horses 1975

Review by All Music Guide
"It isn't hard to make the case for Patti Smith as a punk rock progenitor based on her debut album, which anticipated the new wave by a year or so: the simple, crudely played rock & roll, featuring Lenny Kaye's rudimentary guitar work, the anarchic spirit of Smith's vocals, and the emotional and imaginative nature of her lyrics — all prefigure the coming movement as it evolved on both sides of the Atlantic."

From New Yorker (2002-03-11)
This is one of the greatest début albums of all time, packaged with the famous cover photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe of Smith in an androgynous mode. Her first words are "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine," just to set things straight, and then the band whomps into a version of Van Morrison's "Gloria," with Smith snarling and growling about "a sweet young thing / Humpin' on the parkin' meter leanin' on the parkin' meter."

Track listing
Gloria
Redondo Beach
Birdland
Free Money
Kimberly
Break It Up
Land:Horses/Land Of A Thousand Dances/La Mer (De)
Elegie

My Generation
(bonus track 1996)