Line #59 Music/Horses


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pattismithhorses_5164.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''I think it's sad, it's much too bad, that our friends can't be with us today.'']]
3
4	-> ''"Horses" tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order. I was like: "Shit, yeah, oh my god!" then I threw up."''
5	--> '''[[Music/{{REM}} Michael Stipe]]''', who called "Horses" "just the most important thing in the world."
6
7	''Horses'' is a 1975 album by Music/PattiSmith, produced by Music/JohnCale. It's her most famous album and one of the most influential records of TheSeventies. The equally iconic cover photo was shot by her then-boyfriend Creator/RobertMapplethorpe and the record itself was produced by Music/JohnCale. It scored hits with "Gloria", "Redondo Beach", "Free Money", and "Land".
8
9	''Horses'' is historically important for being an enormous inspiration to the PunkRock scene that emerged in New York in the late 1970s. The record established Smith as a serious singer-songwriter, whose elegance, artistry, androgyny and strong self assuredness made her an icon to many PunkRock, AlternativeRock and even {{Pop}} artists that would follow in her footsteps, including Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{REM}}, Music/TheSmiths, Music/{{Morrissey}}, Music/{{Madonna}}, Music/CourtneyLove, and Music/SonicYouth. Since 2009 it has been preserved by the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry for being "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant".
10	Her next album the following year would be ''Music/RadioEthiopia'', by which time the musicians supporting her on this album, with the exception of Lanier and Verlaine, would have coalesced into the official Patti Smith Group.
11
12	!! Tracklist:
13
14	[[AC:Side One]]
15	# "Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)" (5:57)
16	# "Redondo Beach" (3:26)
17	# "Birdland" (9:15)
18	# "Free Money" (3:52)
19
20	[[AC:Side Two]]
21	# "Kimberly" (4:27)
22	# "Break It Up" (4:04)
23	# "Land" (9:25)
24	** "Horses" (1:12; 0:00-1:12)
25	** "Land of a Thousand Dances" (2:37; 1:12-3:50)
26	** "La Mer (de)" (5:35; 3:50-9:25)
27	# "Elegie" (2:57)
28
29	The CD version adds "[[Music/TheWho My Generation]]" as a bonus track.
30
31
32	!! Musical personnel[[note]]At this point they were not called the Patti Smith Group - they would receive this credit on the next album[[/note]]
33
34	* Patti Smith – vocals
35	* [[Music/BlueOysterCult Allen Lanier]] - guitar, keyboards and co-songwriting credits
36	* Jay Dee Daugherty – drums
37	* Lenny Kaye – lead guitar
38	* Ivan Král – bass guitar, guitar
39	* Richard Sohl – piano
40	* [[Music/{{Television}} Tom Verlaine]] - guitars
41
42	!! ''I was tropin' for yoo-oo-oouuu...'':
43	* AlbumClosure: The final track is called "Elegie", as in the closing oration at a funeral. It's particularly slow and somber.
44	* AlbumTitleDrop: "Land"
45	--> ''Suddenly, Johnny, got a feelin', he's been surrounded by... horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses,...''
46	* AmbiguousGender: Patti has a androgynous look on the album cover and her deep voice on the album only adds to this.
47	* AStormIsComing: "Kimberly."
48	-->And I know soon that the sky will split
49	* BlasphemousBoast: The infamous intro of "Gloria" where Patti takes full responsibility for her own sins, not needing Jesus.
50	--> ''Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.''
51	--> ''(...) My sins my own''
52	--> ''They belong to me, me''
53	* BrokenRecord: "Free Money", where the title is repeated at a [[MotorMouth breakneck pace]] near the end of the song. Also "Land", with its famous "horses, horses, horses" refrain.
54	* CoatOverTheShoulder: Patti on the album cover.
55	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "Gloria" and "Land" are both based around very radical rearrangements of other songs, Music/VanMorrison's "Gloria" and Wilson Pickett's "Land Of A Thousand Dances". In addition "Birdland" takes its chorus from Huey "Piano" Smith's "We Like Birdland", although it's a substantially different song.
56	* CoverVersion: "Gloria", a Music/{{Them}} cover, and "Land of a Thousand Dances", a Music/WilsonPickett cover.
57	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The black-and-white album cover.
58	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The very stylish album cover was designed by Creator/RobertMapplethorpe.
59	* DrivenToSuicide: "Redondo Beach" about a friend of hers of whom she thought had drowned herself.
60	--> ''The hearse pulled away, and the girl that had died, it was you.''
61	* DrugsAreBad: "Land", where the rape victim starts sniffing coke and "go Rimbaud".
