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"Horses" is not just what many have called "the sword that cut the destiny of rock in two"
. Or at least not just this. It is the embrace that desperately holds together two opposing eras. If albums like "Pet Sounds" or "Surrealistic Pillow" had taken away the generation of children from that of the fathers, "Horses" prepares the field for the grandchildren's supremacy. It is the act of courage that someone in the rock world had to take. The awareness of what is necessary to forget or safeguard from that wonderful creative fire burned between the sixties and seventies, of which at that time only a very fertile ember remained.
It's 1975, the forefront musical scene is still of great depth (to name two, Led Zeppelin, Who, Roxy Music, Steely Dan, the revived Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.), but we are in the shadow of what the previous years have been, many heroes have fallen more or less painfully, and many of those still standing will have to fall before the beginning of the next decade.
Patti Smith is just a wayward pseudo-poetess from Chicago, dragging herself for years through the more intellectual New York, from Greenwich Village to Warhol's Factory, without substantial successes; until one day she washes her face and decides to put to use years and years of cursed life and the right acquaintances. She soon finds the necessary clarity to shape her suggestive ideas. It is precisely this indomitable artist, with a dangerously anarchic spirit, who unconsciously sets the goal (perhaps then with the only parallel of Bruce Springsteen) of ferrying rock out of the swamp in which it was sinking, to save it by letting it breathe new air. And in the simplest way, by making it hers.
Patti Smith's greatness lies precisely in having operated within the tradition but according to her own – very personal – schemes. First of all, she courageously eludes the female imagery that had so far dominated the music world, fighting not only with the pin-up caricature style Marilyn or the charming diva like Billie Holiday, but also with "transgressives" like Joan Baez or Janis Joplin. Yes, because here we go beyond a mere question of clothing or attitude. This is the first "poetess of rock", no ifs or buts, without mascara or affectations, here it's serious.
The album immediately opens with a programmatic cover, that "Gloria" which by now is more a passing of the baton than a simple story of an exciting infatuation: the Them's song, already made delirious in its time by the Doors, is here violently sucked in and enriched in a wonderful hallucinogenic journey where unsuspected climaxes are reached, an involvement that Van Morrison’s version did not even dream of. The rest is history, visionary gallops of energetic pianos and guitars (by the legendary Lenny Kaye, yes yes, the same one from Nuggets!) sharp, cruel, essential. Evocative. Both in lyrics and music, an exceptional alchemy between simplicity and emotion, between lovable classicism and unheard-of extremes (just think of the masterpiece "Land", a suite of over nine minutes between the ghosts of Wilson Pickett and the shadowy densities of ironic confessions like "La Mer(de)"). It could be the worthy backdrop of Pietro Manzoni's homonymous work.
Among bellicose verses that are the offspring of the most Ginsbergian beat generation, thrilling proto-new wave experiments, and furious proto-punk, we are shaken, protected, burned, and exalted over the course of seven indelible tracks (which if you permit, I refrain from dissecting to not spoil the surprises for newcomers) until the damp and possessed lullaby of "Elegie".
Patti Smith's unique quality does not reside so much in her voice, her stage poses, her sensuality for the few, but in the messages she has written within herself. She was just waiting to find a visionary producer like John Cale, a great adventure companion like Tom Verlaine (listen to "Break It Up"), and especially four other free spirits (as well as great musicians) who could amplify her feelings. Here unfolds as never before the wild passion with which a young woman can see, love, and hate the world.
The soul of "Horses" is this, the race of unripe horses finally free, still not knowing well from what (this they will discover after a few months with the likes of the Rotten and the Ramones), but with a visceral need to deploy their beauty, their sense of life.
P.S.: reissued from 1996 with the addition of an unmissable homage to the mod uncles, the punky cover of "My Generation" by the Who. Historia magistra vitae...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Redondo Beach (03:26)
Late afternoon, dreaming hotel
We just had the quarrel that sent you away.
I was looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Called you on the phone, another dimension.
Well, you never returned, oh you know what I mean.
I went looking for you, are you gone, gone ?
Down by the ocean it was so dismal,
Women all standing with a shock on their faces.
Sad description, oh I was looking for you.
Everyone was singing, girl is washed up
On Redondo Beach and everyone is so sad.
I was looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Pretty little girl, everyone cried.
She was the victim of sweet suicide.
I went looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Down by the ocean it was so dismal,
Women all standing with shock on their faces.
