Features Disc of the day
Patti Smith
Horses
(Arista, 1975)
1975 beat punk hallelujah that’s still one of rock’s most inspirational debuts.
You could write a book about these eight songs. Indeed, MOJO’s own maverick spirit Mark Paytress did just that last year in Break It Up: Horses And The Remaking Of Rock’n’Roll, casting Patti Smith’s debut as key to a cultural revolution, more so even than Sgt. Pepper had been. Whether or not you buy that (and I do!) the striking contrast between Smith’s vivid lyrical stream-of-consciousness and the song’s pop hooks and guitar rave-ups still sounds singularly impressive. Opening with that now-famous assertion of self-accountability: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”, Smith rides in excelsis into her own Gloria (borrowing from Van Morrison’s along the way) and on to an album of such energy and originality it established punk rock as a cultural force to be reckoned with in the mid-’70s, paving the way for new wave and countless sonic experimenters under the art rock banner (to say nothing of shattering female stereotypes – but there’s another book right there). Land, with its urgent narrative about a boy terrorised at school is the album’s most celebrated track, but Birdland is the first moment of true transcendence – a spellbinding ghost story of jarring Burroughs weirdness paired with mournful piano from the late Richard Sohl and Lenny Kaye’s perfectly judged improvised guitar it keeps the eyes brimming for nine odd minutes. There is still nothing like it.
Jenny Bulley
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 18/08/2008
Further Listening
Easter – Patti Smith Group (Arista)
Gone Again – Patti Smith (Arista)
Television – Marquee Moon (Rhino)
SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!
Previous Disc of the day
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The The - Soul Mining
Matt Johnson's self-excoriating - but tunepacked! -classic.
6:00 AM GMT 16/03/2010
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-
Various Artists - Axe Attack Vol II
Metal Britannica inspires MOJO metal amnesty. Studded leather wristbands aloft!
2:32 AM GMT 12/03/2010
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The Pop Group - Y
For connoisseurs of pop-as-rupture-in-the-space/time-continuum
6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
-
St Vitus Dance - Glypotheque
Belfast combo return unannounced, go sardonic pop-folk.
6:00 AM GMT 09/03/2010
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Comments
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i just don't get it. clunky pub rock, with sub-City Lights lyrics
Posted by showbiz whines at 5:11 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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RE: showbiz whines
Thank you for saying it. It needed to be said, and the greater the hype about Patti Smith, the greater the need. All this nonsense about Smith, why not discussion about how the Bee Gees are equal to Stravinsky while we're at it?
Posted by Winston Smith at 5:26 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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RE: Winston Smith
Just speaking out in defense of symbolist poetry grafted onto spaced-out garage jams. Evidently, you either get it or you don't with PS, like a lot of rock's acquired tastes. No, Patti's not Linda Ronstadt or Stevie Nicks. And thank goodness. Cast your memories back to that time of mid-70s AOR and perhaps you'll get a slight hint of just what was so "earth shattering" about the whole gambit. This chick went way out on a limb to just be herself, let her own weird visions and experiments carry the band, and it was exhilerating. Still is, IMHO. But, clearly, not for everyone. Like the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith is one of those artists who may have only been heard and understood by a relative handful, but that handful all went on to form bands, write books, make art, etc, etc. Bands like U2, REM, Waterboys, even on down to current poptart hitmaker KT Tunstall, for pete's sake. Hence the hype.
And, no, the Bee Gees are not Stravinsky. But they did make some excellent baroque pop in their early days. Perhaps more akin to Haydn?
Posted by veritable shadow at 7:04 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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RE: veritable shadow
Not being Linda Ronstadt or Stevie Nicks is good. Being antecedent of Waterboys, U2 et al just confirms how not for me PS is.
It's a cool cover, though
Posted by showbiz whines at 7:31 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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RE: Winston Smith
If you do not get it you should not be on here commenting!
It's one of the greatest albums ever made.
Posted by Colm Gallagher at 7:32 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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RE: Winston Smith
If you do not get it you should not be on here commenting!
It's one of the greatest albums ever made.
Posted by Colm Gallagher at 7:33 PM GMT 18/08/2008 Report Abuse
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