Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe: Collage as Punk Rock
The Patti Smith Group’s debut lp Horses is considered to be among the most influential of early New York punk, although the best of the album displays a lyric sophistication and aggressive expressive freedom that was rarely matched by many of her early 1970s contemporaries. In particular the poetic technique she displays when combined with a popular music as collage style makes the seemingly primitive rock and roll expression potentially devastating in its delivery.
The not quite a title track “Land” (labeled “Horses by many) displays this collage quality merging with a DIY pop art aesthetic that was the default medium for Smith and her most significant other at the time, artist Robert Mapplethorpe. As Smith describes in her book Just Kids, when already struggling for food, housing, and at times survival, the materials for artistic expression for both Smith and notably Mapplethorpe came in the form of collections of inexpensive or found materials (and the occasionally purchased men’s magazine) which were combined in installations, collages, paintings, photographs, jewelry, and various objects that transmitted complex, stirring, and unapologetic expressions from a highly original yet often ordinary collection of material. Smith adopts elements of this approach in the content and production of the song "Land" aka “Horses.”
Smith takes William S. Burroughs novel “The Wild Boys”, which would have come out during the same period the couple was living at the Chelsea Hotel and West 23rd street, as the pretext for her character Johnny, in the book part of a homosexual youth movement whose objective is the downfall of western civilization, set in the late twentieth century. Here Patti takes the themes of homosexuality, image, control, violence, and the hallucinogenic quality of deadpan spoken delivery that splits into a multi-tracked vocal over droning guitar. Adding to this mix of imagery and effect is Smith’s persistent and often jarring accent that unusually punctuates words such as “tea” and “mirror.” The juxtaposition of Johnny’s laughter accentuates the end of the second system:
The boy was in the hallway drinking a glass of teaFrom the other end of the hallway a rhythm was generatingAnother boy was sliding up the hallwayHe merged perfectly with the hallwayHe merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallwayThe boy looked at Johnny, Johnny wanted to runBut the movie kept moving as plannedThe boy took Johnny, he pushed him against the lockerHe drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in JohnnyThe boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his kneesStarted crashing his head against the lockerStarted crashing his head against the lockerStarted laughing hysterically
Mapplethorpe’s emerging homosexuality had an obvious effect on his relationship with Smith, and his creative fascination with the world of sadomasochism would soon become the dominant theme in much of his work. Reconstituting risqué and at times harsh imagery became the norm, with no regard to creative boundaries about what was proper or fashionable to use to create art. Smith similarly adopts this mindset, saying of “Gloria” (the companion piece to Horses”:
“Gloria gave me the opportunity to acknowledge and disclaim our musical and spiritual heritage. It personifies for me, within its adolescent conceit, what I hold sacred as an artist. The right to create, without apology, from a stance beyond gender or social definition, but not beyond the responsibility to create something of worth.”
The layers of vocals in the opening was a result of multiple takes, and succeeds in merging Smith’s well honed talent for poetry reading and merges it with a production technique that symbolizes both the transformation of Johnny and the psychological impact of the story being told. The droning quality also has a NYC punk connection to the Velvet Underground and their successful integration of the technique some years earlier.The most obvious image in the song’s collage is that of a stampede of horses that surrounds Johnny following is sexual violation in the hallway. Both a symbol of violence, freedom, and the loss of control that is taking over as a principle theme of the song. “Horse” is also slang for heroin, a staple subject in Burroughs and is offered perhaps in a manner that asks whether the sexual control is a metaphor for drug abuse, or vice versa. Smith herself had very limited interest in drugs during the period, showing her ability (unlike Burroughs) to adapt the condition to her literary ends without extensive first-hand knowledge.
When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded byHorses, horses, horses, horsesComing in in all directionsWhite shining silver studs with their nose in flamesHe saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.
Almost as an homage to one of Burroughs’s cut up techniques the song transitions to what seems to be a primitive reading of “Land of a Thousand Dances,” but quickly evolves as the list of dances elicits the twist, in the form of the “twister I gave your baby sister…I want your baby sister” as the lyric loses the control necessary to maintain its own metaphor:
Do you know how to pony like bony maroneyDo you know how to twist, well it goes like this, it goes like thisBaby mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligatorAnd you twist the twister like your baby sisterI want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, dig your baby sisterRise up on her knees, do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee peeRoll down on her back, got to lose control, got to lose controlGot to lose control and then you take controlThen you're rolled down on your back and you like it like thatLike it like that, like it like that, like it like thatThen you do the watusi, yeah do the watusi
Religion being another theme that runs though the album, especially the infamous firs line to “Gloria”, Smith combines angelic imagery with sex, death, and the taunts of what could pass for one of the pioneering early 1970s lower east side drag queen described in the book. The knives Burroughs features in the story make an appearance, with the phallic and violent overtones alluded to earlier before quick nods to Smith’s largest poetic influence Rimbaud and the child-like alliteration of the repeated “watusi.”
