Horses is a studio debut album by American musician Patti Smith, released on December 13, 1975, on Arista Records. Smith, a burgeoning New York punk rock musical instrument, began recording Horses with his band in 1975 after signing a contract with Arista Records, with John Cale listed to produce the album. With a mix of simple rock and roll structures and Smith's free form, Beat-infused lyrics lyrics, Horses was greeted with widespread critical acclaim over its initial release. While there are no popular games or singles to support the album, it still has a modest commercial success, managing the top 50 spots on the US Billboard 200.
Horses has been viewed by critics as one of the biggest and most influential albums in the history of the American punk rock movement, and one of the greatest albums of all time. Horse has also been cited as a key influence on a number of punk, post-punk, and alternative rock acts, including Siouxsie and Banshees, The Smiths, R.E., PJ Harvey, and Maggie Estep.
Video Horses (album)
Background and recording
In 1975, Patti Smith and his band had established themselves as favorites in the arena of the New York underground club, and the band finally caught the attention of industry executive Clive Davis, who sought new talent to sign his new label Arista Records and then offered Smith a contract recording. The recording sessions for Smith's debut album Horses began at the end of that year, with Smith defending his support band from long residency at New York's CBGB club - Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, Lenny Kaye on guitar, Ivan Kral on bass , and Richard Sohl on the keyboard. Smith enlisted Welsh musician John Cale, former The Velvet Underground, to take on the role of an album producer, as he was impressed by the raw sounds of his own album, such as Fear .
According to Smith, Horses is a conscious effort "to make notes that will make certain people not feel alone, people like me are different... I am not targeting the whole world I am not trying to set a record." Session recordings for albums are marked by frequent arguments between Smith and Cale, partly because of their different work ethic. At the end of the recording, and for several years immediately after the album's release, Smith quickly downplayed Cale's contributions and suggested that he and his band ignore his advice entirely. In a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone , Smith described his experience:
I chose John as much as I chose Rimbaud. I saw the Illuminations cover with Rimbaud's face, you know, he looks really cool, just like Bob Dylan. So Rimbaud became my favorite poet. I looked into the cover of Fear and I said, 'Now there is a set of cheekbones.' In my mind I chose it because it sounded good. But I hired the wrong person. What I'm looking for is a technical person. Instead, I got a total maniac artist. I went to choose an expensive watercolor painting and instead I got a mirror. It's really like A Season in Hell , for both of us. But inspiration does not always have to be someone send me half a dozen roses of American Beauty. There is a great inspiration between the killer and the victim. And he made me so angry that I finally did this nine-minute cut that went beyond anything I've ever done before.
Cale would then remember that Smith initially hit him as "someone with a very volatile mouth who could handle any situation", and that as a producer at Horse he wanted to capture the energy of his performance instantly, noting that there " there is a lot of power in the use of Patti language, in the way the images collide with each other. " He described their working relationships during the recording as "confrontational and very much like an immortal force that meets an immovable object". Smith himself will connect many tensions between himself and Cale with his experience with a formal studio recording, given that he is "very, very suspicious, very guarded and difficult to work with" and "makes it difficult to do some of the things he has to do". He expressed his gratitude for Cale's perseverance in recording and producing the band, noting that he will always leave many bands "teenage and honest" bands in and ultimately "help us in the birth of ourselves", calling him "like a brother to me, a brother who gave me help. "
Maps Horses (album)
Music and lyrics
In Smith's own words, Horses is conceived as "three chord rocks combined with the power of words". Steve Huey from AllMusic called Horses "is basically the first punk art album." Smith and his band sound, spearheaded by Lenny Kaye's imperfect guitar work, drew on the simple aesthetics of garage rock, and the use of simple group chord structures is a symbol of the punk rock scene associated with the band. Smith, however, uses such structures as the basis for improvisation of lyrics and music in album songs, deviating from other contemporary punk acts that are generally away from the solos. Horses draws genres like rock and roll, reggae, and jazz. "Redondo Beach" has a reggae supporter track, while "Birdland", which is improvised by the band at Electric Lady Studios, owes more to jazz, enjoyed by Smith's mom, than punk.
