Fifty years ago, on 10 November 1975, Patti Smith released her album Horses and in celebration she is commencing the U.S. leg of her “Horses 50” tour. Half a century later, the defining album opening track “Gloria” — a reworking of Van Morrison’s song — still feels like a declaration of creative independence. There’s a moment in the title song “Horses” when Patti cries out, “Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud!” as an invocation as much as a chant. It’s her salute to the wild, visionary spirit of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, the teenager who upended language through poetry. I live in Paris and, being a lover of Rimbaud, I see his writings on alleyway walls and his ghost in cafés. Patti Smith caught his flame and carried it into the punk rock genre of the 70s, turning poetry into electricity, rebellion into song. Patti Smith has never been just a musician. She’s a poet, a chronicler of resilience, a woman who walked fearlessly between the worlds of punk and art and activism, with tenderness and rage. And then there’s the photograph, that Horses album cover, captured by her friend and fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Dressed in a simple white shirt and black jacket, Patti stares directly into the lens, unadorned, unapologetic. It’s androgynous and defiant; she is a woman of rock and roll. The image became iconic not because it was beautiful, but because it was authentic. Fifty years later, that photograph still feels like an invitation to stand fully in your own authenticity. I grew up with her music but I find her presence even more meaningful now. Smith said that art and creativity are not somethings we do instead of life but it’s how we live it more truthfully. She is proof that creativity doesn’t fade with age; it deepens and it still howls. Today, I’m celebrating Patti Smith, poet, pioneer, priestess of possibility, and the enduring power of her creativity, her rockability. “Build a good name,” Patti Smith said. “Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned about doing good work … and if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.” Here’s to Patti and to Horses.
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