Horses

Patti Smith

Arista, 1975

from its first defiant line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” the opening shot in a bold reinvention of Van Morrison’s garage-rock classic “Gloria,” Patti Smith’s debut LP was a declaration of mutiny. Horses made her the queen of punk, but Smith cared more for the poetry in rock. She sought the visions and passions that connected Keith Richards and Rimbaud — and found them, with the intuitive assistance of a killer band (led by guitarist Lenny Kaye) and her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, who shot the iconic cover portrait.