Patti Smith Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Horses in Seattle
Seattle was treated to a night of history and poetry as Patti Smith stepped onto the stage at the Paramount Theatre to launch the 50th anniversary tour of her seminal debut album, Horses. The timing could not have been more symbolic: the record that changed the course of music was released on this very day on November 10th, 1975, and five decades later, Smith returned to celebrate its enduring power. The night before, she had appeared at Meany Hall for a stop on her book tour promoting Bread of Angels, offering fans an intimate evening of conversation, readings, and a few stripped-down songs—a quiet prelude to the storm that would follow.
Walking into the Paramount, the energy was palpable, a mix of reverence and anticipation. When Smith and her band—Tony Shanahan, Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty, and her son Jackson Smith—took the stage, the room erupted. She opened with “Gloria,” the first track on Horses, and by the time the chorus hit, the entire theater was on its feet, singing along in unison. It was a moment frozen in time; a reminder of why this album still matters. After an electric performance of “Free Money,” Smith pulled out her book and began singing lines from it, seamlessly transitioning into “Birdland” as Shanahan’s keys swirled around her voice. “He was not you… Wait, I’m not human,” she intoned, her voice rising firm and loud, then softening again as she spoke more than sang, drawing cheers from the crowd.
When the song ended, Smith leaned into her wit and nostalgia: “Now is the time to take the record and turn it over—place it carefully on the turntable, or if you’re like me, just slam it on the table and start side B.” She introduced the next song with a story about Tom Verlaine, recalling late-night conversations over coffee and donuts and narrating a dream. She saw Jim Morrison walking around lost and he came onto this clearing where this marble statue was lying which looked like Prometheus. “I knew he was trapped in this marble casing and I kept saying to him “Break it up. Break it up, Jim. Break it up!” and the marble split in half and Jim exited as a full butterfly and flew away like an angel.” “Break it up, Jim. Break it up!” she said, laughing, before launching into “Break It Up,” her voice carrying the surreal imagery into sound. Then came “Land,” a sprawling epic that had the audience clapping and chanting as Smith narrated Johnny’s odyssey, her energy so commanding that sitting down felt impossible. The first part of the show closed with a reprise of “Gloria,” a communal call-and-response that felt like a ritual.
After introducing “the fellas,” Smith left the stage briefly while her band tore through a trio of Television covers—”See No Evil,” “Friction,” and “Marquee Moon“—a nod to the era that birthed punk. When she returned, wearing a black vest and exuding effortless cool, she shared the story behind Horses’ release date. Originally slated for October 20th, Arthur Rimbaud’s birthday, the album was delayed due to the 1975 oil crisis which meant no vinyl pressing. “When they told me the bad news, I asked, ‘What’s the new date?’ They said November 10th, and I replied, ‘That’s okay—because I’ll be playing in Seattle 50 years from now!'” Cue laughter and cheers. “No, what I really said was, that’s okay because that is the day Rimbaud passed away.” She then honored Rimbaud’s by reading his poem Genie from Illuminations for the first time, a moment of literary grace before diving back into music with “Pissing in a River” and “Peaceable Kingdom,” a song she wrote with Shanahan in 2003 for the Palestinian people.
The show’s emotional peak came with “People Have the Power,” its rallying cry echoing through the theater as fans stood and sang, voices merging into a single force. Smith spoke of hope and responsibility, urging everyone to use their voice echoing the line, “people have the power to redeem the world of fools.”
Smith went on again to share another story with us that on March 9th, 1976, the band played Detroit for the first time and there she met a fella Fred “Sonic” Smith, who she would later marry and have two kids with. Then came “Because the Night,” her biggest hit, “People always tell me how Horses changed theirs—well, Fred changed mine,” she said, before delivering a performance so raw and heartfelt it sent chills down the spine.
For the encore, Smith recalled recording at Electric Lady Studios with Jimmy Hendrix’s blessing, playing “Elegie” — dedicated to Hendrix and the 29-crew lost in the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck— and paying tribute to fellow artists and absent souls. Then she shared that in 1980 she was married to Fred Smith at the Mariners Church in Detroit and couple years later that happened, pointing to her son Jackson. “Then in 1987 our daughter Jesse was born, and we were working on a song that we hoped would excite and inspire people to use their voice, so we wrote it for you!” The magnificent night ended with “People Have the Power,” urging the crowd to raise their voices and harness collective strength. This was an unforgettable moment.
Fifty years after Horses shattered conventions, Patti Smith proved that its spirit is alive and urgent. Her Seattle performance was not just a concert—it was a communion of music, memory, and meaning, a reminder that art can honor the past while igniting the future. As she left the stage with a final exhortation—”Use your voice”—the message lingered like an anthem: people still have the power.
Photos: Christine Mitchell