Patti Smith: Horses Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This EU-pressed LP puts the landmark 1975 debut back on 140g vinyl. Horses fused poetry and rock and roll, reached the Billboard top 50, and in 2009 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

This edition

140g vinyl
Pressed in the EU
Stereo mix

About the album

Patti Smith was a poet first, reading her work to a guitar in New York clubs, and Horses is what happened when the guitar won the argument. She cut it at Electric Lady Studios in September 1975 with John Cale, formerly of the Velvet Underground, producing, and with her band of Lenny Kaye, Richard Sohl, Ivan Kral and Jay Dee Daugherty.

"Gloria" turns a 1960s garage standard into a manifesto, "Redondo Beach" bounces on a reggae lilt, "Free Money" builds into a rush, and "Birdland" and the long "Land" suite let Smith improvise her way into something close to trance. Robert Mapplethorpe shot the stark black and white cover, one of the most famous in rock.

It laid the groundwork for punk and for a long line of artists since. A poet who started out reading to a guitar ended up with a whole band behind her, which counts as a very successful negotiation.

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