Patti Smith's 'Horses' released
1975
November 1975, and the debut album from poet and musician Smith is unleashed. Robert Mapplethorpe's iconic sleeve portrait was as edgy and confrontational as the record's contents, which fused spiky three-chord rock with surreal, incisive wordplay. The opening lines ("Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine") were a rallying call for the angst ridden and disaffected and inspired a legion of musicians from Morrissey to KT Tunstall. A young Michael Stipe bought the record and commented later "It tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order. I was like 'Shit, yeah, oh my God!' then I threw up."


John Cale
Producer
Former member of the Velvet Underground and Horses' producer.
Michael Stipe
Musician
Michael bought the album while at school.