, intense argument with her sister, Linda. After Linda left their shared apartment near the Chelsea Hotel and didn't return by nightfall, a worried Smith spent the night at Coney Island. The song is a "morbid fantasy" born from that fear; in the song's version of events, the sister (or lover) never returns and is instead found "washed up" on the shore. Smith often introduced the song live by saying, "Redondo Beach is a beach where women love other women". This led many to interpret it as a lament for a lost female lover, an interpretation Smith encouraged even though the literal inspiration was her sister. True to her overarching artistic philosophy, Smith stated she was singing from a voice that was "beyond gender," allowing her to take any perspective regardless of her own identity. Redondo Beach itself—a city in Los Angeles County whose name is Spanish for "round"—was chosen as a symbolic, distant location for this emotional tragedy. 3 "Birdland" a nine-minute improvisational piece based on the 1973 memoir A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich. The song explores a child's grief and the surreal ways the mind processes loss. Peter Reich was the son of Wilhelm Reich, a controversial Austrian psychoanalyst who believed he could control the weather and harness "orgone energy". The song follows a young boy (Peter) at his father's funeral. In his grief, he imagines his father isn't truly dead but is instead returning in a UFO to rescue him. The title "Birdland" refers to a specific moment in the memoir where the boy sees a flock of blackbirds and, in a hallucinatory state, believes they are the approaching spaceships of his father. Smith and her band improvised the entire track at Electric Lady Studios. She has noted that she felt the spirit of Jimi Hendrix watching her during the recording. Smith connected deeply with the story because she felt like an "alien" herself as a child—tall, skinny, and disconnected from her family. Smith described the song as her message to a new generation of "prophets" who would "dream in animation" rather than just material success. Interestingly, the same book inspired Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting". 4 "Free Money" is a song about the longing to escape poverty through dreams of sudden wealth. While it is often mistaken for a traditional love song due to its "Oh baby" lyrics, its true meaning is deeply personal and rooted in Patti Smith's childhood. Smith wrote the song for her mother, Beverly Smith, who grew up in scarcity and frequently fantasized about winning the lottery. Her mother would make lists of things she would buy for her children, such as a "house by the sea," even though she rarely actually bought a lottery ticket. The lyrics reflect the anxiety of being broke, such as the memory of her mother closing the blinds to hide from debt collectors. The "free money" represents a miraculous salvation from the "burdens of reality". Some interpretations also link the song to her time in New York City with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. During their early years, Smith supported Mapplethorpe with her meager bookstore wages, and the song captures that shared dream of financial freedom. The track begins as a vulnerable piano ballad before exploding into a fast-paced punk anthem, mirroring the frantic, desperate energy of someone trying to "will a fortune into existence". "Every night before I rest my head / See those dollar bills swirling 'round my bed" – Illustrates the nightly fixation on wealth as a form of escape. "I'll buy you a jet plane, baby" – Symbolizes the desire to transcend their circumstances and reach a "higher plane". 5 "Kimberly" is a song dedicated to Patti Smith’s youngest sister (4th child). It blends a memory of a real-life event with intense, apocalyptic imagery. The song captures a moment from Smith's youth in New Jersey. During a massive electrical storm, Smith stood in the doorway of a barn holding her baby sister, Kimberly, while watching the sky. As the lightning struck, Smith felt a deep, protective connection to her sister. She described the experience as feeling like they were the only two people left in a world that was "ending" or being reborn. Unlike "Redondo Beach," which explores a fictionalized tragedy involving a sister, "Kimberly" is a pure, exultant tribute to family bonds. True to Smith’s style, the lyrics move from a simple memory into a hallucinatory space. She uses metaphors of "bats," "skulls," and "the wall of fire" to describe the raw power of nature and the intensity of the moment. The song's rhythm is driving and propulsive, mirroring the "shaking" and "breaking" of the world described in the lyrics—symbolizing the transition from childhood to adulthood. "The stars were like holes in the sky" – A classic Smith image representing a porous reality where the divine or the cosmic can leak through. "Kimberly, the world is moving" – This repeated line highlights the unavoidable passage of time and the shifting landscape of their lives . 6 The final three tracks of Smith’s Horses all explore rock'n'roll mythology in various ways. In her memoir “Just Kids” Smith says: “In ‘Break It Up’ Tom Verlaine and I wrote of a dream in which Jim Morrison, bound like Prometeus, suddenly broke free”. I had this dream. I came in on a clearing. There were natives in a circle bending and gesturing. I saw a man stretched across a marble slab. Jim Morrison. He was alive with wings that merged with the marble. Like Prometheus, he struggled, but freedom was beyond him. I stood over him chanting, break it up break it up break it up…The stone dissolved and he moved away. I brushed the feathers from my hair, adjusted my pillow, and returned to sleep. Tom Verlaine and I composed these words. Break It Up" is a visceral, collaborative track about the desire to liberate a trapped spirit. It is most famous for its connection to Jim Morrison and its co-authorship with Tom Verlaine (of the band Television). The lyrics were inspired by a dream Patti Smith had while visiting Jim Morrison’s grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. She began screaming, "Break it up! Break it up!" to set him free. The song serves as an incantation to release the "Gilded Bird" (the artist's soul) from the confines of death and physical form. Verlaine wrote the music and played the distinctive, spiraling guitar solo. Smith’s vocal performance starts as a low moan and builds into a frantic, ritualistic shout, mirroring the physical act of trying to break through a barrier. The song isn't just about Morrison; it’s about the struggle of any artist to remain "unbound." It deals with the tension between the physical body and the transcendent spirit. The imagery of being "chained to a rock" evokes the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished for bringing fire (knowledge/art) to humanity—a fitting metaphor for the tragic rock stars Smith admired. "I was dreaming I was dreaming / And I saw you there" – Establishes the surreal, subconscious landscape of the song. "Ice, it was ice / But it was melting" – Represents the thawing of death or the breaking of a frozen, stagnant state. 7 "Land" a 9+ minute epic, is a surreal, poetic journey detailing the "dream, life, death, and resurrection" of a character named Johnny. It explores themes of violence, sexual awakening, and spiritual transcendence, with references to William Burroughs and autobiographical elements. The song opens with a brutal, cinematic scene of a boy named Johnny being attacked in a school hallway. This imagery is often interpreted as a reference to a, possibly homosexual, experience, which links the character to a young Robert Mapplethorpe. As noted in this Dig Interpretations post, the song portrays a journey from a "beaten down" state to spiritual liberation, using the "coiled snakes" of Hermes as a guide, suggesting a transformation through suffering. The song breaks into a raw, cover-like version of the 1960s R&B hit, highlighting a sense of raw energy and rock-and-roll. It is a complex, three-part suite—Horses, Land of a Thousand Dances, and La Mer(de)—that blends surrealist poetry with raw rock and roll. The song's meaning is multi-layered, involving both literary allusions and personal tributes: The narrative centers on a character named Johnny who is physically attacked and raped in a school hallway. This triggers a surreal, metaphysical journey—what Smith called the "dream, life, death, resurrection and soap opera of Johnny". Johnny is a reference to the protagonist of William S. Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys. The imagery of "Johnny and the horse" also connects to Smith's close friend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and his experiences in the New York S&M scene. The song serves as an elegy for fallen rock icons, specifically Jimi Hendrix, whom Smith imagined as the protagonist dreaming a simple rock song that spirals into other realms. It also honors Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Brian Jones. By weaving in the 1960s R&B hit "Land of a Thousand Dances" by Chris Kenner, Smith bridges the gap between classic garage rock and avant-garde poetry, name-checking figures like the 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud along the way. Interpretations often see the song's "sea of possibility" and "black mare" as symbols of transcendence from the pain and pressures of society, though the journey ends in a disintegrating, "dreaming drowned man" state. 8 Usually spelled “elegy,” the song’s title refers to a poem of mourning or memorialization. In The Poetry of Mourning, Jahan Ramazani notes that elegy is “among the oldest and richest of poetic genres.” The alternative spelling in the song’s title is indicative of Smith’s general challenge to established poetic and artistic norms and her general penchant for putting a distinctive stamp on those norms in her work. Elegy and mourning are consistent themes in Smith’s work. Many songs throughout her career are dedicated to particular individuals (“Grateful” to Jerry Garcia; “About a Boy” to Kurt Cobain) and her album Gone Again is a long-form elegy to her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith and her brother Todd Smith. An elegy is a poem or song of serious reflection, typically written as a lament for the dead. Derived from the Greek word elegeia (meaning "song of mourning"), the form has evolved over centuries but generally follows a specific emotional arc: In classical literature, elegies often moved through three distinct stages of grief: Lament: A direct expression of sorrow and grief for the loss. Praise: Admiration and idealization of the deceased person's life and character. Solace: A final shift toward acceptance, consolation, or the idea of an afterlife. Unlike a eulogy (a speech of praise given at a funeral), an elegy is a poetic or musical work focused on mourning and melancholy. They are usually deeply personal, reflecting the writer’s own struggle with loss. In Patti Smith's work, an "Elegie" (her specific spelling) is the final track on her 1975 debut album, Horses. It serves as a haunting memorial for rock icons who died young, specifically Jimi Hendrix. Smith even borrows lyrics from Hendrix's song "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" for the final lines: "I think it's sad, just too bad, that all our friends can't be with us today". Beyond Hendrix, the song honors other fallen rock legends including Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Brian Jones. The song was co-written by Smith and her then-boyfriend Allen Lanier of the band Blue Öyster Cult. Smith used this alternative spelling as a way to put her own distinctive stamp on a classic poetic form, challenging traditional norms. The lyrics use metaphors like "trumpets and violins in the distance" to represent memories and longing for absent friends, creating an atmosphere of melancholy and nostalgia. The theme of the elegy remained central to Smith's later work as well; for instance, her 1996 album Gone Again is considered a long-form elegy to her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, and her brother Todd Track Listing: Favorite Songs: Gloria and Land 1. "Gloria" (part one: "In Excelsis Deo" / part two: "Gloria (Version)") Patti Smith (part one)/Van Morrison (part two) 5:54 2. "Redondo Beach" 3:24 3. "Birdland" 9:16 4. "Free Money" 3:47 5. "Kimberly" 4:26 6. "Break It Up" 4:05 7. "Land" (part one: "Horses" / part two: "Land of a Thousand Dances" / part three: "La Mer(de)") Smith (parts one and three) Chris Kenner (part two) Antoine Domino (part two) 9:36 8. "Elegie" 2:42 Band Patti Smith – vocals Jay Dee Daugherty – drums Lenny Kaye – lead guitar Ivan Král – guitar, bass Richard Sohl – piano John Cale – production Robert Mapplethorpe – photography Tom Verlaine – guitar on "Break It Up"

nää för irriterande röst

Classic New York style punk, put me in a better mood listening to it

Strong album - Gloria is great. Enjoyed the journey of Land. Can see why and how this was so influential.

