{"id":384068,"date":"2025-11-17T00:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T00:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:23:16","slug":"patti-smith-performs-horses-in-la-for-classic-albums-50th-anniversary-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384068\/","title":{"rendered":"Patti Smith performs \u2018Horses\u2019 in LA for classic album\u2019s 50th anniversary \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2020\/03\/07\/patti-smith-brings-passion-and-poetry-to-the-la-phils-power-to-the-people-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Patti Smith<\/a> walked back onto the stage for her encore on Saturday, Nov. 15, she smiled and waved to the cheering crowds on all four sides of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t usually have the experience of playing in the round,\u201d she told them. \u201cI know so many people are really high up there, and they\u2019re behind us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I just want you to know that half the time I\u2019m singing with my eyes closed anyway,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2012\/10\/13\/patti-smith-still-wowing-at-the-wiltern\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smith<\/a> said, smiling as the audience laughed. \u201cSo you\u2019re all in my consciousness, always.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"mng-gallery-initialized mng-gallery-slider\">\n<li data-index=\"1\" class=\"mng-ge mng-gallery-active\" id=\"mng-ge-0\" aria-hidden=\"false\" tabindex=\"0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"  \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"2\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338991_238_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-01.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"3\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338992_268_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-04.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"4\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338993_570_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-02.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"5\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-4\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338994_601_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-06.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"6\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-5\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338994_382_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-03-1.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"7\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-6\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338995_884_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-05.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-index=\"8\" class=\"mng-ge\" id=\"mng-ge-7\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763338996_801_LDN-L-PATTISMITH-1117-07.jpg\" \/>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 8<\/p>\n<p>Patti Smith, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her debut album Horses, performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That word \u2013 consciousness \u2013 means a lot to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2015\/11\/27\/patti-smith-takes-downtown-la-movie-palace-by-storm-larry-wilson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smith<\/a>, and always has. Her eyes might be closed, but still she sees the world around her in all its passion and poetry, the beauty in all lives, the power in its people.<\/p>\n<p>The current tour is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of \u201cHorses,\u201d Smith\u2019s remarkable debut album, a work that some consider the first punk rock album with Smith as the genre\u2019s godmother.<\/p>\n<p>Never had a woman looked out from a record jacket with the mystery and power of Smith in the black-and-white photograph taken by her friend Robert Mapplethorpe.<\/p>\n<p>Never had an album combined poetry, the raw power of the punks and outsiders, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music, and the kind of open-hearted love that this did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJesus died for somebody\u2019s sins but not mine,\u201d Smith sang on Saturday over the slow piano chords of keyboardist Tony Shanahan. It\u2019s the iconic opening line of \u201cGloria,\u201d the opening track of \u201cHorses,\u201d and the sold-out crowd erupted in cheers at its arrival.<\/p>\n<p>The song blends a poem of Smith\u2019s with the rock standard \u201cGloria,\u201d originally sung by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2016\/01\/16\/van-morrison-bares-his-mystic-soul-in-la-gig\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Van Morrison<\/a> with Them, creating something entirely new. As its second half arrived with a punch, most of the crowd were on their feet singing along with Smith.<\/p>\n<p>The show, which spread 17 songs across two hours, took off then, too, the eight tracks on \u201cHorses\u201d providing the first half of the set. \u201cRedondo Beach,\u201d rolled along on a light reggae rhythm, sounds like a love song, though a friend\u2019s undoing unfolds in its lyrics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree Money,\u201d like many songs in the set, opened with a softness, just Shanahan\u2019s keys and a bassline from Jackson Smith, Smith\u2019s son with her late husband Fred \u201cSonic\u201d Smith of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/mc5-guitarist-wayne-kramer-celebrates-the-50th-anniversary-of-kick-out-the-jams-with-two-southern-california-shows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the MC5<\/a>. Then the chorus hit and the song exploded, with guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both of whom played on \u201cHorses,\u201d adding power to the mix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBirdland\u201d followed in similar fashion. Smith delivering long, spoken-word passages about a boy who believed his dead father departed on a UFO, then singing as the band kicked in for the choruses.