Death # 2 Patti Smith

Patti Smith's debut album Horses is turning forty round about now. It's something to be noted as for me and many others it's one of the best and most important records ever made. One day, when I've got the energy, time and inspiration I'll get round to writing about it here in full and at length. In the meantime here's its second track. A succinct narrative.

Redondo Beach was a beach near Los Angeles known as a destination for lesbians in the Sixties and Seventies. The song was actually originally inspired though by something a bit closer to home. 

'(it) was also widely interpreted as the lament of a woman whose girlfriend has committed suicide and whose body washes up on a Los Angeles beach... Actually, says Smith, it's a song about her sister Linda, a sort of morbid fantasy rooted in remorse: the pair, rooming together in the Chelsea Hotel, quarrelled, and Linda disappeared, causing Patti much anguish. Written in 1971, the verses languished in a drawer for several years, until they were pulled out and given an incongruously jaunty reggae backing.'

Nothing incongruous about the backing. For me at least! Patti at her best, as she remained throughout Horses which despite the great stuff she's done since, remains her definitive statement in my mind, along with Piss Factory.

'Late afternoon, dreaming hotel

We just had the quarrel, that sent you away

I was looking for you, are you gone, gone?

Called you on the phone, another dimension

Well, you never returned, oh you know what I mean

I went looking for you, are you gone, gone?

Down by the ocean, it was so dismal

Women all standing with shock on their faces

Sad description, oh I was looking for you

Everyone was singing, girl is washed up

On Redondo beach and everyone is so sad

I was looking for you, are you gone, gone?

Pretty little girl, everyone cried

She was the victim, of sweet suicide

I went looking for you, are you gone, gone?

Down by the ocean it was so dismal

Women all standing with shock on their faces

Sad description, oh I was just looking for you

Desk clerk told me, girl was washed up

Was small, an angel with apple blonde hair, now

I went looking for you, are you gone, gone?

Picked up my key, didn't reply

Went to my room, started to cry

You were small, an angel, are you gone, gone?

Down by the ocean it was so dismal

I was just standing with shock on my face

The hearse pulled away and the girl that had died, it was you

You'll never return into my arms 'cause you were gone, gone

Never return into my arms 'cause you were gone, gone

Gone, gone

Gone, gone

Goodbye.'