Patti Smith releases recording of ‘Snowball’ from ‘Horses’ sessions
Patti Smith has released a previously unshared track from her 1975 album, Horses, in the run-up to her 50th anniversary tour later this year.
Released in 1975, Horses is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the US punk movement. Nearing its 50th anniversary, Smith announced a huge run of dates to celebrate the seminal debut. It will be performed in its entirety in seven European cities and nine American cities later this year.
In the lead-up to the tour, Smith has made ‘Snowball’ available online for the first time. Smith first performed the song ‘Snowball’ in May of 1975, live at the WBAI radio station in New York City, with her band and Lenny Kaye.
She begins the tune with her usual drawl, commenting, “Oh, don’t look behind me now and know what’s coming, Big, white, hairy, bald, late, Looking like a snowball.”
Though Horses was met with a lacklustre reception at the time of release, it went on to receive almighty praise for its unique fusion of punk and garage rock, poetry and avant-garde experimentation.
Smith has so far stayed silent about this new song on her social media channels. Instead, her most recent post on Instagram shows a photograph of the devastation in Palestine. In the caption, she writes, “This is what we’ve come to. Not a dream not a film but the landscape of inhumanity that none would wish to walk.”
On her upcoming tour, Smith will perform two shows at the London Palladium on October 12th and 13th, with shows in Dublin, Madrid, Bergamo, Brussels, Oslo and Paris rounding out the European leg of the tour. Her US tour will be stopping in Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington DC and Philadelphia.
The upcoming tour also marks 20 years since Smith performed Horses live in its entirety for the first time, with her and the group celebrating its 30th anniversary at the 2005 edition of Meltdown Festival in London, which Smith was invited to curate that year.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.