Friday, September 29, 2006

Patti Smith: Horses


This classic Patti Smith album has had plenty of reviews written about it over the years, so I will not spew on about the relevance and importance of it in the history of rock & roll. I will say that Horses has been playing nonstop in my car for three days now, and I still feel like I am listening to something new every time. It's probably been said a thousand times, but Smith is the female Lou Reed. I have been on a mid to late 70's New York kick for some time now, and I'm having a hard time getting a grasp on what it must have been like to have seen Smith and her band during that time. Insane. Horses is so much more than Smith's angst or her aching voice and lyrics, I am equally pulled in by the piano of Richard Sohl and the smoking guitar of Tom Verlaine (of Television fame) on "Break It Up". I am tempted to buy the 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition, which is basically a live cover of Horses, and includes Verlaine on guitar and John Cale on bass, but I know after a few listens I would return to the original. You know what they say, if it ain't broke...