Personnel: Patti Smith (vocals); Ivan Kral (vocals, guitar, bass); Lenny Kaye, Allen Lanier, Tom Verlaine (guitar); Richard Sohl (piano); John Cale (bass); Jay Dee Daugherty (drums).

Recorded at Electric Lady Studios, New York, New York. Originally released on Arista (8362). Includes liner notes by Patti Smith.

Personnel include: Patti Smith; Flea, Jay Dee Daugherty, Lenny Kaye, Tom Verlaine, Tony Shanahan.

Recording information: Royal Festival Hall, London, England (1975 - 2005).

With the exception of Bob Dylan, few rock n' rollers explored poetry within the rock format as thoroughly as Patti Smith. By the mid-70's, Smith had been a regular poetry-reader in New York City clubs for years, and with a deep admiration for The Rolling Stones, it was only natural to set these poems to music. With an exciting rock band to back her up (including renowned music critic Lenny Kaye on guitar), Smith built up a following on the strength of the band's thrilling and trance-inducing live shows.

Produced by ex-Velvet Underground bassist John Cale, HORSES was considered 'punk rock' when it was first released, but there was much more to it. Smith had a gift for being able to paint vivid pictures with her prose, as evidenced by a pair of 10-minute long epics, "Birdland" and "Land" (which consisted of 3 sections--"Horses," "Land of A Thousand Dances," and "La Mer"). Other tracks are more conventional, yet just as gripping--a cover of "Gloria," "Free Money," and "Kimberly," plus a ragged live cover of The Who's "My Generation" (included on the '96 remastered CD edition as a bonus track). HORSES is a classic.

What the critics say...

Rolling Stone (10/31/02, p.135) - Ranked #5 in Rolling Stone's "Women In Rock: The 50 Essential Albums" - "...Rock & roll poetry was a bore until this Jersey girl showed up..."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.110) - Ranked #44 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...A statement of faith in the transfigurative powers of rock & roll..."
Q (5/02 SE, p.141) - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums".
Q (11/96, p.154) - 5 Stars (out of 5) - "...the brittle rock and wide-eyed transcendental journeying of 1975's accepted classic HORSES has lost none of its thrill..."
Vibe (12/99, p.158) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Melody Maker (7/13/96, p.50) - Bloody Essential
Mojo (Publisher) (p.124) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[W]hat still stuns is Smith's reverie-like, stream-of-consciousness delivery."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #31 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of All Time.
NME (Magazine) (9/18/93, p.19) - Ranked #8 among The Greatest Albums Of The '70s - "...the words were monumental--an exceptional tribute to creativity unhinged..."
NME (Magazine) (7/20/96, p.45) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Here is rock from the point of view of a gifted writer who has reinvented herself as an alien creature, reared on Jean Genet and Rimbaud..."