If critics are having nightmares these days, one of the worst of them will undoubtedly be about not liking "Horses," Patti Smith's ubiquitous debut album. Without missing a beat, the nation's linotypers seem to have shifted from Springsteen to Smith, and there is no escaping this strange New Jersey Nightingale. Sneakers are out, Rimbaud is in, and I feel so poeticized I could die. However, after listening to the record a dozen times, not only do I not like "Horses," I never want to hear it again—these days a difficult admission to make.
"Horses" is so clearly a classically idiosyncratic "first" album that perhaps the artist's subsequent records will illuminate its not inconsiderable virtues and make it seem much better in years to come than it seems now—even the mistakes of heroes can be heroic. I doubt it, but I hope so. Inwardly vulnerable and outspokenly naïve, Patti Smith is after all a heroine only half-baked, though she seems to have accepted her (possible) stardom as if it were a divine right….
This is a free excerpt of 171 words. There are 647 words (approx.
2 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Smith, Patti 1946–: Critical Essay by Paul Nelson Access Pass.