<\/p>\n<p>Smith didn\u2019t speak much during the performance of side one of the album, but for the songs on the flip side, she offered bits and pieces of backstories for some.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreak It Up,\u201d which she cowrote with her friend and former boyfriend Tom Verlaine, sprang from a dream in which she was lost in a forest and stumbled upon a marble statue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/10\/21\/robby-krieger-celebrates-the-doors-60th-anniversary-with-all-star-band-at-the-greek\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim Morrison<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this clearing, this beautiful marble statue was lying, like Prometheus with longish hair and chains all edged in marble,\u201d Smith said as the audience listened raptly. \u201cLike from the hand of Michelangelo. I was standing there looking at it. It was so beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I suddenly felt this life force that seemed to be radiating or emanating from the statue,\u201d she said. \u201cI closed my eyes, and I did sense the screaming of the butterfly. Then I knew it was Jim Morrison. So in my dream, I was saying, \u201cBreak it up. Break it up, Jim. Break it up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I kept crying, \u2018Break it up,\u2019 until it was like a great thundering crash and the marble statue split in two and Jim Morrison emerged with wings and flew away,\u201d she said, waving her arms gently in memory of a dream.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cHorses\u201d set wrapped up with \u201cLand,\u201d an epic that ran nearly 15 minutes long, the band shifting sounds and volumes as Smith spoke and sang the story of a boy named Johnny, who roams the world, searching for rock and roll amid scenes terrible and beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>In its current version, the song is updated to reflect the woes of the modern world, including environmental damage, the exploitation of children and more, until the finish brings Johnny home, Smith singing, \u201cIn the sheets, there was a man, dancing to a simple rock and roll song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With \u201cHorses\u201d finished, Smith took a short break, leaving the stage for her band to play a trio of songs by Television that included \u201cSee No Evil,\u201d \u201cFriction,\u201d and \u201cMarquee Moon.\u201d That band, which Tom Verlaine founded, and Smith\u2019s group played a six-week residency at the punk club CBGB around the time \u201cHorses\u201d was made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo sets a night, four nights a week, learning how to become,\u201d Kaye said while also noting that Jackson Smith was going to play the Television songs on one of Verlaine\u2019s former guitars. \u201cIt was a beautiful time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith returned to deliver some of her best-loved songs outside of the \u201cHorses\u201d album, starting with a lovely rocking run through \u201cDancing Barefoot\u201d and \u201cPeaceable Kingdom,\u201d a song which Smith said she and Shanahan wrote 22 years ago for the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n<p>The main set ended with \u201cBecause the Night,\u201d which she said she\u2019d written after her band played Detroit for the first time on March 9, 1976, and she met Fred \u201cSonic\u201d Smith, whom she\u2019d soon marry. Co-written with Bruce Springsteen, it\u2019s her highest-charting single, having reached No. 13 in 1978, and again, the crowd rose to sing and dance with Smith and the band.<\/p>\n<p>The encore opened with \u201cGhost Dance,\u201d which Smith and Kaye wrote for the Hopi people years ago, though the peace she\u2019d hoped for Native Americans is yet to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in our country, the current administration does not show the love and respect and gratitude for our people, for our Hispanic people, our Native Americans,\u201d she said before the song. \u201cAll the more reason we radiate love and respect and understand and help and fight if we can to keep their land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, there\u2019s so much so much desire from our current administration to take our lands, our public lands, the native American sacred lands and monuments and just drill the (bleep) out of it,\u201d Smith ended. \u201cSo we have to fight if we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, with her daughter Jessie Paris Smith and the band, the night wrapped up with \u201cPeople Have the Power,\u201d the anthem Smith wrote with her husband while pregnant with Jessie, a joyful sing-along prayer of a song that imagines a world where we the people live in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was dreaming in my dreaming. God knows a purer view,\u201d Smith sang. \u201cAs I lay down to my sleeping, I commit my dream to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople have the power,\u201d she continued, her fist raised above her head, and now joined by everyone in Disney Hall. \u201cPeople have the power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Patti Smith walked back onto the stage for her encore on Saturday, Nov. 15, she smiled and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,5497,2961,224,5337,14539,1072],"class_list":{"0":"post-384068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-concerts","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-music-concerts","15":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115562192573762681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}