| Horses |  | Artist: Patti Smith
Label: Arista
List Price: $7.99
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Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 8,163
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 078221882729
EAN: 0078221882729
ASIN: B000002VQQ
Release Date: June 18, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Gloria | | • | Redondo Beach | | • | Birdland | | • | Free Money | | • | Kimberly | | • | Break It Up | | • | Land: Horses/Land Of A Thousand Dances/La Mer (De) | | • | Elegie | | • | My Generation (Bonus Track) |
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Product Description
No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: SMITH,PATTI
Title: HORSES
Street Release Date: 06/18/1996
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP
Amazon.com
On her 1975 debut, Smith was full of piss and vinegar, seriously interested in bringing together high art and low three-chord rock & roll. As a result, her free-form poetry meshes with covers of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances," and the album centers on two long, highfalutin' pieces, including the three-part suite (warning! warning! art!) "Land." (The CD version appends a messy live take on The Who's "My Generation.") Led by Richard Sohl's piano, the arrangements don't exactly rock, and some of Smith's songwriting gets buried in its stylistic affectations (there's a great song under "Redondo Beach"'s fake reggae). But the point of Horses was Smith's persona of volume, cunning and exile, and it comes through distinctly. --Douglas Wolk
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 76
 poetic masterpiece July 18, 2010
lambnoe (corvallis, or)
If you like good writing mixed with recent history of rock and roll, punk and the NY City art scene get this book. Patti Smith has a liquid, effortless way with words that moves you, and paints a portrait of her eternal friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Just Kids illustrates why Patti Smith is the punk icon that she is, her unjudgemental love for Robert Mapplethorpe transcends his sexual awakening and moves beyond mortal love to something beyond the carnal.
 Flawed, if I will still confess I made a mistake overlooking it March 15, 2010
mianfei
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For a long time I had little understanding of who Patti Smith was: she was seen as one of the leaders of the "punk revolution", of which I had come to think the inherent violence and repetitiveness of much of the music had overshadowed a number of genuinenely valuable musical innovations by such artists as Television, the Slits and ESG.
Yet, on the other hand, Patti was seen as a close relative of such artists as Laura Nyro and Kate Bush of whom I was a big fan, and the complexity, femininity and focus on natural ability rather than attitude or virtuosity of these artists was something I never saw in the stripped-down, hypermasculine, aggressive attitude of punk. Yet, despite her association with Tom Verlaine (whose adopted name Patti really has more claim to than Tom himself!), Patti Smith's albums as I had heard them never had the distinctive, free-flowing, late-night feel that made "Marquee Moon" so fine a record.
It was only recently, as a result of being impressed by the proto-post-rock dynamics of "Ain't It Strange" that I felt I had a genuine need to at least understand what the decades-long hype about Patti Smith really was. Her debut album, "Horses", has always been her most acclaimed as the first album to really show women could rock like men. It is true that "Horses" defied stereotypes of women in music and sensitive balladeers or singer/songwriters in the public mind, but in fact "Horses" itself was not in any way a conventional rock album. Indeed, the best moments of "Horses", especially "Birdland" and "Free Money", very much have the quality of a 1950s torch balladeer. The difference that makes "Horses" truly a worthwhile album is the way in which Patti is very effective at twisting these soundscapes into dark and beautiful epic songs. "Birdland" is particularly good in this respect: its quiet piano is interlaced with fierce guitar parts in the later stages, all the while maintaining a dark, late-night quality that fits the mood ideally. "Free Money" might be a classic of childishly simple decadent imagination, but its power is undeniable especailly during the chorus, whilst "Kimberley" is eerie and slow in a sensual manner that makes Smith's claim as a predecessor for Kate Bush's 1980s masterpieces sound true. The danceable groove makes "Kimberley" the most accessible song on "Horses", but it has a wonderful beauty. "Break It Up", which features Tom Verlaine on guitar and backing vocals, is the most straightforward rocker on "Horses" and at times drags a little, but there is still quite a bit of heartfelt power. "Elegie", the closer, is a shorter version of "Birdland" that shows clearly why the former song needed its full length to be so effective because the guitar does not fire so fully even though the piano is equally beautiful.
On the other hand, "Redondo Beach", whose lyrics are as cryptic as "Birdland" lacks the fire that made "Free Money" and "Kimberley" outstanding songs of great notice. More than that, the trebly quality of John Cale's production seems not to give the song any more tunefulness and to seemingly eliminate the low end to anchor this song. Then there is the cover of "My Generation" by the Who (whom I regard as overrated because I view them as a bad influence on much awful power pop) that falls into the trap of that genre completely. Also, I do not have much regard for the epics "Gloria" and "Land", feeling that the way Smith tries to blend songs together is too stop-start to be effective at all.
Still, I must say "Horses" is a worthy listen, if not quite as good as commonly thought, and for me (contrary to popular opinion) Cale's trebly production does not suit Smith's style so well as does Jack Douglas on what was to be her best album, 1976's "Radio Ethiopia".
What a debut... November 26, 2009
theresa (Santa Clara, Ca)
The first words we heard from Patti Smith:
"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine..."
What a way to say hello.
i got to see her at the cellar door in georgetown washington dc November 6, 2009
eric luna (anniston, al USA)
when i was a young pup in the military. she was so high at one point someone in the audience had to give her a chair from the audience to sit in. never the less it remained one of the most powerful concerts i had ever seen.man she was great and i still think about that concert all these years later. by the way horses prompted me to go see her. she was truly new and breathtaking .what a wonderful time.................
This should be part of anyone's top 100 October 21, 2009
MBHK (NJ)
I saw Patti Smith a couple times at the old Capitol Theatre in Passaic and, to loosely quote John Lennon, it was like being a Roman in Rome during Roman times. I know how lucky I was. There are a few people whose work I love as much as hers... but not many. These are great albums, and her music still sounds great and largely undated. That breathless stretch of Land in Horses is one of my favorite moments in all of rock n' roll. Really, why aren't we hearing more of this stuff now?? They play everything else!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 76
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