From the Archive
I remember the instant buying of tickets when I heard about this gig - no questions I was going. I remember the journey through to Glasgow - waiting for the train at Waverley Station and noticing a certain cohort of people waiting to board the train - too many leather jackets and boots for the commuter crowd. This is an impression of her that night.
Patti Smith and her band - Horses
Patti Smith performs 'Horses' her first album 40 years on, track by track a & b side. That first album that hit and redefined everything in rock'n'roll.
This is rock'n'roll and everything that rock'n'roll should be - electric, enviserating, alive, real, poetic and authentic.
Her voice distictive, aged, lived in, strong, revisits songs of love and death, hope and fear, power, passion and revelation. Her voice, hers, a womans voice, raw, tender, clear, sharp, yearning, resigned, rasping, distinctly hers.
Her music tonight is rock'n'roll as it should be, as it must be - a distillation of everything in popular music. Patti is rock, she is soul, she is the blues, she is the Chiffons, she is the Crystals, the Ronettes, the Rolling Stones, she is Little Richard, she is punk, she is a poet, she is a street troubadour, she is human, she is a girl, she is a woman, she is the real deal.
Patti is my generation. Patti is a 69 year old woman singing rock'n'roll. Singing the perfect rock'n'roll album. Break it up.
'Jesus died for somebody's sins/but not mine'
originally written longhand without an Imperial or Olivetti typewriter an Apple Mac or PC.
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