PATTI SMITH
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HORSES
Background on the Artist
Patti Smith is a singer-songwriter from Chicago, born December 30th, 1946 and is also a poet and visual artist. She was a highly influential component of the Punk Rock movement with the release of her album 'Horses'. This album and Patti Smith herself have also had a massive influence on Michael Stipe of R.E.M; Listening to Horse when he was a teenager was what inspired him to start a band. She has also inspired many other artists including Shirley Manson, Sonic Youth, U2, Courtney Love, Madonna, KT Tunstall and Pussy Riot.
Horses
Patti Smiths 1975 album, Horses; released on December 13th, was a huge success commercially and critically due to it's meaningful lyrics and 'skillful wordplay'. Considered as an early Punk Rock album, Horses is one of the best albums of all time. Even though the album was classified as Punk Rock, ''Birdland'' leaned more towards Jazz. The lyrics to this song were based on A Book Of Dreams. The songs ''Redondo Beach'', ''Free Money'' and ''Kimberly'' were all inspired by moments in which Patti Smith had had with her family members. However, the songs ''Break it up'' and ''Elegie'' were written about Patti's idols. The cover for the album was photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe at a penthouse in Greenwich Village
Lyrics
After reading through the song lyrics from the album this is what I got from the analysis -
Gloria -
When reading through the lyrics to this song I got the impression that the person whose POV we're listening from is at a party and see's a girl that they find physically attractive and they end up taking her home and having sex with her, and if you haven't guessed, her name is Gloria. And it is also said that this is a 'Sapphic Love Song' meaning a love song with lesbian references. Whilst listening to the song the tone of the artists voice and sound of the music sounds really sexual and fits the lyrics really well.
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-gloria-qq9lx6w#axzz3E3bmuDVl
Redondo Beach -
When listening to this song I got the impression that it was written about one of her family members (earlier stated that this song was written about a moment she shared with a family member) which she had maybe fallen out with judging from the line "we just had the quarrel that sent you away'' and then after researching it I found that she had a fight with her sister and she wrote that song about that moment in her life. At the end of the song it states that the sister dies, not too sure if she kills herself or it's an accident as I couldn't find that information.
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-redondo-beach-c7hzxb4#axzz3E3bmuDVl
Birdland -
Birdland was written when Patti Smith read a book called Book of Dreams by Peter Reich and she states that there is a passage in the book which tells you about when the author was little and his father died and he would go into the fields hoping his father would come and take him away in a UFO and one day he saw his father in a UFO and air force planes came and chased the UFO away and he was crying for his father to come back for him. She found this passage really moving which is why she wrote this song about it. I think there is a lot of imagery portrayed through this song.
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-birdland-jc1tpmz#axzz3E3bmuDVl
http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/intervus/7512craw.htm
Free Money -
This song was also written about a memory from her family as well as Redondo Beach. This song was written about how her parents had 4 children at the end of WWII and they had very high medical bills and this song was inspired by her and her siblings growing up into a poor family. She stated in an interview that the song was written for her mother as she always dreamed about winning the lottery but never bought a lottery ticket. I feel that Patti's songs which she writes about her family are very moving and they set a really sad and sympathetic mood and I think that is something you can portray through art really well.
http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/intervus/7512craw.htm
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-free-money-lg2crg2
Kimberly -
Kimberly was yet another song written about a family member, this one being her sister. This song gives the listener an insight of their childhood living situations by singing about their housing developments and that their home was on a swamp and that when her sister was a baby she was holding her outside watching a barn burn which had been hit by lightening over the road from where they lived.
http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/intervus/7512craw.htm
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-kimberly-417l1rr
Break it Up -
This song started when she had a dream about Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors). He was laying on a marble slab and he had wings made of stone which imprisoned him. And she stood there screaming 'Break it up' and his wings broke and he was free. This song has amazing imagery and I would love to draw something as a single CD cover, I think it would look so cool.
http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/intervus/7512craw.htm
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-break-it-up-k3n32bz
Land -
The song Land was written as a paean to Jimi Hendrix (A paean being a song of praise or triumph) but that is not what you get from the lyrics to the song. It is said that the song goes from a strange, sexually-charged encounter between two bad boys to a celebration of teenage dance crazes.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/22/popandrock1
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-land-9j8p4nf
Elegie -
This song was wrote as a requiem for Jimi Hendrix and it was recorded on September 18th 1975 which was the anniversary of his death. The last lines of the song being 'I think it's sad, just too sad, that all our friends can't be with us today' were from the song 1983 (A Merman) by Jimi Hendrix and Patti Smith said in an interview that she didn't think Jimi would mind. This song is also part of the select few that were written about her idols.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/22/popandrock1
http://artists.letssingit.com/patti-smith-lyrics-elegie-q879819#axzz3E3bmuDVl
After reading and listening to the entire album I have came to the conclusion that Patti Smith's lyrics all have some meaning to them and I think this could be a really good decision as there are loads of imagery spikes within her songs and she is very good at setting a mood within her music using tones and sounds which can be really helpful when it comes to creating artwork from only looking at an album of songs. I also really like how the album art is simply a photograph of Patti Smith as I think this is will make it easier for me to come up with my own designs as there isn't anything to accidentally work from. Therefore it will all be my own ideas and designs.
(Apologies for the long text post, there will probably be a lot of these for the next few days as my plan for now it to research, research, research!)
http://www.biography.com/people/patti-smith-9487150
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