Watch Patti Smith perform a high-energy set on ‘The Mike Douglas Show’ in 1977
When a young Patti Smith upped sticks and moved to New York, armed with copies of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations, it didn’t long for the dedicated writer to establish herself as one of her generation’s greatest voices. After performing spoken word poetry, even taking her craft to the streets of Paris, Smith began to make a name for herself in Manhattan’s underground scene.
Hopping from hotel room to hotel room, including stays at the infamous Chelsea Hotel, the writer soon formed the Patti Smith Group with Lenny Kaye, Richard Sohl, Ivan Kral and Jay Dee Daugherty. After releasing their first single, ‘Hey Joe/Piss Factory’, in 1974, the band began a two-month weekend residency at CBGBs alongside Television in March 1975. Shortly after, Smith shared her debut album, Horses, complete with an iconic black-and-white image of the singer/writer on the cover, taken by her beloved friend and sometimes partner Robert Mapplethorpe.
Since its release, Horses has become a cult classic and a staple of the early punk movement. Often cited as the first album from the genre, Horses is an experimental masterpiece that took inspiration from punk’s raw energy and simplicity while adding unconventional elements, such as personal spoken word. Smith adapted Van Morrison’s rock standard ‘Gloria’ into a powerhouse opening track, adding her own lines at the beginning, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”.
Horses‘ impact on music has been monumental, inspiring artists from PJ Harvey to Michael Stipe from R.E.M, who explained via Eric Wendell’s Patti Smith: America’s Punk Rock Rhapsodist that hearing Smith’s debut record “tore [his] limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order”.
After Horses, Smith and her group released Radio Ethiopia, which was negatively received by critics, who believed it to be too overindulgent and commercial. However, Radio Ethiopia is now held in much higher esteem, although it is unanimously agreed that the record pales in comparison to the brilliance of Horses.
Still, Radio Ethiopia contains many fantastic songs, such as ‘Ask the Angels’, which features an unforgettable opening riff that welcomes Smith’s screeches of the title lyrics. She chose to perform the track on The Mike Douglas Show in 1977, which played in the daytime. However, she didn’t let the setting – a far cry from the dingy underground clubs and bars she was used to – stop her from giving her all. Smith let loose as she danced around the stage, mimicking her guitarists playing their instruments.
During the show, the band also played ‘Free Money’ from Horses. The track is a personal favourite of Kaye’s, who once told Uncut Magazine that he loves the play it live. “It’s still a high-energy burst of desire,” he explained.
Check out the clips below.
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