62	* EarlyBirdCameo: [[Music/{{Television}} Tom Verlaine]] plays on "Break It Up" (which he co-wrote) almost two years before Television's [[Music/{{MarqueeMoon}} debut]].
63	* EpicRocking: "Birdland" and "Land" both top the nine minute mark.
64	* FaceOnTheCover: Patti striking a pose with her coat on her shoulder.
65	* GriefSong: "Elegie", which is a tribute to Music/JimiHendrix, among others.
66	--> ''(...) But I think it's sad, it's much too bad''
67	--> ''That our friends can't be with us today''
68	** "Birdland" tells the story of a young man whose father had just died, and how he deals with the stages of grief--denial, anger, bargaining, and depression--though it's unknown whether he accepts his father's death.
69	* LyricalDissonance: "Redondo Beach". On the face of it, a summery light number about a California beach paradise colonized by [[LesYay lesbian women]]. Listen more closely. It's a lament inspired by Smith's younger sister Kimberly. She and Patti had a fight and Kimberly went off to sulk, and Patti later heard that a woman had been washed up on Redondo Beach, which was near where she was living at the time, and she freaked out that it might be Kimberly (because Patti Smith is a bit of a DramaQueen), but it wasn't, and when Kimberly returned home, Patti was so grateful to see her that the fight was completely forgotten.
70	* MotorMouth: "Free Money" has the title repeated at a breakneck pace near the end.
71	* OneWomanSong: "Kimberly"
72	* OneWordTitle: The album itself, "Gloria" (without the subtitle), "Kimberly", "Land" (including "Horses"), and "Elegie".
73	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "Land"
74	--> ''Suddenly! Johnny! Gets the feeling! He's been surrounded by ... Horses! Horses! Horses! Horses!''
75	* RapeAsDrama: "Land" depicts male rape:
76	--> ''The boy took Johnny, he pushed him against the locker,''
77	--> ''He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny''
78	--> ''The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees,''
79	--> ''started crashing his head against the locker,''
80	--> ''started crashing his head against the locker,''
81	--> ''started laughing hysterically''
82	* RecordProducer: Music/JohnCale.
83	* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: "Gloria"
84	--> ''And I heard those bells chimin' in my heart''
85	--> ''Going ding dong ding dong ding dong din dong''
86	--> ''ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong''
87	* ShoutOut:
88	** Patti Smith poses with her coat on her shoulder on the cover as a nod to Music/FrankSinatra.
89	** "Birdland"'s lyrics are based on Peter Reich's "A Book Of Dreams" (1973), a biography by Peter about his father Wilhelm Reich, inventor of the orgonon therapy. The song also references Creator/WilliamBlake and UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli.
90	--> ''And he saw the lights of traffic beckoning like the hands of Blake''
91	--> (...) ''Like light, like Mohammed Boxer''
92	** "Kimberly"
93	--> ''And I feel just like some misplaced UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc''
94	--> ''And the cause is you lookin' up at me''
95	** The Music/BlueOysterCult song ''Revenge of Vera Gemini'' from ''Music/AgentsOfFortune'' contains the line ''No More Horses, Horses, (We're going to swim like a fish)''. This is a double reference to Patti Smith's album ''Music/{{Horses}}'' and to the BOC's own song ''Subhuman''. Of course, Patti, co-writer of "Vera Gemini", sings co-vocals on this track...
96	** Punk band Music/{{Crass}}' song "Reality Asylum" ends with a reference to Patti Smith's famous line "Jesus died for his own sins, not mine!"
97	** "Elegie" contains two lines very slightly paraphrased from "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" by Music/JimiHendrix.
98	** "La Mer(de)" is, besides being a StealthPun (if you leave out the brackets it's French for "the shit"), a reference to the phrase in the lyrics "the sea of possibilities" which in French would be ''la mer de possibilités'', and also ''La Mer'' by Music/ClaudeDebussy, of whom Smith is a fan.
99	* SpecialGuest: Tom Verlaine (Music/{{Television}}) and Allen Lanier (Music/BlueOysterCult).
100	* SpellingSong:
101	--> ''G! L! O! R! I-I-I-I-I-I-G-L-O-R-I-A!''
102	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Land" starts off with Patti just talking, but gradually the music gets louder and she starts singing along with it. It also ends by gradually getting softer again and Patti going back from her singing voice to her talking voice.
103	** "Birdland" also alternates between spoken-word verses and sung choruses.
104	* WingedHumanoid: "Break It Up"
105	--> ''I could hear the angel calling.''
106	--> ''We rolled on the ground, he stretched out his wings.''
107	--> ''The boy flew away and he started to sing.''

Context Music / Horses