Retro Reviews: Patti Smith: Horses

 I decided to launch a new series to imagine myself as a critic at the end of the 60s and start of the 70s, and to rectify certain reviews from Rolling Stone magazine and Creem. This not meant to be contrarian, but to offer a more balanced perspective. All the albums reviewed are indeed classic albums. 

Patti Smith – Horses (1975)

****

Producer: John Cale

Musicians: Patty Smith, Lenny Kaye, Ivan Kral, Jay Dee Daugherty, Richard Sohl

Songs and Music: Gloria (part1: In Excelsis Deo, Part II: Gloria), Redondo Beach, Birdland, Free Money, Kimberly, Break It Up, Land (Part1 Horses / Part 2; Land of A Thousand Dances / Part 3 La Mer(de)), Elegie

Reviewed by Matthew Anthony Allair

    Patti Smith is a new singer who has assembled a sympatric band, is some respects this feels revolutionary, on the other hand, this feels like an continuation of a cross between Jim Morrison and the Doors and Gil Scott Heron’s recent work. To add credence to the album Horses is producer John Cale from the Velvet Underground. The keyboard player Richard Sohl and drummer Jay Dee Daughery offers solid support. The duel guitar work of Lenny Kaye and Ivan Kral, whom also plays bass guitar, gives the backing material a kind of real life, and all the players follow the lead of Patti. The album seems to dabble into the avant-garde, and free jazz association, but it a rock or pop setting. None of this in a literal sense, but in the spirit of experimental music, hence, this won’t be for everyone, but this will reward anyone looking for anything a little different.

    The opening track “Gloria (Excelsis Deo)” basically vamps off of the Them and Van Morrison song, and build into a spirit of deification. But it’s really the words that are a revelation as she opens with “Jesus died for somebody’s else’s sins, but not mine.”, which feels like a shot across the bow that this is something different. The Reggae infused “Redondo Beach” has a lite feel, the musical setting is a little deceptive as it deals with a dark subject. The piano is often a key feature as demonstrated by the epic “Birdland”, a cross between a narrative and vocal, for the first half the guitar interplay is light, In some respects Patti’s vocal attempts may be more successful than some of the things that Morrison was attempting, the problem with the Doors was that they tempered their sound by 68 for something more accessible. By the halfway mark, Kaye is really playing off what Patti is doing, her confusion builds up as it progresses. The mental images she is invoking becomes provocative. The song was inspired by Peter Reich’s ‘A Book Of Dreams’ and deals with parental loss. Sohl’s piano work on “Free Money” feels rather introspective before the full band shifts gears. Daugherty’s drumming gives this extra life. Many of these may be three or four chord vamps, but they feel sophisticated in their approach.

    The second half opens with the rhythmic pulse of “Kimberly”, probably one of the most pop feeling tracks, but the content is indeed deep. Another New York peer, Tom Verlaine, helped co write “Break It Up”, a song with a eerie setting and some drama within the band., the drama also reminds me of some of the material from Springsteen’s Born To Run several months earlier. The other epic “Land: Horses / Land Of A Thousand Dances / La Mer(de)” offers the same vamps, but seems to be build on instinct, The connection between Rock and RNB of the past runs very profoundly with some of the numbers, the song seems to be about longing, the build up of creative energy, and the euphoria of relationships, the idea of tearing something down that is old, to allow for something new.  The album closer and dark, “Elegie” sums of the feeling of the album, I believe an upright bass is used for the ambiance of the track. All of these portraits don’t offer any easy answers to the human condition, but she does channel the feeling of another New York peer, Lou Reed, and the Velvet’s connection starts to make more sense.

    Why this would only have a select audience is baffling to me, as musically it is quite accessible, and most people could gloss over the lyrical content, but we shall see. 

    She seems grounded in the real. Recommended.