Some interesting moments and ideas. The attitude is a very enjoyable fuck you… but also, no great songs.

Nice, Patti Smith. I haven't listened to a single second of her music, but I've seen this cover while poking around on the list. It's kind of cool. I like the slung-over jacket pose. There's nothing this music can be other than punk, right? I mean, she is wearing the pants and all. Here goes. Yup, punk. I was worried I was going to be wrong for a second after listening to that opening, but I was quickly proven right. This is early onset menopause music, I gotta be real with you. I am a true and honest respecter of women, but there is no easier way to signal that your womb is barren than to be a punk musician. In this album's defence, the instrumentation is more artsy and mild when compared to that of your traditional punk album, but come on. Women can't rock. It fucks up the vibe in a similar way to when women enter a space or hobby which is traditionally dominated by men. Again, I am a proud, card-carrying respecter of women, but what I mentioned is a universal truth bomb that we all need to accept if we're to advance as a species. Why am I gatekeeping a genre of music that I don't even like in the first place? Love of the game, baby. This wasn't my thing, if you couldn't tell. Smith doesn't carry herself all that well on these tracks and regularly devolves into senseless babbling as a result. I couldn't get into the songwriting, either. There aren't any good hooks in here, and the lyrics are verbose to where they lose all focus. I don't mind the instrumentals. The guitar riffs are decent, but there isn't anything in there which sticks out to me. A tepid listen overall. Book time. "Horses rewrote the rules for female pop stars and provided a new road map". A "...truly unique sound that influenced such artsy acts as the Talking Heads and R.E.M." A timeless work, and "...a completely realized piece of art, starting with the exquisitely honest cover portrait of Smith". Well-received by critics, but only had modest success on the charts. She is "...rock's premier punk poet". A lot of big claims with this one. Wikipedia says that this album is more avant-garde than its punk competition and blends punk with poetry. A "...seminal recording in the history of punk and later rock movements". I mean, yeah. All of these are good qualifiers. I cosign this inclusion.

Старушка не брила подмышки, но мы ей это простим

Just because someone is an incredible poet and a great mind, does not always mean they should make music..

parece ser algo mas melodico/pop, onda alanis morrisette, no le tengo mucha expectativa muy buen album la verdad, es como si adele cantara las canciones de pink floyd pero patti tiene una voz también con la rudeza de la vocalista de heart, me gustó mucho

Niekedy v polovici 80. rokov som ju počul prvý krát, hneď ma ohromila...

4/10 Catchy but not for me

Meh. Not for me. I’m not the audience.

I am going to be honest here, I had never listened to a Patti Smith album but I had read Just Kids, and that gave me the worat of impressions on her, how do people praise her??? . Ok, so I listened to the album and it is ...meh. The instrumental is good but her voice and interpretation does not help. Her fixation on death on the lyrics and her clear references on Rimbaud also make me feel like I am in a funky Portry reading. It is not bad, but it's not as great as they market her. Also, she is not punkthis is pop rock, she used so many good people on her band that it is hard to credit just on her her achievement (also she just got famous becsuse she tagged along with the famous guests in Chelsea Hotel). The song is OK, but I still think she is a horrible person. 3/5

Ok so I've always loved Patti Smith. Early punk rock with a female singer? I'm in. But most punk doesn't have this kind of songwriting. She was a brilliant lyricist. I think the lyrics are where this album really shines. And maybe it's simplicity - it was a band in a studio recording music and that's a great thing that is sorely missed these days of having like 25 different producers for each song on any given album. So much of the music I love wouldn't be the same if it weren't for this album. I don't think this album is quite up there for a 5/5 but it's a strong 4/5 for sure.

What a fun surprise. This album makes me want to buy a record player so I can listen on vinyl. I love that her voice isn’t “good” as much as passionate.

It's definitely interesting. Far more interesting than her later work in my opinion. Not something I'll be following up on, but it really has 1975 New York vibes.

Did not really like much of this

I can see why this album Is on this list, unlike many others in this 1001. However it’s not for me.

Not really my type.

horse girl

STANDOUTS: Gloria, Free Money, Land I don't have much to say about this, but it is a very lesbian album, so here's the transcript for Billy On The Street - Lesbian Lightning Round. "Okay guys now it's time for a special lightning round today I'm running around New York with a pack of wild lesbians. They're going to chase after people with me and help them answer questions. Let's go let's go lesbians Let's go. Sir, sir for a dollar who's sexier, Britney Spears or Kesha? Kesha. Kesha. What do you think lesbian? Kesha. What do you think? Kesha. Yes, here you go here you go correct let's go lesbians let's go. Sir, sir, sir for a dollar, sir for a dollar who's sexier, Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera? Britney Spears. What do you think lesbian? Britney Spears. What do you think? Christina. Oh, oh, what do you think? Christina. What do you think? Britney. Britney the answer is Britney yes here's your dollar yes let's go lesbians let's go here we go lesbians here we go lesbians come on. Miss, Miss for a dollar who's sexier Meryl Streep or Britney Spears? Britney Spears. What do you think lesbians? Britney Spears. What do you think? Uh, Meryl Streep. What do you think? Give me Streep. What? Give me Streep. Streep. What do you think? Streep. The answer is Meryl Streep let's go let's go lesbians. Oh my God lesbians, lesbians move out of my way. Oh miss, miss for a dollar who's sexier Adam Scott or Ronald Reagan? Ronald Reagan what do you think lesbian? Uh, Ronald Reagan. What do you think? Ronald Reagan. Adam Scott or Ronald Reagan? Scott. What do you think? Reagan. The answer is Adam Scott, you're wrong let's go let's go here we go rounding the corner with a bunch of lesbians here we are Manhattan can you handle it? Oh sir, sir for a dollar who's a better host Steve Harvey or Terry Gross? Harvey. What do you think lesbians? Steve Harvey. What do you think? Steve Harvey. What do you think? Steve Harvey. What do you think? Terry Gross. The answer is Steve Harvey here's a dollar let's go lesbians let's go let's go lesbians excuse me lesbians coming through watch out. Miss, Miss for a dollar who's better Emma Stone or Taylor Swift? Taylor Swift. What do you think lesbians. Taylor Swift. What do you think? Taylor Swift. What do you think? Oh the- the answer is Emma Stone let's go she's wrong these two Lesbos always wrong lesbians we're going to circle the corner lesbians move out of here I got lesbians coming through. Sir for a dollar who do you prefer Emma Stone or Taylor Swift or Anne Hathaway? Who is it? Anne Hathaway. What do you think lesbian? Anne Hathaway. What do you think lesbian? Emma Stone. Oh here comes slow lesbian look who just got here what do you think? Emma Stone. The answer is Anne Hathaway, yes you Inn take it take it let's go lesbians let's go oh lesbians Jews lesbians, lesbians Jews, careful lesbians and Jew lesbians and Jews hi Jews we're lesbians let's go. 7.5/10