Life is filled with holes, Johnny's laying there, his sperm coffinAngel looks down at him and says, “Oh, pretty boyCan't you show me nothing but surrender?”Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacketTaped to his chest there's the answerYou got pen knives and jack knives andSwitchblades preferred, switchblades preferredThen he cries, then he screams, sayingLife is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brainAnd I fill my nose with snow and go RimbaudGo Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi
Here Smith mixes her poetic devise, hovering over some repeated rhymes and phrases that don’t advance the narrative explicitly except in a kinesthetic modality of the momentary dip in the musical dynamic accompaniment. The idea of the twist as a dance has been transformed into a fictional band named the “Twistelettes.” The sexuality of the “you like it like that” once again highlights the stanza.
There's a little place, a place called spaceIt's a pretty little place, it's across the tracksAcross the tracks and the name of the place is you like it like thatYou like it like that, you like it like that, you like it like thatAnd the name of the band is theTwistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, TwistelettesTwistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes
Another shift in perspective takes place as the third and first person begin to overlap. Smith puts herself in with the horses, now benign, and offering a surreal stairway up to the sea as symbolic of possibility. This first possibility that is seized again becomes sexual in nature as Johnny reappears. Again the double track vocal returns adding to the dreamlike imagery:
Baby calm down, better calm downIn the night, in the eye of the forestThere's a mare black and shining with yellow hairI put my fingers through her silken hair and found a stairI didn't waste time, I just walked right up and saw thatUp there -- there is a seaUp there -- there is a seaUp there -- there is a seaThe sea's the possibilityThere is no land but the land(up there is just a sea of possibilities)There is no sea but the sea(up there is a wall of possibilities)There is no keeper but the key(up there there are several walls of possibilities)Except for one who seizes possibilities, one who seizes possibilities(up there)I seize the first possibility, is the sea around meI was standing there with my legs spread like a sailor(in a sea of possibilities) I felt his hand on my knee(on the screen)And I looked at Johnny and handed him a branch of cold flame(in the heart of man)The waves were coming in like Arabian stallionsGradually lapping into sea horses
The imagery again becomes dominated by images of violence, male sexuality, control, Rimbaud, and the watusi, each crammed up against one another in a poetic and musical whirling dervish, punctuated by the line “that’s how I died”. Other drug references arise in the form of spoons and veins. The humor of Smiths writing offers momentary contrast in lines like “…oh we had such a brainiac-amour ...but no more.” Smith seems to merge with Johnny as if he is one of the horses being ridden through the dream:
He picked up the blade and he pressed it against his smooth throat(the spoon)And let it deep in(the veins)Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilitiesIt started hardeningDip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilitiesIt started hardening in my handAnd I felt the arrows of desireI put my hand inside his cranium, oh we had such a brainiac-amourBut no more, no more, I gotta move from my mind to the area(go Rimbaud go Rimbaud go Rimbaud)And go Johnny go and do the watusiYeah do the watusi, do the watusi ...Shined open coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encirclingOur lives are now entwined, we will fall yes we're together twiningYour nerves, your mane of the black shining horseAnd my fingers all entwined through the airI could feel it, it was the hair going through my fingers(I feel it I feel it I feel it I feel it)The hairs were like wires going through my bodyI I that's how IThat's how II died(at that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after)(they knew what they were after)[Everything on the current] moved upI tried to stop it, but it was too warm, too unbelievably smoothLike playing in the sea, in the sea of possibility, the possibilityWas a blade, a shiny blade, I hold the key to the sea of possibilitiesThere's no land but the landAs Smith returns to speaking, the image of death, blood, suicide, drugs (The scream he made… was so high, horses, and an array of body parts as the guitars dissolve into a percussive drone that supports the dreamy recitation. The music disintegrates with the characters as reference is made to a line from “Gloria” about an object of sexual desire leaning on a parking meter:Looked at my hands, and there's a red streamThat went streaming through the sands like fingersLike arteries, like fingers(how much fits between the eyes of a horse?)He lay, pressing it against his throat (your eyes)He opened his throat (your eyes)His vocal chords started shooting like (of a horse) mad pituitary glandsThe scream he made (and my heart) was so high (my heart) pitched that nobody heardNo one heard that cryNo one heard (Johnny) the butterfly flapping in his throat(His fingers)Nobody heard, he was on that bed, it was like a sea of jellyAnd so he seized the first(his vocal chords shot up)(possibility)(like mad pituitary glands)It was a black tube, he felt himself disintegrate(there is nothing happening at all)And go inside the black tube, so when he looked out into the steepSaw this sweet young thing (Fender one)Humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter
The seemingly odd inclusion of “Land of a Thousand Dances” is revealed in the last image of the man in the sheets dancing to the simple rock & roll song, forming a bookend with the opening boy in the hallway, drinking tea. Was this a drug induced halluciantion? A time warp? A mind bending sexual encounter? All of the above? The imagery is all that is real, and like an effective collage emparts meaning without the need for explicit resolutions.
In the sheetsThere was a manDancing aroundTo the simpleRock & rollSong
It is easy to draw comparisons from Smith’s poetry and lyric writing of the time to Mapplethorpe, not in terms of medium, message, or intent, but to the degree they used a no-holds-barred attitude toward subject matter and effectiveness at colliding various subjects and imagery in non-traditional ways. To this end, Smith is unmatched in this style during this period.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWGk2R2gHEU