Hey, you know what’s a good album? Motherfucking Horses by Patti Smith. Smith released her debut LP in November 1975, and it’s obviously historically important and influenced all your favorite people and priestess of punk and blah blah blah. That’s great. But have you listened to it? When you throw Horses on today, it does not sound like a historical document. It sounds like this lady is shooting lasers out of her eyes and ascending to a new level of existence. It gives you of the most gut-churning, intense experiences that you can get from a piece of recorded music. It’s special. And now, it’s getting a big 50th-anniversary reissue.

This fall, Patti Smith will release the 50th-anniversary edition of Horses, which comes with a bunch of previously unreleased tracks. Along with the proper album, we’re getting Smith’s 1975 audition tape for RCA, an alternate take on “Birdland,” and “Snowball,” a non-album track that Smith and her band first played in an on-air performance for WBAI.

“Snowball” is out today, and it’s a little looser than most of the songs that did make it onto Horses. Lenny Kaye’s guitar gets pretty jammy by the end, and melody’s sprightly swoop makes me think of Kate Bush, who I don’t really consider to be a Patti Smith contemporary even though they were making music at the same time, with probably some of the same influences. Check out “Birdland” and the Horses anniversary-edition tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:

CD1:
01 “Gloria”
02 “Redondo Beach”
03 “Birdland”
04 “Free Money”
05 “Kimberly”
06 “Break It Up”
07 “Land (Horses / Land Of A Thousand Dances / La Mer (De))”
08 “Elegie”

CD2:
01 “Gloria” *
02 “Redondo Beach”
03 “Birdland” *
04 “Snowball” *
05 “Kimberly” *
06 “Break It Up” *
07 “Distant Fingers” *
08 “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” *
09 “We Three” *

* previously unreleased

Horses (50th Anniversary) is out 10/10 on Legacy.