I listened to this album a few times a couple of years ago as I read the book, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Smith plays a huge part in that scene in New York City in the 1970s. Either as a muse, a fan, or an artist. For some crazy reason, I always disliked Patti Smith. I think I saw her perform once in her later years, and it just didn’t appeal to me. I think I did like Horses when I listened to it a couple of years back, but truthfully, I don’t remember. I like to listen to music when I read or study. I know, it’s weird. It blew my psychology professor’s mind when I told him. So, when I read Please Kill Me, or other books on a specific music genre or act, I listen to that music to kind of put me in that scene, so to speak. So, in addition to listening to Horses several times, I listened to everybody from that scene. Track 1 is Gloria: In Excelsis Deo, and I’m sure most of you have heard this somewhere. It’s kind of the song Smith is known for, well, that and Because the Night. It’s a part cover song of the Van Morrison written song performed by him and the band Them. The first part is all Smith, and the G-L-O-R-I–A is Morrison’s. It’s a great song. I never appreciated it until reading Please Kill Me. It’s like a controlled explosion or a slow-motion explosion. It builds and builds before exploding into G-L-O-R-I–A. “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Just a powerful lyric. She’s basically saying she owns her body and her soul and isn’t subject to what men think women should be. Track 2 is Redondo Beach, and it’s a bouncy little reggae song. The song is about a young girl killing herself by drowning after breaking up with her boyfriend. It’s a sad song, but has beautiful lyrics. You can see the movie play out in your head from Smith’s lyrics. She’s a poet. Track 3 is Birdland, and it’s a nine-minute improvised story/poem about a little boy who thinks his father is flying a UFO or something. Not my favorite track on the album. As I’ve said before, I’m much more of a riff or groove-oriented music listener. Lyrics are almost always last for me in enjoyment. This song is mostly lyrics, though there are some very cool, weird sounds being made on guitars in the middle section. I think it’s supposed to be the UFO. The producer of the album was John Cale of the Velvet Underground, which is why you have weird guitar sounds all over the album, I’d say. I just listened to Cale’s Paris 1919 and loved it, but it was said to be his most commercially sounding album. Cale was a big shaper of the music coming out of New York City in the 1970s. He was an elder to most of the young bands and artists. Track 4 is called Free Money, and it's a song about dreaming of becoming rich by winning the lottery, but never buying a ticket. The song was written to kind of show the almost desperation of some of the artists in that era, hoping to rise out of their poverty by hitting the lottery and becoming a famous rock star or artist. More importantly, the free money will supposedly put an end to all their troubles. Another powerful song. Track 5 is Kimberly, and it’s the first of what I would call an upbeat rock song. The lyrics are probably not upbeat, but musically, the song sounds like rock music from that era. It has a solid bass line, and an organ kind of holds everything together. There’s also some great rhythm guitar work throughout it. The song was dedicated to Smith’s younger sister, Kimberly. Track 6, Break It Up, comes in like a Queen song. How unexpected, but it sounds great. The guitar has that Brian May sound that only Queen possessed. It’s kind of a We Are the Champions for punks. Hmmm, the song appears to be about the spiritual liberation and resurrection of Jim Morrison, according to whatever AI Google uses. That’s weird. But it’s a banger of a song. Track 9 is a three-part punk opus called Land: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/La Mer(de). It’s very similar to Gloria as Smith just, seemingly, stream of consciousness, tells the story of Johnny and some horses and mixing in Land of a Thousand Dances. You know, the song the WWF wrestlers sang back in the 80s. I’m sure it’s pure poetic bliss. The song isn’t bad, but not my favorite on the album. It’s a little too artsy for me, dawg. Track 10 is Elegie, and it’s a song about rock legends who died young, especially Jimi Hendrix. It’s piano, bass, and guitar. It’s really a great song. Like many of her songs, Smith talks more than sings. It’s under three minutes long, but maybe the best song on the album. In the end, I do like this album, and I can appreciate how fresh and new it must have sounded in the disco era. The album was widely hailed by critics at the time. However, like most older albums that were the lead in the start of a new movement, it doesn’t pack the same punch it did in 1975. However, I think it’s good enough to be a must-listen, especially for poetry lovers. The album is almost a poetry reading with music under the poems.

Let me preface by saying that I adore Patti Smith as an artist and as a person. I've seen her live (amazing), have read a lot about her, and have read her books/poetry, and recognize that she's important in the making of DIY music and punk rock. I have tried but NEVER gotten into this album since I was 15. I give up. Not sure why it continues to be on lists like this other than the fact that it was racy and bold for its time (especially when it comes to production and its budget). It feels overblown at all the wrong moments and pretentious overall. Everything feels sloppy and half-assed, and the poetry is not among her finest. So, what's the story here? Is it like how people drool over "blank canvases" from famous artists and talk about how much of a statement they make? Maybe the fact that it gets a rise out of me still means that it works. But I'd like to never, ever listen to it again. 20-something years of trying is enough. Going back to my X-Ray Spex recordings for the time being!

Nope. Not so obnoxious as to warrant a 1; that is reserved for the truly horrible. But as much as I wanted to like this it was not meant to be. Too much narrative, disjointed singing with a less than pleasant voice. 2/5

I think this is incredibly cool, and that Patti Smith is incredibly cool. But I think I definitely need to spend more time with it. Let's get the easy stuff out of the way. Patti Smith is an incredibly cool woman with an incredibly cool aesthetic who was making like New York proto art-punk with the noise cellist (John Cale) from The Velvet Underground. This is a list of attributes that gets you pretty far with me. She was early enough to the game that she was still piecing punk together from constituent components. There's a focus on poetry and intricate songcraft and avant-garde influence that couples with more conventional punk touchstones here to create something that feels just as singular as the stuff from bands like The Stooges and The Velvets that came out a little earlier. I will admit, I haven't gotten fully to the bottom of it, but Patti Smith does end up somewhere a little different than those two bands. The least punk stuff on Horses ends up in a bunch of strange, occasionally sad little nooks. Redondo Beach is a *really* early incorporation of dub into punk, and Birdland is lengthy and fascinating. But my initial favorites are songs like Gloria: In Excelsis Deo, Free Money, Break It Up, Land, and Elegie. There are moments when these songs just *are* punk, but in a way I'm not sure anyone else has really duplicated. Horses kind of became a stepping stone on the way to the more generally accepted punk sound, so it feels more like a moment where it's components are in transcience than a settled sound. And so it never really got *fully* emulated. I will also say, that even on a first listen, these songs are *so* good. It really is the moment to moment simplicity combined with the intricate full pictures. It's also Patti Smith's lyrics (which I have *absolutely* underdiscussed) as well as her performances. It's also a very particular tension that runs through this album. Like the seasick intro on Elegie (my favorite of the less punk cuts). I can already tell that this is gonna grow on me like Dylan does. I *will* be back. It's undigested, and there are a couple songs I haven't figured out. But most of this is still just fantastic.

An album called Horses by someone named Patti. I was expecting lots of fiddles, maybe a Home on the Range cover. What a pleasant surprise this album was. Supposedly this influenced the nascent punk genre. I wish it had influenced in more, there isn't a simple power chord driven song in sight. Just a collection of great, mostly sparse, songs sung with feeling and played with intention.

Before: Patti Smith, Yay! She was a little ahead of my time. In 1975, I only knew about bands they played on the radio and they definately didn't play anything by her in the smallish southern US town I grew up in. In my late years I've tried to develop an appreciation of her music but have not been successful to date. Maybe this time around I will. As of this moment I have only one track from this album on my favorites of 1975 playlist. During: Gloria: In Excelsis Deo is pretty good. I did not add that to my 1975 list because part of it is a cover but on my second listen today I decided to add as I think her version is quite different and much better than Van Morrison's. Birdland is, um, interesting. During my second listen I decided to add that to my 1975 list as well. By the time we get half way through Free Money I'm getting kind of annoyed. Kimberly is just as annoying. For some reason I "liked" it in my app at some point, only god knows why. Still, I'm determined not to skip through anything. I mean it is the punk rock goddess herself, I am blessed to be listening to today. Break It Up continues to annoy me further but I'm a gonna stick with it. Next up is the one track from this album that I added to my best of 1975 list prior to today, Land: Horses / Land, Of A Thousand Dances / La Mer(de). As an aside, I usually listen my album of the day in the morning and I have a lot of stuff going on in the mornings so there are often frequent interruptions during my initial listen. So during one of these interruptions, a song by The New Eves pops into my head and I'm thinking about how similar that song is to what I've just been listening to and wondering, would we have The New Eves today if it weren't for Patti Smith? They are clearly influence by her work, which they themselves have confirmed. So back to Land: Horses / Land, Of A Thousand Dances / La Mer(de), this definately my favorite of the album. I'll rate it a 4, I think it's my favorite so far. 4 Gloria: In Excelsis Deo 3 Redondo Beach 4 Birdland 2 Free Money 2 Kimberly 2 Break It Up 4 Land: Horses / Land, Of A Thousand Dances / La Mer(de) 2 Elegie -------------------------------------------------------------- 2.9 AVERAGE After: 3 - my personal rating 5 - suitability for this list 5 - relevance ------------------------------ 4 - composite rating

I peeked at the wiki for run time and accidentally saw the genre, what a curveball. Horses by Patti Smith in the 70s is a punk album. It is a hard listen, not because I'm uncomfortable or the music is particularly upsetting or boring. It's got its own brand of energy that works well enough. The band sounds pretty good with what they have and though Patti Smith has a SUPER unusual singing style to me, it's not extremely jarring. I'm just not sure the parts come together here to make something that great. If Patti Smith began her career as a poet, moving to music because she found "the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough" (per wikipedia), that means to me that the music is more of a venue for her poetry. That's... okay, I guess, but it kinda defeats the purpose of it being a composition in my eyes. Like, so much focus on the lyric but not on the rhythmic or melodic aspects of poetry. No melding with the music, almost. And again, at that point, why bother putting it to music? I feel like this was probably landmark for a lot of different people and acts, with the mid 70s being so soft/yacht rock-y and easy listening heavy. But aside from recognizing this album's place in punk music and its offshoots and liking a few things here and there about the album, it's not all that great to me.

Ehhhhhhh I’m not interested

I saw Patti Smith open for the Indigo Girls at Red Rocks years ago and it was hands down the worst live performance I've ever seen. I wasn't too familiar with her music so I've always wondered if she just had on off night. While that may have been the case, this album suggests she didn't have much to work with anyway.

It's not what I was expecting when I saw that the album was punk rock, but it matches, and it's a wonderful listen. Loved the piano, loved the spoken word. Thank you to all horses

I am quite amazed I have never listened to this album before. Apart from Because the Night, I know very little about Patti Smith. I ma not sure why, but I just never really explored her music. It is never too late. It is also so evident where PJ Harvey got her influences from. Gloria is an incredible opening track. Redondo Beach is a fantastic mix of rock, punk and reggae. I love the way Birdland just grows and grows and grows. It is fantastic. Free Money wraps up a near perfect Side A. Side B is maybe not quite as good as the first Side, but it is still damn good. Break it up and Land: Horses are both superb. Land:Horses is possibly my standout track. This is damn close to a 5. I think I want to own this record. 5 stars

I guess I can say I've heard of Patti Smith, but I am honestly not sure if I've ever listened to a single track of hers. That being said, her association with the CBGB-era was enough to pique my curiosity. It's a unique sound and not bad, but why all the praise for being a punk rock pioneer? It's not very punk, even compared to other stuff that was coming out at the time. I didn't love it, didn't hate it, but have no desire to ever return to it.

