Born Under Punches

markrichardson:

Patti Smith’s Horses is one of those records I read about for years before I finally heard it. When I was a kid with SPIN and Rolling Stone subscriptions, I read many pieces about this legendary album, which was always framed in terms of punk. I’d see the album cover, which is perfect, and the album title, which is also perfect, and I’d read people like Michael Stipe and Morrissey talking about it in reverent terms. So I figured when I finally got around to buying it, it would blow my mind. Well, it didn’t. When I first played it, I don’t even remember how long ago, it sounded like a 70s rock album. A pretty good 70s rock album, with an unusual singer, but there wasn’t too much more I could say about it. And even now, though I own a copy of Horses, it’s never meant much to me. Maybe someday it’ll finally click.

But. But. This song, which kicks off the album, is unbelievably great, and did in fact blow my mind. Like two hours ago, when I listened to it on the bus six times in a row, after not hearing it for a while, maybe a couple years. It has to be among the top few first-track, first-LP songs in the history of the album era. What a thing she did here, half-covering the all-time classic garage rock song, adding a bunch of her own words, stretching it out forever until it finally hits that climax three minutes in. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it in my life, but during that quick drum roll before the first time she says “G!”, I still get that “Oh, shit, here we go!” feeling in my stomach. There is nothing about this that should work but then every part of it does. It’s androgynous and wildly sexual, sorta bookish but also teeming with abandon, and her weird, strained voice carries it completely. It is a triumph.

I had a very similar experience with this album, although it was specifically Michael Stipe’s evangelism that drove me to it. I’ve grown to love just about all of this album over the years, but no single bit more than “Gloria.” I wonder if it was just one of those songs that eclipses the rest of its record.