Singer

In the fall of 1975, Patti Smith gathered her band in Electric Lady Studios in New York City to record her debut album, Horses. Released on November 10th by Arista Records, it has come to be regarded as a seminal and landmark recording that continues to have resonance and relevance for succeeding generations of musicians and artists.

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Patti Smith and her band

Walt Disney Concert Hall

In the fall of 1975, Patti Smith gathered her band in Electric Lady Studios in New York City to record her debut album, Horses.  Released on November 10th by Arista Records, it has come to be regarded as a seminal and landmark recording that continues to have resonance and relevance for succeeding generations of musicians and artists.

Patti Smith and her Band

Fox Theater Oakland

The poet, singer, songwriter, and visual artist Patti Smith, a singular figure in New York counterculture that continues to create and inspire well into her eighth decade of life. Her 1975 debut album Horses is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and her memoirs serve as a time capsule for a downtown arts scene and some of its most fascinating personalities. She won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2010 for Just Kids, her book about her earliest days in New York making art with Robert Mapplethorpe, and in 2015 published M Train, about her life with and after her husband, the musician Fred (Sonic) Smith, who died in 1994. Her latest book Devotion explores the nature of creative invention. For her performance of Words and Music, Smith is backed by her son Jackson, her daughter Jesse Paris Smith, and her frequent bandmate Tony Shanahan, sharing original spoken-word stories from her life interspersed with songs and taking questions from the audience.

Patti Smith: Words and Music

McCarter Theatre Center

Released in 1975, Smith’s first recording, Horses, was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2010 by the National Recording Preservation Board. Her subsequent albums include Radio Ethiopia, Easter, which included Because the Night, cowritten with Bruce Springsteen, Wave, Dream of Life, which included People Have the Power cowritten with her late husband Fred Sonic Smith, Gone Again, Peace and Noise, Gung Ho, Trampin’, Land, Twelve, Banga, and Outside Society. She is a four-time Grammy® nominee and a Golden Globe nominee for the song “Mercy Is” cowritten with Lenny Kay for the film Noah. Steven Sebring’s 2008 documentary, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, received an Emmy nomination.

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Patti Smith

Events

Past events

Nov 15, 2025

Patti Smith and her band · Los Angeles Philharmonic

Nov 12, 2025

Patti Smith and her Band · Fox Theater Oakland

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