Not a bad album. I never listened to her much at the time because it wasn't my type of music.

I know this one is touted as one of the first (maybe the first) punk rock albums and has a stellar reputation. I can see why, great energy and songs throughout.

226/1089 i think this album was given to me at the wrong time. For some reason i just wasn’t really receptive to it/in the mood when i think it would otherwise be right up my street. There were parts that almost hooked me and i can appreciate it but I’ll have to revisit 65/100

It's got that fantastic mid seventies new York sound I love, but loses marks for white reggae

Heard it before. Patti is completely feral and I mean it as a compliment. And "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" has to be one of the best album opening lines ever 4/5

Love Gloria and Horses.

*1975. American punk rock. *Starts out strong with a cover/reimagining of Van Morrison's band's "Gloria." (Not the same as the 80s Gloria, although it seems like there's some overlap to me...) *I thought I was really going to enjoy this - I really didn't. :/ RATING - 5/10

Odd one. Not my vibe, but I respect what I feel like is true intent and passion.

Feels like poetry being recited to a beat in some cases. The lyrics are pretty progressive and counter cultural. Overall, not super engaging but I can see the appeal for others

not my cup of tea

Amazing! I'm a massive pj harvey fan but I've never checked out Patti Smith. Who knew they were so similar. Also some great Dylan vibes here. Loved it

He Saw Horses 1001 Albums Generator 237 (2/27/2026) Here's an album I was excited to finally listen to. As a big fan of other bands from this New York punk scene (like Talking Heads and Television), Patti Smith's Horses is an album I've been aware of, but somehow, it has escaped me. I was surprised how prominent the piano is. I mean, is the epic Birdland even a punk song? It's more like a psychedelic piano rock song, and it's awesome. The other epic is the medley Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer(de), which starts out with an ambient soundscape with Patti losing her mind before it breaks into a cool punk song. Tom Verlaine does great guitar work on Break It Up. Also, Patti's voice is really interesting. I feel like later women in punk like Siouxsie and PJ Harvey owe a lot to her performance here. I think it generally works, although it was grating at points. Redondo Beach is a little bit silly. I know that reggae and punk have always had this surprising relationship, but I don't think this is the best example of it. Elegie is also a bit of a limp way to end the album. Besides that, Horses is a cool album. 4/5 probably. Favs: Gloria: In Excelsis Deo Birdland Break It Up Least Fav: Elegie

I’m probably more into the idea of Patti Smith than I am into her music in real life. The lyrics are interesting, and the music isn’t bad, but it doesn’t really appeal to my musical sensibilities. 6.5/10

Very good singing voice but I thought the music was mostly quite meandering and dull

You can see why it influenced so many people. I still don't like her voice.

Je veux aimer Patti Smith, je comprends que c'est un personnage mythique, et dont l'influence me touche directement à quelques connexions près... J'embarque pas.. Je vais me réessayer à écouter cet album (grand album semble-t-il) quand je serai plus disposée à l'entendre

This one's just not for me, which is unfortunate because she looks so cool on the album cover. I listened to it a while back, and I'm still just not understanding it.

It was ok, but not sure i’d listen to again

Nope, not for me!

🫤 Two solid jams but the rest is just meh

Large animals that typically live on a farm, and can be used for sports, and transportation.

на вигляд схожа на шарлотту генсбур. нє, ну прикольно

Good, a lot more spoken word than I expected. Not my cup of tea but grand

The live version is much better IMO. Not the biggest fan of her vocal style but I get why people are and what it meant at that point in history. Cool shit

love this

Fijn album, mooie stem. Zou ik zeker nog eens luisteren

7/10

that’s absolutely right ms. smith. I love this shit

she really shmeared her pussy on this album

To moany-squeaky. This is probably what goofy’s wife (RIP) sounded like while getting it on.

Couple of nice songs. Kind of interesting album, but not anything crazy

Not my mood again, Patti's voice is cool i guess. Very long songs (Birdland is 9+ minutes), i don't really listen to the lyrics, music is kinda boring and repetitive, a lot of choruses. Sometimes sounds like VU, but not the kind i like. Didn't listen attentively, not for me.

muy buen album desde lo vocal en especial, eso me gusto mucho y me parecio muy interesante para la epoca, todo es genial pero destaco la voz de patti, dos o tres temas no resonaron mucho conmigo pero el resto si lo hicieron. 8/10.

After 50 years, this album still holds up.

Hard to ignore Velvet Underground influence and despite its importance to the '70s NY scene, was a good 1 time listen to appreciate music history, but too much of the same.

Classic Gold

This is good. One to play again.

If this isn’t a 5, what is? The teeth of time have done nothing (and by that I mean: absolutely nothing) to this album. It's an undeniable, an unf*#%withable classic! Sublime poetry, electrifying perfomances, standout songwriting (plus, the cover portrait is nothing short of iconic). These songs hold up effortlessly today - and they’ll still hold up 50 years from now. This album is such a towering achievement that it overshadowed many of Patti Smith’s later albums. If you create something this profound, this singular, this lasting… well, that’s just the way it goes… I guess.

This album is a great example of why albums are great. None of these songs individually stand out to me, but as a whole, it’s pretty great. Can see why it’s so influential.

"Jesus died for somebodies sins, but not mine" - what an opening line! Started off strong, her mumbling in Birdland was not for me Favs: Gloria, Redondo Beach, Kimberly

239/1001 :: Patti Smith - Horses Heard before? ✅ Would I revisit? ✅ Rating: 8 Listen before you die: Yes A true poet and artist Patti Smith and this album is prefect for this list. Because people should listen to this before they die. This album is not the best album I’ve ever heard but it’s always interesting and a lot of these songs are not only challenging but very good. Gloria & Free Money specifically are both awesome. The only issue here is the spoken word songs are too long for an uninvested listener. They’re trapped on an album almost 50 years after their inception. I say trapped because they weren’t created to be experienced this way and I think that works against them. They were supposed to performed live in a shitty New York City bar where the drinks are flowing, the cigarettes burn and Patti is dipping in and out free form poetic passages. It takes a special someone to pull this off and that’s Patti’s magnetism. Lastly, everyone should also read Just Kids. Masterpiece.

I enjoyed the tracks more when she wasn't singing.

i didn't think it was anything special

I went into this album with a pessimistic attitude. Some years ago I had read her memoir “Just Kids” and found it annoying. Or at least it didn’t inspire me to really give her music a listen. But I ended up really liking this album and it’s proto punk vibe.

Põnev ja kuidagi palju iseloomu näitav plaat. Siin ühtegi sellist bänger hitti pole, aga pika kuulamise peale ei tüdinenud sellest stiilist. Minu jaoks just täitsa piisavalt kiiksu, aga mitte midagi erilist. 3.4/5

Strange songs & strange intonation.

Bob Dylan if he was a scene kid who discovered garage rock. After a 2nd and 3rd run through, I’m starting to get it more. The lyrics are deep, it’s raw as fuck and the vocals are jarring at times, but that’s the point. It gives me similar vibes to Dylan. Many people including myself are quick to write someone off because they don’t sound like you’d expect or want, but I think I see it now. So much influence. Free Money gives me 90’s alt vibes. Redondo Beat gives me Police and Cars Vibes. Favs: Free Money, Redondo Beat

I think this is a classic and what is more punk than female rebellion if we are being honest. Every song sounds like it had defined an era. I literally hear so much the strokes, blondie, Pink Floyd, the Ramones,I even hear sultans of swing. I can just feel the oozing of artist who heard this record and its effect back then and made changes. I think for that alone and presentation it’s a 9 for sure The 3 song run from Gloria to Birdland wow Redondo beach is obviously so reggae but it’s also so strokes. Also also birdland singing is so artistic and really showcases the range even from the droning guitar I will revisit this one again

Sometimes, the art kids are right.

That's the way it's gonna be, little darlin' We'll be riding on the horses, yeah, yeah. No? Shame!

She's cool, but not digging the music. 2.5

4.0/10

I bet this absolutely raged at CBGBs back in the day.

This is incredible. I swear I nearly transcended during Birdland. So much to appreciate about this one—songwriting with a lot of flair and exciting buildup, extremely tight performances, and the most badass aura in the vocal delivery. Despite all the years I’ve been aware of Patti Smith, I never listened. This album is a reminder that going through this project is worth it.

Muy legendarion será, pero no es para mí.

spennende!! // okei jeg har fullstendig misforstått. jeg trodde patti smith var easy listening. her tok jeg helt feil. jeg tror jeg må høre/lese bedre en annen gang. birdland og free money feks var helt grusom å høre gjennom nå.

Not for me.

A bit embarrassed that I’ve never listened to this before. Some great songs, some ok ones but overall worth the hype and I should’ve listened much much sooner.

Not a big fan. Her songs made very little sense to me, not sure why this is on the list.

It all became mumble jumble

Fine. Lyrics were kinda weird and all over the place. Thought she sounded vaguely like Bjork in parts.

reminds me of a female Leonard Cohen. too much of the talk/sing style, repetitive lyrics, and don't care for her vocals.

I love this record! I'd been listening to it just a couple of weeks before while reading Bread of Angels. Is it perfect? Of course not.

Hot damn, this is a powerful album from the powerful persona of Patti Smith herself. Smith might not be the best songwriter I've ever heard, but she is unique and stylish. Her greatest talent lies in her ability to render her lyrics masterfully in the songs themselves. She is always raw and passionate, maybe a little unhinged, but always authentic. I also love the production of this record. Apparently, Smith herself sought out John Cale, formerly of The Velvet Underground, to produce. That was a great decision, as the album's recording fits perfectly with Smith's vocal tone. She is always up front in the mix, but the band chugs along right behind her. The arrangements are another strong point. They are sparse and driving, another fitting complement to Smith herself. Cale didn't shy away from using multitrack magic, but it was always used to enhance the immediacy of the music. I would love to see some of this intelligent rawness return to music production. This album proves that a hi-fi record can still retain the energy of a lo-fi album. I'm not familiar enough with this album to know if I'll listen to it in heavy rotation, but it grabbed me from the first line and never let go. Five stars.

