Artist: Album (label, release date) 1-5 stars
Patti Smith: Horses (BMG International; August 16, 2005) *****
Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby (BMG International; August 16, 2005) ****
Jeff Buckley: Grace (Sony International; August 16, 2005) *****
Miles Davis: In A Silent Way (Sony International; August 16. 2005) *****
Titanic major label Sony/BMG continues its back-catalog consolidation efforts, re-issuing for the international market key albums that had been previously released on labels they've recently acquired (Arista, RCA, Columbia, and Columbia respectively). While none of these titles have ever been particularly hard to find, they are interesting titles worth revisiting; all are recommended to listeners just starting out with these artists. None of these re-issues add bonus tracks or new packaging, but bonus tracks from prior releases are retained. The covers are a bit tacky.
Patti Smith: Horses
Horses made a real splash when it appeared in 1975; it was one of the cornerstones of the gathering-steam New York Punk movement, and it was also a landmark hard rock album for a female singer, something that was still rare enough at the time to be noteworthy. It has been called proto-punk and punk itself for its jagged, ragged, clanging guitars and rhythms and its sense of anarchy and abandon. That's not too far off, but there's more to it; it's also art-rock in the boho New York sense of the word, it's garage rock, it's beatnik-revival poetry, it's easily one of the most essential rock albums of the 1970's. It has few antedecents, although it invokes the Velvet Underground (John Cale produced it) MC5, and the Stooges in some respects. For Patti Smith's provocative lyrics, rant/raps, persona, and stage presence there were no forebears; she was the first. Deborah Harry owes something to Smith the singer, Sonic Youth owes some debt as a band. As for the songs on the disc, each is a classic. "Gloria" is an audacious re-write of the Van Morrison original, turned into a shaggy dog tale of lesbian seduction atop Lenny Kaye's chaotic and busy guitar while buiding a juggernaut of speed that reaches spine-tingling intensity when they get to the G-L-O-R-I-A part. "Redondo Beach" is a reggae and a tale of murder, also with lesbian overtones. "Land: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/La Mer (De)" is an epic suite that begins with Smith's abusurdist-beatnik rap building from a mumble to a shout while Kaye pumps his guitar behind her before busting into the Strangeloves' classic hardcore garage band rocker with Smith's very greatest vocal, full of nuance, sass, spit, and insinuations. It's impossible to praise this album enough; for those who never heard it, it will change your outlook about rock, even now, 30 years later. Smith later married the late Fred "Sonic" Smith of MC5. She released three more albums before going into semi-retirement in 1981. Since then, she has released the occasional album; most are interesting, even if they don't reach the primal heights this one did. "My Generation" is the bonus track.
Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
Well, I think In A Silent Way towers over Bitches Brew (although I like the latter too), but that doesn't detract from the quality of your review. Well said!
2 - godogg
And I prefer Filles de Kilimanjaro, my favorite '60s Miles. But this is one of those few times when "It's all good" is actually true, 'cause it's usually not, you know.
3 - uao
Actually, truth be told, Jack Johnson (from 1971, soundtrack to a documentary on the boxer) is by far and away my most played Davis album. McLaughlin's greatest-ever moments, and Davis never sounded sassier or more in-your-face which I just plain dig.
A wise move by any rock fan reading this who has any kind of serious interest in the broader spectrum of music would be to give any 1967-1972 albums a listen. Plus Birth of the Cool, or 'Round Midnight, Kind of Blue or (especially) Sketches of Spain.
Jack Johnson!
4 - Randy P/Tube Pinoy
Uao, I think we are on the same wavelength so you make it difficult for me to post on music since you've been here longer than me. People will think I am copying you. Seriously, great post again. Jeff Buckley was an amazing singer and tragically, he's gone like his father. Lou and Patti are the father and mother of punk rock. And when you only need to mention the first name of an artist because they were/are that great, then you'll understand why people just say they listen to "Miles".
5 - uao
Thanks Randy, for the kind words. I haven't been here very long, just a few months.
All of these are records I'm sure have been brought up at Blogcritics a million times before, but their re-issue gave me the chance to revisit them myself. I forgot how much I liked that Buckley disc until I spun it again, and Coney Island Baby was another I hadn't heard in ages. The other two always were in some kind of rotation at my house, ever since I peeled off the shrink wrap long ago.