Reflecting Smith's background as a poet, the album's lyrics channeled the French Symbolism movement, combining the influence of Charles Baudelaire's works, William Blake and lifelong idol Arthur Rimbaud, and recalling Rimbaud's "revolutionary spirit" and resonating with energy Defeating poetry, > CMJ ' s Steve Klinge. Some album tracks - "Redondo Beach", "Free Money", "Kimberly" - were inspired by moments with members of the Smith family, while others - "Break It Up", "Elegie" - were written about his idol. The Smith brothers gave lyrical inspiration to "Redondo Beach" and "Kimberly"; a former song, about the despair of a lost lover, was inspired by the incident where Smith Linda's sister disappeared for the day after a fight with him, and the last song was named and dedicated to Smith Kimberly's sister. "Free Money" is Smith's childhood memory in New Jersey.
"Break It Up" was written by Smith about Jim Morrison, the late vocalist of The Doors, and based on his memories of his visit to Morrison's grave at PÃÆ'¨re Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, as well as a dream in which he watched Morrison. attached to the marble slab, tried and finally managed to break away from the rock. "Elegie" is written about the late rock musician Jimi Hendrix. "Birdland" featured lyrics based on A Book of Dreams, a 1973 Austrian psychoanalyst memoir Wilhelm Reich by his son Peter, and Smith said that he imagined Hendrix's spirit to notice him as he and his band recorded the song. Horses also features two adaptations of the song by another artist: "Gloria", a radical retake on their song that incorporates verses from Smith's own poem "Oath", and "Land", has become a live favorite, which features Chris Kenner's first paragraph "Land of a Thousand Dances". In the latter, Smith combines the image of Kenner's song along with the experience of Johnny's character, a reference to the homoerotic protagonist of William Burroughs novel 1971 The Wild Boys , while also offends Arthur Rimbaud and, less directly, Jimi Hendrix, which he imagined would "dream of a simple rock-and-roll song, and that takes him to all these other areas."
Artwork
The cover photo for Horses was captured using natural light by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, a close friend of Smith, in Greenwich Village's penthouse apartment from his partner Sam Wagstaff. Smith is portrayed in a plain white shirt he bought at the Salvation Army in Bowery and hung a black jacket over his favorite black shoulder and ribbon on the collar of his shirt. Embedded in the jacket is the pin of the horse that Smith's friend Allen Lanier gave him. Smith described his pose on the cover as "a mixture of Baudelaire and Sinatra." The record company wanted to make various changes to the photo, but Smith rejected the effort. The black and white treatment and unisex pose was a departure from the typical promotional picture of the "singing girl" at the time, but Smith argued that she "did not make big statements, it was just the way I was dressed."
Writer Camille Paglia described the album cover as "one of the greatest photos a woman ever took."
Critical reception
After the initial release, Horses greeted with almost universal recognition from music critics and publications. In a contemporary commentary for Rolling Stone, John Rockwell wrote that Horse is "remarkable in size because he recognizes the importance of words that are too important" in Smith's work, encompassing various worries "goes far beyond what most rocks record", and highlights Smith's adaptation to rock standards as the most prominent songs on the record. In Creem , Lester Bangs writes that Smith's music "at its peak touches the deepest source of emotion that very few artists in rock or elsewhere are able to reach", and declares that its " the most faded flight and the silence of this album he joined the ranks of the likes of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, or Dylan of 'Sad Eyed Lady' and Royal Albert Hall. "Robert Christgau gave Horse Class A in The Village Voice and commented that while the album did not capture Smith's humor, it "got the minimalist anger of the band and its revolutionaries, the singing dimension was fine."
Horses ' The mix of philosophical elements in Smith's songwriting and rock and roll elements in his music, however, attracts some polarizing reactions, especially from the British music press. An overview of Horses from Melody Maker dismissed the album as "exactly what's wrong with rock and roll now." On the other hand, Jonh Ingham of Sounds publishes a five-star review of Horses, named it "this year's record" and "one of the most amazing, commanding, fascinating discs to come down from toll road since John Lennon Plastic Ono Band ". Charles Shaar Murray of NME called it "an album in a thousand" and "an important album in terms of what music can include without losing its identity as a musical form, because it introduces a larger artist. seen in the rock for too long. "
Commercially, Horses performed simply, peaking at number 47 on the US Billboard album chart 200 despite receiving almost no broadcast. At the end of 1975, Horses was selected as the second best album of the year, behind Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes , in Pazz & amp; Jop, annual poll of American critics nationally, published in The Village Voice . NME placed her at number thirteen on the year-end list of their best 1975 album. In 1979, Robert Christgau was ranked 38th on his list of best albums in the 1970s.
