Patti Smith’s ‘Horses’ Turns 50

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Patty Smith is now considered one of the wise women of rock and roll, an eloquent chronicler of her life in music and in a series of acclaimed memoirs. But fifty years ago she was a scrounging poet who wanted to be a rock star on her own very literary terms, and her debut album, Horses, announced a unique artist. Today, we're going to listen back to portions of two of Terry's interviews with Patty Smith, about her early days as a poet and performer. But first, rock critic Ken Tucker takes a look back and tells us about the new anniversary edition of Horses, which is supplemented with previously unreleased music. Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

Milton pet thieves while caught on my sleeve. Fifty years on, Patty Smith's horses still sounds like nothing else before or since its arrival in 1975. At the time, Smith had one foot in poetry, the other in rock and roll. Her spirit animals were the French surrealist Arthur Rambaud and the Doors demigod Jim Morrison. Both bad boys who died young, they inspired Patty as self mythologizing, rebellious innovators.

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