An Imaginary Patti Smith Mix Tape

By Tim Murr

Patti Smith’s new memoir, M Train, is coming out on October 6. It will continue the journey through her life that she began with her previous book, Just Kids, which focused on her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Just Kids is a moving book that I couldn’t put it down. I encourage everyone to pick it up.

For me, Patti has been such a strong source of inspiration for so long. Every time I listen to her debut, Horses, I’m struck by how timeless it is. Released at the end of 1975, about two months before the Ramones released their debut album, there is a quality to its sound that doesn’t scream any era, but simply sounds like Patti Smith music. The build up to the chorus on “Gloria” still makes my hair stand on end. I’d call it one of the best moments of any rock song on any album ever produced.

So with Patti Smith’s new book around the corner and 2015 being the 40th anniversary of Horses, I thought I’d make a mix tape of her top 20 songs for the uninitiated to download right now. I chose from across all eras and offer them in particular order. For the bold, I’d say just buy Horses and then each album in order of release, but I recognize that people buy music differently these days. So, here’s the Patti Smith mix tape track listing I’d make for you, if ya know, we were friends or dating or something…

1. “Gloria” – the essential Smith song, though it’s actually a reworking of a Them song.

2. “Dead City” – a heavy, doom-paced rocker from the Peace and Noise album.

3. “Dancing Barefoot” – a witchy track from Wave.

4. “Land” – as operatic in scope as any punk song could get, an epic in three parts that borrows a bit of “Land of a Thousand Dances.”

5. “Paths That Cross” – a lovely song for Mapplethorpe’s partner Sam Wagstaff who died from AIDS while Smith was recording her come back album Dream of Life.

6. “Summer Cannibals” – sort of a weird rocker from Gone Again, an album heavy with death (besides Mapplethorpe, Smith also lost her husband, Fred Sonic Smith (MC5), her brother, her band mate Richard Sohl, and Kurt Cobain, and it’s the last studio performance of Jeff Buckley)
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7. “Beneath The Southern Cross” – also from Gone Again, a meditative, acoustic beat poetry workout.

8. “Spell” – speaking of Beat poetry, Smith breaths new life into Allen Ginsberg’s words on Peace and Noise.

9. “Jubilee” – from Smith’s 2004 album Trampin’, proving age hasn’t dulled her.

10. “Glitter In Their Eyes” – from Gung Ho, a tribute to wilder days in NYC with the Warhol crowd at Max’s Kansas City.

11. “Pissing In A River” – a powerful song of yearning and probably the best track on Radio Ethiopia.

12. “Babelogue” – a bit of heretical spoken word (from a very spiritual album) that flows directly into…

13. “Rock n’ Roll Nigger” – this sort of takes off from Norman Mailer’s thoughts on race (but maybe also from Lenny Bruce’s as well?) One of Smith’s hardest rockers, but with that title, no radio airplay.

14. “People Have The Power” – the comeback single from Dream of Life, a powerful, fist in the air anthem.

15. “Free Money” – another straight-up rocker from Horses that seems to suggest that in the absence of money, she can make herself into all her partner’s dreams.

16. “Piss Factory” – as punk as you can get, accompanied by a piano doing spoken word. The B-side to Smith’s debut single is blue-collar pissed off and involves a factory job and dreams of escape.

17. “My Generation” – the rowdy live B-side to “Gloria,” featuring John Cale (who produced Horses) sitting in on bass. (Bonus trivia, Michael Stipe lifted a bit from this track at the end of “Just a Touch” from Life’s Rich pageant).

18. “Because The Night” – fine, here is that song 10,000 Maniacs did. Smith reaches pop heights with a lil’ help from The Boss. Great song, but I always get annoyed when this is the only one people know.

19. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – yeah, just give it a chance. If you’d never heard Nirvana, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a Smith original.

20. “Birdland” – a jazz inspired track about loneliness and loss and redemption from the strangest of places.