Described as the perfect fusion of poetry and garage-band rock and roll
(the original concept was "rock and Rimbaud"), Horses belongs as much
to the world of literary and cultural criticism as it does to the realm
of musicology. While Horses pays homage to the record's origins in the
nascent New York punk scene, the audiobook's core lies in a detailed
analysis of Patti Smith's lyrics and includes discussions of lyrical
preoccupations: love, sex, gender, death, dreams, god, metamorphosis,
intoxication, apocalypse, and transcendence. Philip Shaw demonstrates
how Horses transformed the possibilities of both poetry and rock
music; and how it achieved nothing less than a complete and systematic
derangement of the senses.