Break It Up: Patti Smith's Horses and the Remaking of Rock 'n' Roll

by Mark Paytress

The poet laureate of punk, Patti Smith burst onto a vacuous music scene in the mid-1970s with a raw and revolutionary sound—steeped as much in French symbolist poetry as it was in 1960s garage rock—and an indelible, gender-bending stage persona. With the release of her debut album, Horses, rock music would simply never be the same. Drawing on sources in music, literature, and art, as well as all-new interviews with those close to Smith, Mark Paytress puts the story of Horses into its full context: from the singer’s early days to her rapid rise on New York’s performance art scene and the key role she played in the emerging art-punk movement at CBGBs. He also demonstrates the influence Smith and her music continue to exert today in the work of luminaries such as Morrissey, Michael Stipe, and PJ Harvey. Here is the unforgettable story of a landmark album, the new rock aesthetic that it brought about, and how Patti Smith became the most influential female rock ‘n’ roller of all time.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Punk, Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 9, 2006

About the author

Mark Paytress is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A regular contributor to MOJO magazine, his work has also appeared in numerous publications including The Guardian, Radio Times, Q, Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Maxim, La Repubblica and Record Collector.

His books include Bolan: The Rise & Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar (Omnibus Press), Break It Up: Patti Smith’s Horses And The Remaking Of Rock’n’Roll (Piatkus), I Was There: The Gigs That Changed The World (Cassell), BowieStyle (Omnibus Press), The Rolling Stones Files (Quadrillion), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars (Schirmer), Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography, Vicious: The Art Of Dying Young and critical guides to the work of The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Nirvana and the Sex Pistols.

Mark has contributed to various television and radio programmes (Night Waves, Front Row), and in winter 2008/09, researched and presented two documentaries for BBC Radio 4, Here’s Kenny (about DJ Kenny Everett) and Stash: The Dandy Aesthete Of Swinging London.

Reviews

[Debra Komar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I have to be honest, the author lost me when, on page 71, he dismissed Bowie as a "one-hit wonder" (in what universe is that true?). Bowie is not alone - Paytress' favored method of praising Smith seems to be disparaging other acts. It feels unnecessary.

The book is a tad hyperbolic and could stand a good edit. I agree that "Horses' was a very influential album, although I am not sure it is as revolutionary and seminal as the author seems to think.

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

'While Smith was extending, perhaps undermining, the stiffly male rock practice to incorporate a more feminised approach, a handful of female literary theorists were developing the notion of a particularly 'feminine' style of writing. One, Helene Cixous, argued in her essay, 'The Laugh of the Medusa', that women's 'language does not contain, it carries; it does not hold back, it makes possible'. She called this 'ecriture feminine', defining it as poetic, non-realist, anti-logic and truth, undefined and rich in unsettled fixed meanings.
Despite its designation 'ecriture feminine' wasn't necessarily gender specific. Cixous also argued that male writers such as James Joyce, Jean Genet and Stephane Mallarme, were able to engage in 'ecriture feminine' because their work ran counter to the phallocentric tradition. Above all, the practice was acclaimed as radical and potentially threatening to patriarchy and the social system that supported it. Julia Kristeva, a contemporary of Cixous's who specialised in the symbolist poetry that Smith had devoured since her teenage years wrote a paper entitled "La Revolution de du Language Poetique'. In it she concluded that 'poetic language' is the 'place where the social code is destroyed and renewed.' When distilled to their essences, these arguments fell dangerously close to reinforcing age-old ideas that women were the sensitive sex and overly concerned with anti-rational feelings and matters of the body.But the simultaneous emergence of a radical new line in feminist thinking and Smith's Horses was comprehensive evidence of a new femme-fronted leap into the creative unknown.'

[Daniel Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 2.5 stars if they had that rating.

Altho I have sold music full-time for over 20 years I must admit to never sitting and listening to "Horses" in it's entirety. I'm not really sure why I elected to read this since I have plenty of music books and never bothered to read any of those. Nevertheless, I did read it, all of it.

Altho it isn't presented this way, it is obvious this is just the author's personal take on it. "What I think about Patti Smith's 'Horses'" might have been a better title. To say he liked it, and Patti, would be an understatement. There are lots of grand pronouncements and the word 'saviour' is used alot. He does a decent job of setting the stage for it's release, but the way they pretty much junk everything that came before it and present it like the, well... saviour, of Rock n Roll is overdone and wears on you pretty quickly. You liked it, we get it.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of heading for the book shop to look for something new to read I was delighted when I found this on the shelves and it wasn't until I got well into it that I had already read it. Nonetheless I kept reading it because it offers a balanced treatment of Patti Smith's path to "Horses" and her less critically well received although great in my opinion ("Dream of Life" anyone?) subsequent albums.

[Tiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though not a biography, this book delves better into Patti Smith and the symbolism and importance of her work than Victor Bockris's biography. This was a fantastic book with insight into Patti from her upbringing up until the release of Wave in 1979, one that didn't feel forced or automatic or that was even born out of personal malice, as if there was some kind of vendetta in mind.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author states it is not a Patti Smith biography (it is), but about the album Horses and its effect on Rock and Roll (kind of). It is a good read and recommended for anyone who wants to relive the 1970s radio days or culture and it is a fairly good biography of Patti Smith.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and biased but great rock history

[sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

He was too harsh re: Radio Ethiopia

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poets like Arthur Rimbaud and rock 'n rollers like the Rolling Stones “saved” Patti Smith's life, gave it meaning and purpose—and so by wedding Rimbaud to the Stones—poetry and rock 'n roll—Patti Smith “saved” rock 'n roll—gave the music new meaning and purpose.

...Or, at least it created a new genre, which prepared the way for punk (which definitely imbued rock with new meaning and purpose), which ironically, wound up tossing aside Patti. Having put out “Horses” in '74, she was often relegated to the rock excess establishment junkpile by the punks. It's appropriate, I suppose, the punks being an irreverent bunch, for them to rebel against the woman who helped bring them up. It simply carries on the tried-and-true tradition (or myth? Or is there a difference?) of teens rebelling against their parents....And after all, Patti is often called the “Godmother of Punk.” Interestingly, Iggy Pop is often called the “Godfather of Punk.” Patti & Iggy. The names sound good together. Kinda like a pair of comic strip characters.

In the beginning of this book, the author states that this isn't a biography, but rather the story of how the amazing album, “Horses” was made. But of course, the reader still learns a considerable amount about Patti's life before being a poet/musician. Actually, I really enjoyed the biographical stuff. I didn't realize quite how bleak her childhood was. I hadn't considered how significant her gender-bending was, particularly as a woman (Bowie, Bolan, and others had already established gender-bending as a safely male act). And I wouldn't have guessed how deliberately and self-consciously Patti sought to recreate rock music. Particularly for this last reason, after reading the book, I have even more of an appreciation for “Horses.” Before, I just sort of assumed the album was just another part of the milieu of NYC experimental scene. That everyone was mixing genres, and she was just a product of it. But this book explains that Patti's music, and so the album, was quite deliberate. And that it really was an independent and somewhat unique artistic statement.

However, after reading this, I have a little less patience for Patti herself. After “Horses,” she tried to continue a narrative of revolution that just didn't hold. With “Horses,” Patti had become a star, which is something she had always strived for. Her calls for revolutionary music felt real, but after “Horses,” her message seemed more and more like a stunt and attempt to remain relevant in the wake of the explosion caused by the British punks. The revolution was already underway, but on their terms; not hers.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paytress conjures with the recreation of his own initial and abiding enthusiasm for Patti Smith's groundbreaking 1975 album by writing in the breakneck, allusive, manifesto-ish style of much of the new rock journalism that was beginning at the same time. It makes for an enthusiast's book (and I too am an enthusiast for what is still Patti's greatest work), exhilarating, naive, sweepingly opinionated and affectionate. It helps to know a little more about Its subject's background than perhaps emerges here (the author is at pains to disavow any biographical intent): Patti Smith was - is - one of those artists whose life is an inextricable part of her work, and I'd recommend her own "Just Kids" as a useful companion piece. But this is an honourable book, and a good one, even though Paytress is at least half-wrong about "Radio Ethiopia", the underrated follow-up to "Horses". He also makes the extraordinary claim, which I sincerely hope is a confusion of similar-sounding words, that in her live performances at one time Smith "whelped" on stage... Since there is no independently- verified account of her having given birth to puppies so publicly, I shall assume he means "whooped" or "yelped", perhaps both.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Paytress does a thorough Analysis of Patti Smith's "Horses" album and its effect on rock and roll without becoming to professorial or dry. I found this an enjoyable read and a bit of a walk down memory lane. I remember leaving my my high school Thanksgiving Day football game after coming home from college with my best friend Rick so that we could get this album which had just come out. If you would like to read a book that gives you some insight into Patti Smith and the making of this landmark album, this is the book for you. However nothing is better than just sitting down and giving "Horses" one more listen.

[Dave Bradley]

Under its new title, PATTI SMITH'S HORSES AND THE REMAKING OF ROCK 'N' ROLL...

[Georgie Andrews · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of contrived metaphors to try and explain the gravity of the album and actually ended up catching nothing much at all.