Sad description, oh I was looking for you.
Desk clerk told me girl was washed up,
Was small, an angel with apple blonde hair, now.
I went looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Picked up my key, didn't reply.
Went to my room, started to cry.
You were small, an angel, are you gone gone ?
Down by the ocean it was so dismal.
I was just standing with shock on my face.
The hearse pulled away, and the girl that had died, it was you.
You'll never return into my arms 'cause you were gone gone.
Never return into my arms 'cause you were gone gone.
Gone gone, gone gone, good-bye.
03 Birdland (09:13)
His father died and left him a little farm in New England.
All the long black funeral cars left the scene
And the boy was just standing there alone
Looking at the shiny red tractor
Him and his daddy used to sit inside
And circle the blue fields and grease the night.
It was if someone had spread butter on all the fine points of the stars
'Cause when he looked up they started to slip.
Then he put his head in the crux of his arm
And he started to drift, drift to the belly of a ship,
Let the ship slide open, and he went inside of it
And saw his daddy 'hind the control board streamin' beads of light,
He saw his daddy 'hind the control board,
And he was very different tonight
'Cause he was not human, he was not human.
And then the little boy's face lit up with such naked joy
That the sun burned around his lids and his eyes were like two suns,
White lids, white opals, seeing everything just a little bit too clearly
And he looked around and there was no black ship in sight,
No black funeral cars, nothing except for him the raven
And fell on his knees and looked up and cried out,
�No, daddy, don't leave me here alone,
Take me up, daddy, to the belly of your ship,
Let the ship slide open and I'll go inside of it
Where you're not human, you are not human.�
But nobody heard the boy's cry of alarm.
Nobody there 'cept for the birds around the New England farm
And they gathered in all directions, like roses they scattered
And they were like compass grass coming together
Into the head of a shaman bouquet
Slit in his nose and all the others went shooting
And he saw the lights of traffic beckoning like the hands of Blake
Grabbing at his cheeks, taking out his neck,
All his limbs, everything was twisted and he said,
�I won't give up, won't give up, don't let me give up,
I won't give up, come here, let me go up fast,
Take me up quick, take me up, up to the belly of a ship
And the ship slides open and I go inside of it where I am not human.�
I am helium raven and this movie is mine,
So he cried out as he stretched the sky,
Pushing it all out like latex cartoon, am I all alone in this generation ?
We'll just be dreaming of animation night and day
And won't let up, won't let up and I see them coming in,
Oh, I couldn't hear them before, but I hear 'em now,
It's a radar scope in all silver and all platinum lights
Moving in like black ships, they were moving in, streams of them,
And he put up his hands and he said, �It's me, it's me,
I'll give you my eyes, take me up, oh now please take me up,
I'm helium raven waitin' for you, please take me up,
Don't let me here,� the son, the sign, the cross,
Like the shape of a tortured woman,
The true shape of a tortured woman,
The mother standing in the doorway letting her sons
No longer presidents but prophets
They're all dreaming they're gonna bear the prophet,
He's gonna run through the fields dreaming in animation
It's all gonna split his skull
It's gonna come out like a black bouquet shining
Like a fist that's gonna shoot them up
Like light, like Mohammed Boxer
Take them up up up up up up
Oh, let's go up, up, take me up, I'll go up,
I'm going up, I'm going up
Take me up, I'm going up, I'll go up there
Go up go up go up go up up up up up up up
Up, up to the belly of a ship.
Let the ship slide open and we'll go inside of it
Where we are not human, we're not human.
Well, there was sand, there were tiles,
The sun had melted the sand and it coagulated
Like a river of glass
When it hardened he looked at the surface
He saw his face
And where there were eyes were just two white opals,
Two white opals,
Where there were eyes there were just two white opals
And he looked up and the rays shot
And he saw raven comin' in
And he crawled on his back and he went up
Up up up up up up
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
Sha da do wop, da shaman do way,
We like birdland.
04 Free Money (03:51)
Every night before I go to sleep
Find a ticket, win a lottery,
Scoop the pearls up from the sea
Cash them in and buy you all the things you need.
Every night before I rest my head
See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed.
I know they're stolen, but I don't feel bad.
I take that money, buy you things you never had.
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me,
Oh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free.
I'll buy you a jet plane, baby,
Get you on a higher plane to a jet stream
And take you through the stratosphere
And check out the planets there and then take you down
Deep where it's hot, hot in Arabia, babia,
Then cool, cold fields of snow
And we'll roll, dream, roll, dream, roll, roll, dream, dream.