I really like this and it has clearly been so influential (I hear PJ Harvey, I hear Nick Cave and others) but something stops me giving this a 5. I think it’s that it veers into the self indulgent at times. Would have been great to see this live though

Didn't like a single song

This was pretty good. Patti sometimes loses me when she goes full on beat-poet, but maybe that's just because I wasn't paying much attention to the lyrics. I could definitely see this one getting better with more listens. 3.5/5

Somehow never listened to this. I really liked it. It seems that Nick Cave really borrowed a lot of these sounds / singing style. Good job Patti 4/5

Lots to enjoy, Kate Bush meets Leonard Cohen. But maybe a little clinical at times?

Enjoyed it but probably won't go back to it.

A few more listens and this could be a 4 star!

Loved the vibes and lyricism but found the instrumentals quite bland. Gloria was the easy highlight

The songs on this are okay. Nothing particularly special. Seems a little bit self-indulgent and like it wasn't finished being written before they decided to record. The mix is kinda tinny, thin, and very uneven sounding in a lot of moments. Definitely far from my favorite of these albums. Break It Up is maybe the best of these songs. 2.1/5

Timelessly hot album cover? Check. Fascinating autobiography? Check! Excellent start to an album? Are my sins my own? Check! Have I spent probably 20 years trying to *like* this album? CHECK! CHECK! maybe someday.

multiple 9 minute tracks that made me want to get up and do something else, i did not enjoy HORSES by patti smith

I'll give her the round up, but truly, this was a 2.5. Birdland got very...spirited and I probably spoiled myself a little by reading about the album before listening because it's described so much as this like proto punk sorta poetry thing and I found it to be meandering and squonky?

An album that I’m SUPPOSE to love, but I don't. I appreciate Patti Smith and her lyrics and voice and that she was groundbreaking in the punk scene, so I feel like I must give it a 3, but all I really want to hear from her is Because the Night and Dancing Barefoot.

Слушал и думал о Джиме Моррисоне и всяком (всяких) прочем (прочих).

I actually used to hate this album but I really love it now. Could be a 5. Just real honest creative expression, feels way bigger than just a lil post-punk band. Ughhh 4 or 5 or 4 or 5… it is REALLY good I’m gonna give it a

#266/1001. This one I picked from my recird shelf, a cheap and crackly copy, but somehow it fits. Perhaps she is the main reason punk broke out in NY. Or perhaps she just continued where the velvets went too pop. Or perhaps let's just look at the back cover: compacted awareness .. gems flattening .. long streams of resin tools .. kool system of destine wax sculpt..drums tongue and waves slapping .. the feel of horses long before horses enter the scene .. molten tar stud dead w/bones and glass and the teeth of women ... veins filled w/existance .. beyond race gender baptism mathmatics politricks ... assassinating rythum .. c-rude transending .. soul-ar energy in the shape of a laughing pack of scarabs dressed in coats of milk armour..grace greased w/merc and henna ... hair wires .. neither the desire nor the ability to stop i plop on the bed pink electric immediate some human light bulb these bands around my neck should reveal what state i'm in .. only history (gentle rocking mona lisa) seals .. only histoire is responsible for the ultimate cannonizing .. as for me i am truly totally ready to go ... sonic klein man its me my shape burnt in the sky its me the memoire of me racing thru the eye of the mer thru the eye of the sea thru the arm of the needle merging and jacking new filaments new risks etched forever in a cold system of wax .. horses groping for a sign for a breath ... charms. sweet angels - you have made me no longer afraid of death.

I feel like I would've liked it better if I liked her voice but I just can't get into it

One of the most famous artists that I've never listened to. Didn't miss much. Lyrics are great, vocals are hard to listen to.

This may be the first album I rate less than a 3... as the first 3 tracks have done nothing for me at all. Especially "Birdland", I've never understood this "raw vocal style"; it just sounds like tone-deaf ranting. The lyrics themselves are smart and relatable though. "Kimberley" was just as unenjoyable for the same reasons. Heck, the instruments are great, such as the smooth bass and the insane drum roll on "Free Money". The problem is Smith and her - damn I feel bad for saying this - "singing". It's hard to even appreciate the instrumentals when she grates the ears so badly over the top of it. Then... there's "Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer (De)". What is going on here? So she can sing!? So it can sound like something enjoyable? This track stands starkly against the rest as testament that there is more to Smith than the wailing, telling a story with peaks and troughs reflected perfectly in the monologue and song switching throughout. "Elegie" is similarly evidence of Smith actually having a singing voice and easily became my favourite song on the album, with almost Floyd-like guitars and Smith's voice being genuinely beautiful and haunting over the bassline. It will be interesting to hear more Smith to see if anything else exists like Land: Horses and Elegie.

canon!

What can you say? Patti Smith is pretty good.

wasn’t feeling this yst, got through one track before quitin on it. this one might be on me folks

Technically, I should love this album. It just doesn't do enough to catch my attention

I read about how Patti Smith was sort of the Godmother of punk. I would not doubt that is true, but I was delighted when this album was over.

Hmmmm. I dunno. Certainly didn’t hate it. But it felt a little too pretentious for me. Like I’ve said with a lot of other punk adjacent stuff, I’m sure this would’ve done a lot more for me back in the 70s, but I did like some of the songwriting and I think smith has a very fun voice. But some of this kinda felt like slam poetry over rock riffs. All around meh?

Just an absolute gem.

A record so original I feel most are afraid to take inspiration from it for fear that they might seem tone deaf in the attempt. Great lyrics and overall melody.

I'm a big fan of a lot of the songs on this album and Patti Smith - however I can't say that I had listened to the whole album as a whole before and it did become a little much for me, I prefer the songs in little doses rather than a whole hour of it. I wanted to switch gears to something different a couple of times.

Good? I guess? Fine?

Very imaginative, upfront punk vibe, I can feel how it would inspire generations to come. I'd need a few more listens to really set in.

Liked the energy in this one.

Favorite track(s): Gloria, Birdland, Free Money, Land Did this album invent rock? No. Does it sometimes feel like it did? Yeah. Heard before Previous rating: 8/10

I love this slightly controlled chaos! 4/5

I love this album! It feels like a revelation and one I will definitely be listening to again and exploring more of. Patti Smith has such an awesome voice and such a wonderful way of playing with it. This album feels years ahead of its’ time.

Smith was one of handful of New York musicians trying to create a new form of rock and roll in the early 70s but when the resulting aesthetic consists of hypertheatrical poetry readings over cruddy garage rock backing, it's pretty much dead on arrival.

A classic

Enjoyed some songs. Standout songs: Gloria:In Excelsis Deo Free Money Land: Horses/Land of a thousand dances/la mer(de)

This album is outstanding and has had a significant impact on both the punk movement and literature as a whole.

High concept and evocative lyrics. The instrumentation is more of a backdrop for the poetry, though.

8/10 I have to admit I probably missed a lot of details and I need another listen, but the songwriting is consistently great and I loved that opener a lot.

Epic artist. Loved this album.

not my cup of tea but great dynamics and sound

It had been a while since I last listened to Horses, but damn this album still hits hard. Gloria is a fantastic opener and it really doesn't dip after that. On this listen I found myself enjoying some of the longer cuts (especially Birdland) a lot more.

Pretty good! I've heard "Because the Night" before but not this album. I liked it, grungy and powerful.

2.5/10

Seminal certainly. Didn’t really do it for me

I've heard this previously but re-visiting this, I found myself enjoying it so much more (I already enjoyed it). Gloria is such a great opener, and some of the piano-driven tracks make this wonderfully enjoyable. Free Money is also a standout for me.

I can almost smell the velvet underground inspiration I thought I was going to like the album a lot more than I did after the first song, I actually enjoyed that one a lot. It just kinda deteriorated a bit from there. Will absolutely give Patti credit for her vocals, there’s so much talent there; they fit great on more upbeat songs and slower more melodious sounds. I just don’t think anything’s very catchy after the first couple songs, and I didn’t resonate with the lyrics all that much. I can 100% picture the person that would love this album and have it as one of the greatest of all time, it just ain’t me

Didn't leave a single impression on me

Female proto punk, good sound, big on historical significance. Saw the 50th anniversary tour stop in Chicago, it was better live (with a 78 year old Patti Smith) than the studio version. I remember first listen didn't grab me, but 2nd and 3rd did. Probably favorite thing was Gloria (1st track) making a second appearance in Elegie (last song) as a kind of reprise. 3 1/2, but 3 for our purposes here.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better opening to an album. The first song got me so excited that I was really disappointed by every song after that. This album gets a 3 mainly for how amazing that first song was, the buildup in it was just phenomenal. I don’t really care about the rest of the album in all honesty.

There's a lot that could be said about this album, and the impact that it has on music as a whole. I mean she basically invented punk rock, new wave, and probably poetry as well... Smith’s debut album Horses is placed in the genre of punk rock, but somehow I feel that punk is kind of inaccurate. She certainly doesn’t sound like what punk became. It may be that ‘punk’ is simply a term used for music by artists who are determined to renounce conventional notions of ordered beauty. Adopting a minimalist, bratty, antiestablishment mindset. I don’t know, but to put Patti Smith in the same genre as the Sex Pistols and the Stooges feels criminal. Admittedly, I spent a good chunk of my listening time with this album deciding if I liked or not. I was a bit mixed on Patti’s voice and couldn’t tell if it was annoying or not. It did eventually grow on me. Lyrically, the songs were hit or miss. While I enjoyed something like Kimberly, Birdland was a little underwhelming. Honestly, most of the album felt like it was for a specific group of people. But most of the songs were enjoyable, despite not fully understanding the songs. Did I need to listen to this before I die? The impact of this album alone, makes it a definitely.

