Horses by Patti Smith

Horses by Patti Smith

Patti Smith’s debut album Horses was released in November of 1975. Five decades later the world is still catching up. Listeners can tell you the circumstance when they first heard the album or saw its striking cover image; buttons were issued reading “Horses Changed My Life.”

A poet and writer whose live performance grew to include guitarist (and crucial rock historian) Lenny Kaye, then pianist Richard Sohl (whose nomme du roque DNV was a reference to the film version of Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice ). By the debut album, the band had expanded with drummer Jay Dee Daugherty and multi-instrumentalist Ivan Kral. Smith still performs, recently playing the album in its entirety; Kay and Daugherty still play in her group.

The album balance’s Smith’