Album Essentials: Patti Smith "Horses" (1975)
By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor
Sometimes, when you would drop the needle on an album, from those first notes, you knew you were in for something special. It didn’t take much to establish a mood and intent. One such album was ‘Horses,’ the debut long player from Patti Smith.
The somber, almost gospel-like three-chord played in repetition on the piano was all that was needed to tell you this was not your average ‘rock’ album in the mid-70s. Whatever sludge had been floating along for the past couple of years, 1975 would ultimately prove to be a significant turning point in terms of interesting rock and roll statements. From ‘Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks’ and Steely Dan’s ‘ Katy Lied’ through ‘Go Girl Crazy’ from The Dictators and Aerosmith’s ‘Toys In The Attic,’ it was a wide range of sounds that, depending on your preferred genre, were all offering up something special.
Released in the fall of 1975, ‘Horses’ was the initial mission statement from Patti Smith that not only stood alone in attitude and style but was both a step into the future while simultaneously glancing back at the past. Back to those initial three chords. Just a stark piano, repeating that pattern as suddenly that voice creeps in with the prophetic and defiant line, “Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.” Not your average pop lyric, to say the least. Continuing on, “Melting in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve. Thick, heart of stone, my sins, my own, they belong to me, me. People said, "Beware", but I don't care. Their words are just rules and regulations to me, me!” From here, the narrative changes to more urgent concerns about love, lust, and being human.
Smith carries on establishing the tale when suddenly, those three chords are infused with vintage rock and roll power and promise, and then we have arrived. Smith’s take on the Van Morrison and Them classic ‘Gloria,’ also a US hit for the Shadows Of Knight, was like nothing we had heard before. It mixed the primal poetry and swagger of the Doors with the garage rock aesthetic of the original, all strewn together in a most unique way.
Even the stark black and white photo of Smith, by Robert Mapplethorpe, stood out among the grandiose ‘art’ of so much scattered around rock and roll at the time. Redondo Beach’ would weave reggae into the mix while ‘Birdland’ took a ‘Sister Ray’ approach, albeit without the noise and chaos, again, in large part, just piano and vocal. ‘Kimberly,’ co-written with Alan Lainer of Blue Oyster Cult fame, and ‘’Break It Up,’ a collaboration with Television’s Tom Verlaine, proved this was no one-trick horse but rather a significant new artist. I don’t use the word ‘artist’ lightly, especially since these days, the most vapid pop stars are called ‘artists,’ back then, the term meant something.
The album ends with another tour de force, ‘Land,’ which in part returns us to where it this adventure started. It is a nine-minute ramble recalling the past as it collides with the future. Another three-chord rocker in the mode of ‘Gloria,’ as she tells the tale of one ‘Johnny,’ which breaks into the frat rock staple ‘Land Of 1000 Dances,’ it is a brilliant merging of the primal urge with the poetic notion all set to an urgent rock and roll sensibility. The album was produced by John Cale, who brought out the best in the band. Critics largely drooled over the album, though some found it all a bit pretentious, likening it to a bad Jim Morrison poetry reading. One thing that couldn’t be denied is that it was a unique statement that truly stood alone at the time.
Let us not forget her band, who brought it all to life: Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty, Ivan Kral, and Richard Sohl, who were simply visceral. The other interesting thing is that though Smith and her group were forever linked to the ‘punk’ movement they arguably helped ignite, they were just as tied to a beatnik/hippie vibe, granted awash in 1975 America. Those opening lines of ‘Gloria’ can still send a shiver to this day.
On a personal note, I still remember vividly seeing the Patti Smith Group on an early episode of Saturday Night Live, where they performed ‘Gloria’ and a cover of ‘My Generation’ complete with total Who homage in smashing up the drum kit. When I saw this, I remember thinking, this is real rock and roll. They looked cool, sounded cool, and tore it up. Smith never made it a statement that she was a female fronting a rock and roll band; she just did it! There is no need to point it out; that is part of what always made her so cool. She was just Patti Smith! It was so much about attitude. She was not going to play anyone’s games or subscribe to any set of rules, no matter what side they fell on. She is still doing this today, and we need to tip our collective hat to her, and all she and the band have brought us.