Deliciously half-sung half-spoken declamatory beatnik-like performance by Patti Smith with great, creative art-rock instrumentation built around it. There's this barely contained anger on the verge of exploding that keeps you holding your breath. Such a great album.

🥇redondo beach 🥈kimberly

My first time listening to this album even though I know it has influenced countless artists. I can see why that is because it is pretty damn great. I regret not listening to it sooner. The opener is a scorcher. Favorites: Gloria, Free Money Would I listen to it again: Yes

Speaking of epic debut albums (re: The Stone Roses and Pearl Jam, as I've already spoken about), here's another record to add to that list. Patti Smith. Fearless poet, rebellious rocker, all-round genius of a human being. With 'Horses', her deep, often autobiographical musings ('Redondo Beach', 'Kimberly', 'Free Money') join forces with tributes to fallen public figures (notably Wilhelm Reich on 'Birdland', Jim Morrison on 'Break It Up' and Jimi Hendrix on 'Elegie') and two sprawling odes to 1960s rock ('Gloria', 'Land') to form an absolute behemoth of a record that changed the way people approached songwriting. Patti Smith is, without a doubt, one of the finest lyricists in music history, and she's a pretty bloody influential vocalist too. While not conventionally pitch-perfect, her edgy attitude and intense live performances turned her into one of the most important influences on punk rock, alternative rock, gothic rock, grunge; you name it. It's pretty rare to set your legacy with your debut record, but 'Horses' is that impressive a record that Patti Smith could've quite easily ridden its coattails for the rest of her career. But she didn't, she kept creating and only continued to deepen her importance to popular music, not only as a solo artist, but with the Patti Smith Group too. As far as New York punk acts are concerned, she's just as, if not more important than The Ramones and Blondie. 'Horses' blew me away when I first heard it and it still blows me away to this day. A truly, truly remarkable listen. Best songs: The whole album

I have to say, I was a little let down. I hyped it up too much in my head. Patti isn't much of a singer, but that's ok. The musicianship is very punky/new wavey and leaves something to be desired. The songwriting itself I find a little uninspired, but overall, it's ok. The only overwhelmingly positive thing I can say is the lyricism, because Patti is a true poet and you can feel every single of her words. All in all, a 3.5/5

very cool

Required.

Yeah sorry- wasn’t good back then, hasn’t gotten better with age. Punk Rock generally sucks, and I suppose this is marginally better than your average Punk, but at its best it’s just tolerable, and at its worst it’s grating and annoying and makes you want to scream. Plus one for Patti’s voice which she wasted on Punk Rock.

Personal and defiant!

I understand that I’m supposed to get it, but I really don’t.

a collection of the different sounds people make when they stub their toe

Didn't do anything for me.

Fine music, but not my thing.

really different, 6.2, very fiona apple, portishead, bjork, joni mitchell, hole coded.. strong for the time period!!

She was kind of ahead of her time, but it didn't really do anything for me.

I did like how well defined the album felt whilst being experimental (wow almost what art rock kinda is). Didnt speak to me tho

For me, not a fan of art rock experimental albums. But when I’m tired and don’t really care about anything. It just works better but not like great cause I’m not like a fan of it. There was a steady beat, her vocals were alright. Not to bad.

Never heard of album or singer. Starts off so good. Gloria is a great song all around. It’s a roc track with very unique vocals. I enjoyed it a lot. Rendondo beach is good not great. Good songwriting. Not as much of a fan of bird land but I appreciate the change of pace. Patti has a great voice. Good piano on this one. It just keeps going. And keeps getting better. Piano is so good on free money again. Love how it starts slow and turns into a real rock banger. Really like this song. Kimberly is a little goofy but not horrible. I like the organ and bass. Break it up is fine. A lot of the same good elements from the rest of the album, this one just doesn’t hit as hard for some reason. I will say I think it has the best guitar on any song. Land is a banger. What a background track. Vocals work so well over it. Élégie is ok. Good change of pace from land for sure but not my fave. It’s a good album overall and blew away my expectations. 3.9 stars.

This didn't do anything for me. Free Money was alright I guess.

This album seems pretty underrated on this site. Sitting around a 3.3 despite being ahead of its time and one of the coolest albums ever

I know this album is iconic but it's never really clicked for me. Not bad, but also not great in my opinion. Favorite track: Free Money

Bra

Listening to Patti Smith felt like wandering through a chaotic city, each person passing by heightening my annoyance until the inevitable breaking point. The experience was a visceral anxiety attack—a blend of frantic rhythmic drums and chaotic oooo's, uueeerr's, and tooo's that mirrored my inner turmoil. Did I enjoy it? Probably not. But as a punk lover, I couldn't help but respect the raw honesty and emotional depth. This album captures the frustration and chaos of modern life, my life, making it a wild ride worth experiencing.

Incredible voice

Great 70s album

Didn’t like, can see the appeal, esp at the time. Historically significant, kind of drove me crazy. But def made Fiona Apple possible in the ny zeitgeist

Getting tired of all the dad rock.

Very reminiscent of Velvet Underground. Some interesting songs and good lyrics.

3.9/5 godmother of punk

We have more critically acclaimed poetic people releasing music! I straddle this line between obsessively loving the output of extremely ar(u)tistic people and believing them to be pretentious dorks, feebly pawing at the just out of reach mobile of praise from other nerds in their echoing sphere of influence. I don't know exactly what it is that tips the scales. I think I have a pretty good idea of when people are creating something that they themselves enjoy, or when somebody is attempting to hit the requisite notes that indicate creativity to simpletons. Perhaps I'm all wrong, and it is I who is the simpleton and I just drool and mash my keyboard. No matter. This is all opinion and subjectivity at the end of the day, and as dusk dawns on this meandering, drivel-laden paragraph, I end up sitting firmly on the proverbial fence. Horrible singing and obnoxious music darkens what is a palpable poetic spirit. Poetry that really doesn't do all that much for me. It's not a wholly unlikeable darkness, but it still makes it hard to see.. I'm gonna give this a deserved 2 stars (uniqueness only) and power scoot outta here. Where did I put that Birdland receipt? My new budgie is uhh "broken." 2 HIGHLIGHTS: Birdland

Didn’t understand the hype around this one. Sounded like nonsense and noise

Very solid experimental. 5/5

Excellent album. Punk vocals and attitude meet poetic lyrics and avant-garde songwriting with a rock-ish sound. It’s a lethal stew.

This cover is what I aspire to look like. The album itself is pretty good: I am not 100% how I feel about it. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I think it's, ya know, all right. But Patti Smith is rad.

A great cross between art rock and the then nascent punk rock movement. "Gloria" is probably one of the strongest cover songs and album openers of 1970s rock. 8.5/10

Highlights: Gloria: In Excelsis Deo, Free Money, Break It Up Lowlights: Birdland It's just slam poetry set to music. Birdland definitely made me think I was going to hate everything going forward but most of the album was enjoyable. I kept thinking this is something you could hear in like a low budget movie in the 80s or 90s because they didn't have money to license a major artist.

Let's start off by saying I respect this album and everything Patti Smith stands for. That being said, there's very little I find worthwhile on this. Gloria is a great punk rocker, but the rest doesn't quite find that level of fire. The poetry is good, but in an album setting it feels pretentious and forced. The rest is generic garage rock in a style that grinds my ears.

she has better songs

Funky wunky

not for me

Une incontournable.

Il y a beaucoup de Patti en musique des fois je me perds. Je pense c'est la première fois j'écoute cette Patti. La 2e écoute a été plus fructueuse, j'aime l'énergie un peu free et la voix écorchée. 3e auteure compositrice interprète cette semaine, et dans des styles pas mal différents, mais toutes très talentueuses, ça rock!

C’est bon mais pas complètement convaincu! La première chanson etait incroyable avec un bon crescendo. Ensuite c’est beaucoup de la chanson a texte, il faudra que j’y revienne et porte plus attention

Actually really good, would never have tried this otherwise Will I listen to again: 100%

It’s fine

Remarkably famous album that I've never listened to before, and I'm so glad this project got me to do so. Not a perfect album, but I see why it is so loved and so important. Lots of reviews decrying this as "not punk", but there are obviously shared aesthetics and values to the more "traditional" punk music - this album is very obviously a key block in the foundation of the DIY movement of the 70s that had such a profound impact on music and well beyond.

Never really paid much attention to Patti Smith but knew she was considered a lauded songwriter. So far it's much more upbeat than I expected. Good stuff, glad to finally hear one of her albums. I'm guessing in 1975 this must have blown people's minds, very intricate and visual lyrics.

I don't love the vocals but I love the mood it sets and the accompanying instrumentation. I've never heard anything quite like this. I don't know if that is a good thing or not.. but I did put it on for another listen. Birdland sounds like a Grateful Dead jam set to some snazzy poetry. OK on that second listen I've come to appreciate the vocals.

langweilig

Didn’t like it very much

Awesome!!!

What a sweeping album. Her voice is like it’s from another planet and I found myself turning over the lyrics in my head.

1: Kimberly 2: Land: Horses/ Land of a Thousand Dances/ La Mer(de) 3: Gloria: In Exelsis Deo

I get it but its not for me Yeah not for me

Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine

This is meant to be punk? I don't know, sounded like pretty generic rock to me.

1. gloria - 0 2. beach - 1 3. bird - 0 4. money -0 5. kimberly - 6. break - 0 7. land -1 8. elegie - 1

Would not buy

This was ok. Patti Smith gets a lot of love and I’m sure it’s well deserved, but listening to this album without doing any other research I thought it was just ok.

