A strange clash of high art and mass culture. The famous series of music books "33 1/3" continues to offer us new titles in Greek through Oxy publications. Next in line is Philip Shaw's book about Patti Smith's album Horses.

Having bohemianly roamed the streets of New York in her black coat and with her poems, Patti Smith, this androgynous, disheveled figure with her unwavering gaze and love for Rimbaud, was led in 1975 to the creation and recording of her first album, Horses. It is a record that overflows with emotion, originality, and personal references, but also a record that opened up an entirely new scene in the field of music as well as female expression—if not also no-gender artistic interpretation—providing the pure rock expression of the era within the chaotic melting pot that would give birth, in those very days, to punk.

Philip Shaw is an Associate Professor of English Language at the University of Leicester and an author. The foreword of the book is written by the journalist.