Patti Smith ‘Horses’ Gets 50th Anniversary Reissue With Unearthed Demos and Live Cuts

In 1975, Patti Smith entered Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York City with a vision: to fuse the jagged energy of punk with the fluid imagery of poetry. That vision became Horses, one of the most groundbreaking debut albums in rock history. Now, half a century later, Sony has announced the 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition of Horses, a release that both celebrates the legacy of the record and offers fans newly unearthed material from Smith’s early years.

Smith herself framed the reissue with typically raw honesty. “When we recorded Horses I hoped to communicate with like minds, the misfits, disenfranchised, those scraping away off the beaten track. I am quite moved that the community I hoped to find, found us as well and those that survived are still at work. In October Sony will release a 50th anniversary edition of Horses. There are 6,500 vinyls, including a double album compiled of unearthed recordings, live pieces from CBGB, youthful efforts scavenged from half a century ago. I am grateful to all who helped form it and the people who have supported it for five decades.”

The album was recorded in August and September of 1975 at Electric Lady Studios, the legendary space Hendrix built before his death. Producer John Cale of The Velvet Underground brought an austere, uncompromising edge to the sessions, pushing Smith and her band to strip their music back to its essential bones while amplifying its intensity.

The Patti Smith Group on Horses consisted of Lenny Kaye (guitar, bass), Ivan Kral (bass, guitar), Richard Sohl (piano, organ), and Jay Dee Daugherty (drums). Together, they created a sound that defied categorisation: part garage rock, part punk before punk even had a name, and part Beat-inspired spoken word.

The album opens with a daring reinvention of Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” transformed by Smith into a six-minute statement of intent beginning with the immortal words, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Songs like “Birdland” and “Land” stretched out into sprawling poetic improvisations, while “Kimberly” and “Free Money” provided melodic anchors amid the chaos.

Released on November 10, 1975, Horses was unlike anything on the charts at the time.

Upon release, Horses divided critics and confused mainstream audiences, but it was an immediate beacon to the underground. Some rock writers hailed it as revolutionary, praising its raw lyrical power and confrontational energy. Others were baffled, unsure what to make of Smith’s half-sung, half-spoken delivery.

Commercially, the record was modest, peaking at No. 47 on the Billboard 200, but its influence spread quickly through the New York punk scene and beyond. Bands forming in the mid-70s—from Television and Talking Heads in Smith’s own backyard to future generations of alternative rock acts—took cues from her audacity.

Over time, Horses has been recognised as a cornerstone of punk and post-punk. It consistently ranks near the top of “greatest albums of all time” lists and is preserved in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry for its cultural significance. What was once considered fringe became foundational.

The new edition of Horses expands on the original with rare demos, alternate takes, and early recordings that illuminate Smith’s artistic evolution. The second disc in the set offers unheard versions from the RCA demo sessions, as well as tracks that never made the original album.

Tracklisting:
CD1 – Original Album
01. Gloria: In Excelsis Deo
02. Redondo Beach
03. Birdland
04. Free Money
05. Kimberly
06. Break It Up
07. Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer (de)
08. Elegie

CD2 – Bonus Material
01. Gloria: In Excelsis Deo (RCA Demo)
02. Redondo Beach (RCA Demo)
03. Birdland (Alternate Take)
04. Snowball
05. Kimberly (Alternate Take)
06. Break It Up (Alternate Take)
07. Distant Fingers
08. The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
09. We Three

Listen to Snowball:

Collectors will note the vinyl edition is limited to 6,500 copies worldwide, making it one of the most sought-after archival releases of the year.

Fifty years on, Horses remains a touchstone for anyone drawn to the outsider’s voice. Patti Smith’s blend of punk’s immediacy and poetry’s depth cracked open possibilities for generations of musicians and writers. For many, it was the record that showed rock music could be more than entertainment—it could be art, protest, prayer, and manifesto all at once.

The 50th anniversary reissue is not simply nostalgia but recognition of the record’s ongoing resonance. Those “misfits and disenfranchised” Smith hoped to reach in 1975 have carried her work forward, finding in it a mirror of their own defiance.

As Smith put it herself, the fact that the community she imagined still exists is the true triumph of Horses.

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Tagged as: 70s, alternative, Horses, Patti Smith, punk, rock, USA