11. Patti SmithHorses
More New York – three-chord, classic, garage rock met Manhattan art sophistication and a ruthless intelligence geared to embracing all the best forgotten things – Rimbaud, Verlaine, Them, ‘Louie Louie’, Dylan, Warhol, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Patti Smith spat, screamed and remained in full control of all these angels and demons she wrestled onstage. She took half-forgotten rock riffs from garage outfits and 60s Brit bands, and mutated them into a vehicle for a rich, fragmented, oceanic, urban poetry. She created her raw, fearless, freeform rock as a vehicle for unnamable longings we all instantly recognised. John Cale produced this record, and through it the spirit of Velvets, New York art rock, poetry and punk entered a new era.
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: James Fry, Marissa Nadler, Beth Ditto, Tim Booth, Gaz Coombes, Ghostpoet, Viv Albertine, Morrissey