When we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it,
We'll dream it, dream it for free, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money.
Every night before I go to sleep
Find a ticket, win a lottery.
Every night before I rest my head
See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed.
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me,
Baby, I know our troubles will be gone.
Oh, I know our troubles will be gone, goin' gone
If we dream, dream, dream for free.
And when we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it,
Let's dream it, we'll dream it for free, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money,
Free money, free money, free money, free
05 Kimberly (04:27)
The wall is high, the black barn,
The babe in my arms in her swaddling clothes
And I know soon that the sky will split
And the planets will shift,
Balls of jade will drop and existence will stop.
Little sister, the sky is falling, I don't mind, I don't mind.
Little sister, the fates are calling on you.
Ah, here I stand again in this old 'lectric whirlwind,
The sea rushes up my knees like flame
And I feel like just some misplaced Joan Of Arc
And the cause is you lookin' up at me.
Oh baby, I remember when you were born,
It was dawn and the storm settled in my belly
And I rolled in the grass and I spit out the gas
And I lit a match and the void went flash
And the sky split and the planets hit,
Balls of jade dropped and existence stopped, stopped, stop, stop.
Little sister, the sky is falling, I don't mind, I don't mind.
Little sister, the fates are calling on you.
I was goin' crazy, so crazy I knew I could break through with you,
So with one hand I rocked you and with one heart I reached for you.
Ah, I knew your youth was for the takin', fire on a mental plane,
So I ran through the fields as the bats with their baby vein faces
Burst from the barn and flames in a violent violet sky,
And I fell on my knees and pressed you against me.
Your soul was like a network of spittle,
Like glass balls movin' in like cold streams of logic,
And I prayed as the lightning attacked
That something will make it go crack,
Something will make it go crack,
Something will make it go crack,
Something will make it go crack.
The palm trees fall into the sea,
It doesn't matter much to me
As long as you're safe, Kimberly.
And I can gaze deep
Into your starry eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Into your starry eyes, oh.
Oh, in your starry eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby, oh.
Oh, looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Into your starry eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby
06 Break It Up (04:04)
Car stopped in a clearing,
Ribbon of life, it was nearing.
I saw the boy break out of his skin.
My heart turned over and I crawled in.
He cried, “Break it up, oh I don't understand,
Break it up, I can't comprehend.
Break it up, oh, I want to feel you.
Break it up, don't talk to me that way,
I'm not listening.
Snow started falling,
I could hear the angel calling.
We rolled on the ground, he stretched out his wings.
The boy flew away and he started to sing.
He sang, “Break it up, oh, I don't understand.
Break it up, I can't comprehend.
Break it up, oh, I want to feel you.
Break it up, don't look at me.
The sky was raging, the boy disappeared,
I fell on my knees
Atmosphere broke up, the boy reappeared.
I cried, “Take me please!
Ice, it was shining.
I could feel my heart, it was melting.
I tore off my clothes, I danced on my shoes.
I ripped my skin open and then I broke through.
I cried, “Break it up, oh, now I understand.
Break it up, and I want to go.
Break it up, oh please take me with you.
Break it up, I can feel it breaking,
I can feel it breaking, I can feel it breaking,
I can feel, I can feel, I can feel, I can feel.
So break it up, oh now I'm coming with you.
Break it up, now I'm gonna go.
Break it up, oh, feel me, I'm coming.
Break it up, break it up, break it up,
Break it up, break it up, break it up,
Oh, break it up, break it up, break it up
Break it up, break it up, break it on up
Break it up, break it on up, up, up
Break it, break it, break it, break it
Break it on up, break it up,
Break it up, break it up, break it up ...
08 Elegie (02:41)
I just don't know what to do tonight,
My head is aching as I drink and breathe
Memory falls like cream in my bones, moving on my own.
There must be something I can dream tonight,
The air is filled with the moves of you,
All the fire is frozen yet still I have the will, ooh, ah.
Trumpets, violins, I hear them in the distance
And my skin emits a ray, but I think it's sad, it's much too bad
That our friends can't be with us today.
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Other reviews
By cacchione
Can a voice be at the same time irreverent, irreverent, biting, melancholic, and persuasive? Listen to Horses and the answer will be obvious.
Ms. Smith devours for breakfast and lines up all the pseudo-award-winning singers who sell millions of records worldwide (sigh!).
