About this Performance

In the fall of 1975, Patti Smith gathered her band in Electric Lady Studios in New York to record her debut album, Horses. Released by Arista Records, it has come to be regarded as a seminal and landmark recording that continues to have resonance and relevance for succeeding generations of musicians and artists.

Horses’ clarion call was “three-chord rock merged with the power of the word.” A poet and visual artist, Patti had begun improvising her unique blend of song and hallucinatory imagery two years before, appearing on cabaret stages and small clubs with the support of guitarist Lenny Kaye and pianist Richard Sohl. She honed her songs in this live setting, allowing them to develop at will, garnering an ever-growing audience within the Manhattan underground. By the time she launched a seven-week residency at the relatively obscure Bowery club CBGB in the winter of 1975, her band had grown, adding guitarist Ivan Kral and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty. It was during this time that she was signed by Arista president Clive Davis. John Cale was chosen by the band to produce the album, and it was released November 10, the death date of one of Patti’s most important influences, the poet Arthur Rimbaud.

Opening with an anthemic declaration of personal responsibility—“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”—folded within Van Morrison’s classic “Gloria,” Horses was a return to rock’s primal instincts, seeking to awaken the spirit and promise of the music at a time when it seemed as if this sensibility was at risk of being forgotten. The album’s artistic reach took shape in the free-form flights of “Birdland” and “Land,” where the expansive soundscapes of free jazz and propulsive rhythms and incantatory lyrics intermingled to provide an expansive sonic landscape. “Redondo Beach,” “Free Money,” “Kimberly,” and “Break It Up” presented a worldview both idealistic and romantic. With the album’s final cut, “Elegie,” rock’s past and future were entwined within the “sea of possibilities” that became the present. Infused with poetry, Horses is an uncompromising exploration that helped lay the groundwork for what would become known as the upheaval of “punk,” though Smith and her band always attempted to avoid categorization: “beyond race gender baptism mathmatics politricks,” Smith wrote in the liner notes, adding, “...as for me i am truly totally ready to go.”

Robert Mapplethorpe’s iconic front-cover photograph of Patti with jacket slung over her shoulder perfectly captured this moment of becoming, and indeed, Horses was the beginning of a long musical career that resonates today. The album has achieved many recognitions over the years, notably a Charles Cros Award and inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. It has been followed by numerous other albums, Smith’s National Book Award winner Just Kids, world tours, and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, 50 years later, Smith honors the longevity and lasting influence of the album with a series of special shows, performing Horses in its entirety. She is accompanied by two members of the original group, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, along with keyboardist and bassist Tony Shanahan, a part of her band for 30 years. Jackson Smith also joins on guitar, as does Jesse Paris Smith on piano. Special Horses concerts have been set for seven cities in Europe—Dublin, Madrid, Bergamo, London, Brussels, Oslo, and Paris—and nine cities in the US—Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia. Please join us to help celebrate the final ride of our irreverent thoroughbred.

Please note: Tickets purchased for this event will not be shared or transferred. Tickets purchased for this event will be delivered after November 1.

Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability subject to change. Ticket limits may apply. All sales are final.