Yeah, early punk! Not a fan of the poems but the music is cool.

I’m admire this album and Patti Smith a lot. Incredibly important to the history of punk and everything after. Just not my favourite listen.

New to me and will definitely spin again

дуже poetic, я б сказала цей альбом serves better as an artwork than a thing you would listen on a everyday basis, але енівей love those punk vibes

Gibt mir nichts

I really liked her memoir but her music? It’s aight.

oh very very good

Nice

Temp

*began laughing hysterically* *combusted on spot* *the last segment played backward with me returning back to my prior state* oh shit. here we go. so, horses is significant for me. a really solid album. but its story for me actually started last winter when my inner critic told me, "your hair looks so messy and you're serving patti smith on the horses album cover, gurl." i sighed and wrote the following review over the summer after straightening my hair. its really freeform rambling nonsense so please beware. “OK, so please tell me how i should style your hair.” the barber asked me. “just make it less patti smith and more kurt cobain, although i respect them both. I mean: make it less fluffy and more flat.” “What?” She failed to understand. “Maybe I’d like a straight permed bob, please.” A week after leaving from the barbers, I, with my shortened hime cut, went abroad the plane to New York and was scrolling through the entertainment system. “Horses” was there but without many songs, because of copyright. So I just postponed my plan of listening to it. Ha-ha. About two weeks later, Horses strikes again because I need to wash my hair and wait until it dried without a hair dryer in my hand. And here I was sitting in my dorm in an east coast university during my summer program, thinking whether I should go to the bathroom for a nice little wash. And I picked up my pajama and my shampoo and my towel and went to the bathroom. When I finally decide to put on the album, it’s half past 8. I’m outside with my shortened hime cut slowly drying. “Not my fault that the world became terrible and people lost their rights. or should I say… advocates died for somebody’s future but not mine.” I let out a slightly ironic snicker as “Gloria” began to play. Who cares about rebellion when there's good old homoeroticism? look out cause here’s the feral child. Look at how she transformed into the lover of Gloria. Look out for the homoerotic narrative. Look at how she spelled her name. Come on, spell it out! G-L-O-R-I-A, spell it since spelling is indeed fun! I warbled self-referential meme under the setting sun in front of fashionable girls waking around, a beautiful autistic wallflower that doesn’t care about anything else. Sadly halfway through Redondo Beach I need to go back inside due to the sky getting dark. That song is shit anyway. Back in the little room. I blasted my head open with Birdland. But thousand year later it stopped and changed track. and I swayed with the piano riff. As life blood floods from the sky in 7/4 time. Capitalism is serious and I don’t hate it. But I’m just so being trapped in cringe culture I lost every chance to do it all because I..I just can’t make the world go around. life sucks and there’s no reason. it’s just a cringe issue or maybe, if i get rid of all these thoughts everything will resume. If i’m not cringe I can buy everything like its just a vinyl record to me, one i really enjoy and love in my little brain. new cars I mean caviar and a five star daydream and most importantly a jazzmaster and wank it until it weeps, since its all worthless right now. Nothing is worth fighting for until we load up on drugs and build a little empire upon some crazy garbage called the blood of the deranged upper class and reestablish a better capitalism with nobody getting to own more than ten million and less than ten thousand and again and again and again redistributing everything owned until it finally become socialism and then communism, but USSR told us that when we meet the new boss it will be the same as the old boss so was everything worth fighting for? I don’t know. And every night before I go to sleep I saw the world being driven around with these green and red beautiful bills and sparkling coins I dream about consumerism and how it will make me love my life so abundant as it is a dream more happiness than ever before as we hunt for eternal happiness as next moment is probably when we'll die as the sensation of investment is as crispy as a bite of an apple like all those white doves we fled into the sky with dreams and hopes but still outrunning bills and guilt of being the worst like nothing is ever a reality like we were meant to live in dreams and sleep in reality. So when I sleep I put my head on the fluff look at everything I ever wanted and I drifted into unconsciousness don’t know how to feel it is so shallow oh it’s so shallow as the world turns loveless it spins and spins like what it once was and will be the same as it ever was and what once was. i believe that I really need a better weapon to slay all the dragons the music is as warm as a heavy blanket hazy as every other dreams so if i play it i could make all dream become reality i suppose so tell me how to get rid of all these problems is it due to cringe or is it due to financial crisis but the radio dropped dead. hallelujah. Money makes the world go round and I am loving it. A week later the fight resumed as I finally bothered to wash my hair but also disturbed due to extracurricular activities. Side Two. Kimberley was underwhelming until I realized that it’s literally a mirror that I stands in front and saw me and Miss L. Her eyes sparks like Vega the star and we stood together as the storm unleashes and the world collapses, we stayed for tomorrow and what else? Imaginary things often give us a better future to live in. Break it Up is truly underwhelming. So I took a rest. A week later i resumed the game, washed my hair, and as it's drying in the wind, i hit play on the supposed most overwhelming track on the album: Land. I was a listener at first. but it starts like a raindrop and forces me into a sudden flood, taking me swiftly to the land of 1000 dances where its just a simple big party moving all my hot steps. the hot steps dropped cold, as a drop of water in a creaking black pipe flowing under the shared history of all things over it. there's a dancehall, in a city, in a metaphysical country where we shared music and dance all night. she's there and i'm there, life's there. life is a dancehall, come and throw your troubles away-- they used to say. so real. performance is the ultimate goal of the human life, and in the beat in the melody we united in harmony. suddenly the dancehall's door blasted open and out came a flood and even though the floods pushed people died but it still can't keep Johnny down. twisting through the towns until we falling down the pale white at the platonic idealistic land upon toward the bright horses in the distances, and toward there we disintergrate in all the mighty glory of songs, as another children was born into the world whenever the music plays, a pulse that underlines all of mankind through every lock of hair through every end of the blood veins through the cord through the song and life is no party and no disco but we are one when we dances to the song as it never ends, our hair flying in the wind. Elegie ended and my hair dried. at least it dried, i mean, seems like that there's a long long rope ties me to the past, as the beat goes on. it's not a comedic device. its something that i really think about a lot, how patti connects and pays tribute to things that influenced her, like the famous poets and the garage rock/pop standards. this album is very good, better than what i had expected but im not sure if this is a joke or not. what starts with me complaining about my puffy hair leads to me deciding to listen to Horses and my three-liner mutated into such a monster while my original 3.5 also transformed into the 5 that you all see here. i am in awe of the human mind. 5/5 post script: why does this arrive on a day which i need to wash my hair before it got too greasy, since horses is my bathing album due to the review above.

Honestly, the only thing that is interesting about this album is the choice of the album cover. A classic that conveys many subtexts based upon the historical events of the U.S. in the early 1970s. Beyond that, this album seems less punk, and more like guitar and piano bar era Bette Midler stuff. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but while this album may have been earth shaking in 1975, it seems fairly tedious these days. More poetry performance art that hopes to pass itself off as music than actual music. You can hear Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground inspirations all over this record. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of either. Thankfully Patti Smith and colleagues spared me the squawking harmonica. HORSES is one of those albums that we are supposed to enjoy, but I never have. I prefer Tori Amos and Kate Bush albums to Patti Smith records. I suppose that the argument could be made maybe there wouldn't have been the Tori Amos' and Kate Bush's of the world without Patti Smith tweaking the world's ears with albums like HORSES, but to me it just feels like undercooked ideas that are not quite ready yet or too intentionally non-sequitur for my tastes. I need music with more hooks, pleasure, and optimism. Just realized John Cale produced this. That tracks, as I've found over the years that I don't most of the things of his I've heard, whether they were with The Velvet Underground or his solo work. 2 stars it is for the potential cultural cache it may have carried in the 70s.

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” No notes

Pony ...

Would never have found by myself, but would be cool on vinyl

I love the opening song which is the best version of Gloria IMO. Horses is another poetic masterpiece on the punk vein. Patti definitely set the tone for women on the punk rock poetry music form.

Just kind of boring.

Really sexy and dark. She's like if Joni Mitchell had a hot evil twin. I'm a sugar not spice girlie so it wasnt PERFECT for me, but I had a lot of fun listening.

Gives Maureen/Pheobe Buffett vibes.

Meh . Alot of the songs felt like they dragged on forever but likeit wasnt horrible

Rough on the ol ears

Abrasive x pure noise tbf, no redeeming features at all

Jag gillar Patti som personlighet, kanske rentav som person, och som författare (Just kids är fantastiskt, inte minst som New Yorkskildring där i skarven 60/70tal) Poetrock däremot, det är sällan en bra idé. Ett stort Nja, varken poesin eller rocken är särskilt kul här. Bara Free money sparkar lite rumpa. Klarar tvåan men då är jag jävligt snäll

PS har för mig mest varit den där som spelade in en av Springsteens sämre 70-talslåtar (vet att hon själv var med och skrev Because the night). Horses känner man så klart till men tror aldrig jag lyssnat på den. Tycker att det låter bättre än vad jag väntat mig. Det punkiga anslaget funkar bra. Patti lyckas faktiskt låta cool. Något som är få förunnat. Allra bäst är medley låtarna. Inledande halvcovern på Vans Gloria och finfina Land. Oerhört driv i dessa spår. Inte samma klass däremellan. Som helhet klart godkänt. Uppe å snuddar vid fyran.

Kanske att texterna förtjänar mer tid en ett dygn? Nu blir bedömningen efter den tid jag hunnit spendera med Horses. Jag hör finns vissa musikaliska kvaliteter i till exempel Gloria. Free money håller jag som albumets bästa spår, tydligt influerat av Springsteen. Hittepåreggean i Redondo Beach hade jag gärna varit utan. Patti sång låter lite väl effektsökande emellanåt. Bäst är hon när hon pratsjunger.