Inheritance and influence
Once released, Horses has solidified Smith's reputation as one of the greatest names of New York punk rock, along with contemporary acts such as Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads, and has since been called the first significant punk rock album. Horse is considered one of the key recordings of the early punk rock movement and a landmark for punk music and a new wave in general, inspiring "raw, almost amateurish energy for prior and critical reflexivity, exciting for the latter" according to author Chris Smith in his 101rd Album Changing Music. The Observer critic Simon Reynolds wrote, "Throwing the first Ramones album to the post by five months, Horse is generally considered not only one of the most surprising debuts in rock history. but the spark that triggered a punk explosion. "In Variety, David Sprague writes that" Horses - which became the first major punk-rock major-label album when Arista released it in 1975 - not only helped spread the gospel. of Bowery art-punk around the world, he sets the tone for a savvy and immovable female rocker of the next generation. "
Recording artists are specifically named Horses as influences on their music. The British post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees admitted that the song "Carcass" from their 1978 album The Scream was inspired by Horses . Michael Stipe from R.E.M. bought the album as a high school student and said that it "ripped off his limbs and put them back in a different order," citing Smith as his main inspiration to become a musician. Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared the award for the recording, and one of their early compositions for The Smiths, "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", is a reworking "Kimberly". Courtney Love of Hole states that Horse helped inspire him to become a rock musician, while Viv Albertine of The Slits stated that Horse really and completely transformed his life " , added: "We girls never stood in front of a mirror posing as if we had a guitar because we did not have role models so when Patti Smith came, it was very big. PJ Harvey stated in 1992 at the beginning of his career: "I've heard horses once and that's brilliant - not so much music as the delivery, the words, the articulations.
Horse has been considered by music critics to be one of the best albums in recorded music history, achieving high levels of success and high critical influence in the years after the release despite the modest sales figures. This album has been included in various publications list of the greatest albums of the 1970s and all time. In 1992, NME ranked Horses in the first place on the list of "20 Perfect Beginning Efforts For The Perfect Effort". Q magazine is included in the 2002 list of the 100 biggest punk albums. In 2003, the album was ranked 44th on the magazine's list of the biggest 500 album magazines of all time Rolling Stone . In 2006, Time named it as an All-TIME 100 Album, and three years later, preserved by the Library of Congress into National Recording Recordings for "Culturally, historically , or aesthetically. " In 2013, Rolling Stone ranked No. 10 on the list of 100 greatest debut albums of all time, describing it as "a committed rebellion declaration, a statement of faith in the power of transfigurative rock & amp; roll. "
30th anniversary edition
For the 30th anniversary of Horses , the live version was recorded by Smith on June 25, 2005 at the Royal Festival Hall at Meltdown festival, curated by Smith. It follows the same run sequences as the original Horses releases, and features accompaniment by original band members Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, and Tony Shanahan on bass and piano guitar, Tom Verlaine on guitar, and Flea on guitar bass and trumpet. Set was immediately released on November 8, 2005 as the second disc of a double CD titled Horses/Horses , with a digital remastered version of the original 1975 album, along with the bonus song "My Generation", on the first disc. The album was recorded and mixed by Emery Dobyns.
Track list
Personnel
Band
- Patti Smith - vocals, guitar
- Jay Dee DaughertyÃ, - drums, consultant
- Lenny KayeÃ, - guitar, bass guitar, vocals
- Ivan KralÃ, - bass guitar, guitar, vocals
- Richard Sohl - keyboard
Additional personnel
Diagram
Certification
Releasing history
References
Works cited
External links
- Horses on Acclaimed Music
- Horses on Discogs (release list)
- Horses on MusicBrainz (release list)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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