Patti Smith - Horses

On her 1975 debut, Smith was full of piss and vinegar, seriously interested in bringing together high art and low three-chord rock & roll. As a result, her free-form poetry meshes with covers of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances", and the album centres on two long, highfalutin' pieces, including the three-part suite (warning! warning! art!) "Land". (The CD version appends a messy live take on The Who's "My Generation".) Led by Richard Sohl's piano, the arrangements don't exactly rock, and some of Smith's song-writing gets buried in its stylistic affectations (there's a great song under "Redondo Beach"'s fake reggae). But the point of Horses was Smith's persona of volume, cunning and exile, and it comes through distinctly.