This was very up and down. Sort of liked “Free Money” and “Land…” but most of the rest didn’t work for me. There are some songs I like by Patti Smith, but they weren’t on this album. This a 2.5 for me, but I’m rounding down.

Passa de ano tranquilo tbm, mas nada mais q isso. 3 honesto. Se fosse um álbum mais curto ainda levava um 4

O mais fraco ate aqui

Nada a declarar, nem lembro o que eu escutei

Birdland sozinha derrubou uma estrela desse album. De resto uma mistura de Jennis Joplin, Dolly Parton e Feist.

Groundbreaking. Immeasurably influential. Perfection. 5

Chefs kiss

Patti Smith is just one of those artists I've never really "got" for some reason. I know how much of a legend and trailblazer she is, so definitely appreciate that. And I feel like as a fan of punk and a lot of that genre of music, I should have liked her. But I just could never get into her. It was good to listen to this album and give her another shot, but it just isn't my thing.

Guns blazing

baby mash potato do the alligator

This album makes me nostalgic for a time and place that I wasn't a part of. Outside of a few singles I'd never really listened to Patti Smith until I moved to NYC nearly two decades ago. It was reading Just Kids that turned me onto her use of words, clashing poetry and prose, to really paint a picture. This album feels a bit like that as well. Poetry and Punk smashing into each other and mixing and finding a balance. It reminds me of the art my friends and I make in dingy basements around the city. It's about finding yourself and community by sharing whatever is inside. Gloria: In Excelsis Deo

Really liked this. never listened to the full album before. Obviously had heard Gloria. I liked the beachy vibe of Redondo Beach, unexpected. Also interesting how it sounds like spoken word in some songs. I want to read her book soon.

This album is lightyears ahead of its time. I understand why it doesn't land for some people but it has everything for me. Playlist track: Gloria: In Excelsis Deo

Eh, it was okay.

she ANGRY fuck yeah

Somewhere between rock and punk, you'll find the easily identifiable sounds of Patti Smith.

Mixed feeling on Smith's debut. I like some of the shorter melodic tracks like Redondo Beach, Free Money, Kimblerley but the longer songs don't as does the more spoken word/poet moments. So just ok for me.

Quite a frustrating one to be honest. This is my first time hearing of her and therefore first time hearing her stuff. I can't help but feel like Smith could easily make better music than this. When she sings properly, it's great. But when she starts doing weird noises and different singing styles it just sounds so shit. The music itself is so boring it hurts. At least with many of the other boring albums I've had on the list previously they've been somewhat pleasant to listen to. I know it's supposed to be minimalist. But there's a difference between minimalist and laziness. Maybe Smith isn't being lazy. But that's what it sounds like. If it makes it any better I wasn't sure whether to give it a 2 or a 1, so this is probably the best album I've rated a 1 here. Good job Patti.

I didn't like this album. Lots of talking and yelling and just making noise.

Good stuff

Dette er sikkert å banne i kirka, men dette likte jeg ikke i det hele tatt. Bråkete, rotete, masete.

Decent - high energy

Charming and timeless. I just love her voice and her poetry.

Really liked some songs, really disliked others

Pretty enjoyable, sounds like she is hurting her voice sometimes. I can see this being influential.

this style is a bit too talky for me. There were some interesting lyrics but I wanted more to back them up

I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t resonate with me. There are some catchy parts but all in all I probably won’t listen again.

Knowing everything I know about my personal music tastes, it feels like I *should* hate this album. And I admit that there are moments here where this album is a tough listen (particularly with Patti's vocals). But there's just something about it that keeps drawing me in. I think this will grow on me a lot in the future. 4/5.

Patti was/is an incredibly influential musician and influenced many artists who music I really like. There was some really cool stuff on this album but some of this was tough to sit through. In particular "Birdland" reminded me of the avant-garde performance piece that Idina Menzel's character does in RENT. I've always assumed it was lampooning the art rock scene in general but this made me feel like Patti could've been direct inspiration.

Loved the first track so much. The rest was a tough listen, which I know is the point, but I wouldn’t return to it.

Eclectic, sometimes frenzied, sometimes meek. If Jagger, Dylan, and Siouxsie Sioux had a daughter… …but it seems I need more “toons” (melody), and less a fan of solo vocal artists with the voice as the central instrument.

This album is a force of nature and I know it deserves a 5, but I’m not a huge fan of the “singing” the entire time. Patti Smith is a total rockstar and she deserves better than this (my rating)

Because the Night was a major part of my five years at Uni. This isn't quite as good.

An album I’ve long heard of, but never heard. Breathtakingly original. As a Fiona Apple fan I feel like I just found the origin story. YES

Cool ballad album. Voice can be annoying. Need to listen again

Eh, she screams a lot

She is the godmother of punk for a reason. This is a complete MUST of a record. 9/10 [KEEP]

Not bad.

Cool early punk influences not totally my thing but I liked it enough

this album was jst alr, it feels longer than it was and patti’s voice got a bit annoying on the back end of the album, maybe i didn’t like this as much as i would have if i didn’t want to listen to other albums when i listened to this, but overall i didn’t leave with much

Liked most of this it’s just a shame the bits I didn’t like i really didn’t like. (Namely- bird land)!

Gloria and Land are the standouts but others fall flat

Fire. Loved her voice, the lyrics and psychedelic nature

I had already heard this album in passing 20 years ago, but I barely remembered anything about it, so it was nice to give it a refresh. I was skeptical at first, the instrumentation seemed a bit basic in some of the tracks (for some reason, I misremembered this record as much more punk than it actually is). It’s also not easy to get right away into the very particular mood of the album and the poetry of the lyrics. I gave it a second listen in the evening and it did the trick – I was entranced. It’s a beautiful, moody album with a wide range of emotions and atmospheres, and vibes ranging from a more punkish version of the Velvet Underground to Joplin-style blues and spoken word poetry. Grace and Elegy are gorgeous pieces. It’s not a perfect album, some tracks are less inspired than others (Kimberly was not very interesting, sounding almost like 80s pop, and Break It Up felt very conventional). But overall, it’s extremely creative, and it really allows Patti Smith’s charismatic personality to shine. It's a pity she's such a hit-and-miss artist - some of her later albums are awesome, but others are really terrible in my opinion. But early Patti Smith definitely kicked ass ! Will certainly listen again. 7/10

This album bored me and I didn't understand anything about why it was included in the 1001 albums to listen to...

Clearly not the best of Patti Smith. Despite her amazing voice, I felt disappointing by the lack of punk vibe.

First song of the best, I get the spoken word appeal but didn’t quite do it for me

G-L-O-R-I-A Always cool to hear the origin of an Easter egg you heard first in a different song as a nod. This was a pretty solid post punk album, favorite song was Free Money.

I find it hard to understand what she is saying buy I can appreciate and really get a sens of each feeling she expresses through her words. Gloria: In Excelsis Deo - 4/10 Redondo Beach - 5/10 Birdland - 4/10 Way too long a song for my liking repeating the same for too long. Free Money - 6/10 Kimberly - 5/10 Break It Up - 6/10 Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer(de) - 6/10 Only because it lasts too long with the same rythm and melody. Elegie - 4/10 Even though I don't particularly find it within my usual music choices, I can feel the emotion that was put into each record and appreciate that. I would like to research her story to understand more the place where she writes.

"Horses" by Patti Smith is a groundbreaking album that blends poetry and rock and roll. It's raw, energetic, and super influential will probably listen to it again I enjoyed it but I just need to give it a few more listens and I think it will eventually grow on me.

Honestly a very mid album. There was some highlights which were the shorter songs but almost every song had these slow talking parts that I did not like. I think the top three songs are free money, Kimberly, and then elegie. The worst song of the album is probably bird land as it’s too long and the good part is super short and the rest is ass. At first listen I kind of liked Gloria but after the second listen I liked it even more and it may crack the top three. The album is alright it’s just the slow talking parts where it’s the same boring notes and just her talking. I also think if she made the long bird land and land shorter they would’ve been way better. Other than that the songs are pretty good.

Annoying vocals at times. I'd like it if she talked less and sang more.

Not for me. Vocals are kind of annoying.

Horses for courses

Had a REALLY HARD TIME teasing out the whole "punk" thing. Arty poetry based rock, sure. Critics are always falling over themselves when the next generation does something novel. The album is merely okay. I never really "got" Patti Smith. I guess there's an interesting twist on songwriting here that definitely breaks from the mainstream. Stylistically crude (maybe that's why some see "punk" here), definitely part of the Art Scene more than the music scene. Like the Velvet Underground, who I also struggle with. Influential though, I can see a path to Bjork ,The Pretenders, Nina Hagen possibly... just leaves mewondering why this is so "important?" There were and always will be a thousand poetry writers who can almost sing, why this?

My favourite Patti Smith's work and one of the best albums of all times. As it's been repeatedly pointed out in other comments, does anyone remember an opening line as powerful as "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine"? Every song is a poem and there is not a single filler. And of course the music and Patti's voice are terrific: pure raw energy.

Is this album provocative, rebellious, culture defiant, fused with a slam poetry style presentation? Maybe. Does this connection to self identification, or lack thereof, with culture at that time mean it is artistically deep, innovative, or lyrically complex? Not in this case. I was disappointed because this album has such raving reviews. Saying “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” is powerful, and many revere it as one of the greatest opening lines ever. But then go nowhere with it after? At face value it was attempting to push boundaries, but stating provocative things in a punky voice is just stating the obvious. The envelope was nudged. I think…

What an absolutely dreadful voice. The songs weren't much better either! I suspect a lot of drugs were involved in both the making of this album, and the process of selecting this as one of the 1001 albums 1 ⭐️