Patti Smith - Land

First performance: 26/11/1976


Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song only once:
 
 
1976-11-26 Bottom Line (The), New York City, NY  
 
Bruce had a guest appearance during a show with Patti Smith. Bruce plays piano or guitar on all the tracks of the setlist mentionned under, a mixture of spoken word, poems and songs. At the early show, "Slowly Walking Down The River" and "My Car Was Invisible (Case Of Bruce Springsteen)" are improvised, semi-spoken-word pieces performed by Smith with Bruce on piano. "Picture Hanging Blues" features Bruce on piano and Lenny Kaye on guitar. The full Patti Smith Group joins starting on The Velvet Underground's "We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together", which features Bruce on piano. He returned later in the show to play guitar on several more songs, believed to have been those listed underneath. A fan present at the late show recalls "Bruce mostly played guitar since John Cale was on piano for most songs. A few of my photos do show Bruce at the piano however."  
You can hear the crowd react in astonished excitement when Patti introduces Bruce at about the 1:30 mark.  
 
Early Show:
 

Late Show:
 
 
 
 
 

Songinfo

Land is a song vy Patti Smith/Chris Kenner, 1975. Originally recorded by Patti Smith. Includes a portion of Chris Kenner's "Land Of 1,000 Dances". It is taken from the 1975 HorsesLand: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/La Mer (De) is one of Patti Smith’s most famous songs. At nearly ten minutes, the song is a combination of several different pieces, including 1960s novelty hit Land of a Thousand Dances. The song was notably included in the season two finale of “Millennium”, which featured the song during a sequence in which one of the main characters of the show has a full-on nervous breakdown upon learning that a deadly virus had been unleashed upon the planet. Though the title of the piece is “Land” (with each subsection having its own name), the song is often referred to by the name “Horses”.
 
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

Bruce has one co- written song with Patti Smith : Because the night. It was originally recorded during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town sessions. The song was officially released for the first time in a live version on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986 recorded at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY, during The River Tour. The guitar solo part is edited out on the official release, from three minutes to a bit over a minute and a half. The live 28 Dec 1980 version was also included on the Greatest Hits (2009 Europe edition) compilation album. A studio version was released on The Promise in 2010. Because the night was donated to Patti Smith for her 1978 album Easter. 
 
 
 
 
Bruce had 9 performances together with Patti Smith :
 
 
 
2018-04-23 Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY
2013-02-08 Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
2009-10-30 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
1977-12-30 CBGB Theater, New York City, NY
1976-11-26 Bottom Line, New York City, NY (Late)
1976-11-26 Bottom Line, New York City, NY (Early)
1976-10-30 Palladium, New York City, NY
1975-12-26 Bottom Line, New York City, NY
1975-10-23 Gerde's Folk City, New York City, NY 
 

Lyrics

The boy was in the hallway drinking a glass of tea
From the other end of the hallway a rhythm was generating
Another boy was sliding up the hallway
He merged perfectly with the hallway,
He merged perfectly, the mirror in the hallway
The boy looked at Johnny, Johnny wanted to run,
But the movie kept moving as planned
The boy took Johnny, he pushed him against the locker,
He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny
The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees,
Started crashing his head against the locker,
Started crashing his head against the locker,
Started laughing hysterically
When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
Horses, horses, horses, horses
Coming in in all directions
White shining, silver studs with their nose in flames,
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.
Do you know how to pony like bony maroney
Do you know how to twist, well it goes like this, it goes like this
Baby mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligator
And you twist the twister like your baby sister
I want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, dig your baby sister
Rise up on her knees, do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee pee,
Roll down on her back, got to lose control, got to lose control,
Got to lose control and then you take control,
Then you're rolled down on your back and you like it like that,
Like it like that, like it like that, like it like that,
Then you do the watusi, yeah do the watusi
Life is filled with holes, Johnny's laying there, in his sperm coffin
Angel looks down at him and says, “Oh, pretty boy,
Can't you show me nothing but surrender?”
Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,
Taped to his chest there's the answer,
You got pen knives and jack knives and
Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred
Then he cries, then he screams, saying
Life is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brain
And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud,
Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,
And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi
There's a little place, a place called space
It's a pretty little place, it's across the tracks,
Across the tracks and the name of the place is you like it like that,
You like it like that, you like it like that, you like it like that,
And the name of the band is the
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes,
Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes, Twistelettes
Baby calm down, better calm down,
On the night, in the eye of the forest
There's a mare black and shining with yellow hair,
I put my fingers through her silken hair and found a stair,
I didn't waste time, I just walked right up and saw that
Up there, there is a sea
Up there, there is a sea
Up there, there is a sea
The sea's the possibility
There is no land but the land (Up there is just a sea of possibilities)
There is no sea but the sea (Up there is a wall of possibilities)
There is no keeper of the key (Up there there are several walls of possibilities)
Except for one who seizes possibilities, one who seizes possibilities. (Up there)
I seize the first possibility, is the sea around me
I was standing there with my legs spread like a sailor
I felt his hand on my knee (On the screen)
And I looked at Johnny and handed him a branch of cold flame (In the heart of man)
The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions
Gradually lapping into sea horses
He picked up the blade and he pressed it against his smooth throat(The spoon)
And let it deep in (The veins)
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities (It started hardening)
Dip in to the sea, to the sea of possibilities
I put my hand inside his cranium, oh we had such a brainiac-amour
But no more, no more, I gotta move from my mind to the area
(Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud)
And go Johnny go and do the watusi,
Yeah do the watusi, do the watusi
Shined open, coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encircling
Our lives are now entwined, we will fall yes we're together twining
Your nerves, your mane of the black shining horse
And my fingers all entwined in your silky hair,
I could feel it, it was the hair going through my fingers,
The hairs were like wires going through my body
I, I that's how I
That's how I
I died (At that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after)
(They knew what they were after)
(Everything on the current) Moved up
I tried to stop it, but it was too warm, too unbelievably smooth,
Like playing in the sea, in the sea of possibility, the possibility
Was a blade, a shiny blade, I hold the key to the sea of possibilities
There's no land, but the land
Looked at my hands, and there's a red stream
That went streaming through the sands like fingers,
Like arteries, like fingers
He lay, pressing it against his throat (Your eyes)
He opened his throat (Your eyes)
His vocal chords started shooting like (of a horse) mad pituitary glands
The scream he made (and my heart) was so high (my heart) pitched that nobody heard,
No one heard that cry,
No one heard (Johnny) the butterfly flapping in his throat,
Nobody heard, he was on that bed, it was like a sea of jelly,
And so he seized the first (His vocal chords shot up)
It was a black tube, he felt himself disintegrate (There is nothing happening at all)
And go inside the black tube, so when he looked out into the steep
Saw this sweet young thing (Fender one)
Humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter
In the sheets
There was a man
Dancing around
To the simple
Rock & roll
Song