MatR: Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen: Land

Born to Run wasn’t the only landmark album released in 1975. That was also the year that Patti Smith announced her arrival with her debut album, Horses.

Both albums have stood the test of time, ranking only three notches apart on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The connections between Bruce and Patti run all the way back to the release of Horses, and possibly even before (they both attended a birthday party for New York club owner Mike Porco just a few weeks prior to Patti’s November album release).

During the Born to Run/Horses era, Bruce made a few appearances at Patti’s concerts, but none as surprising and substantial as the night of November 26, 1976.

Patti played two shows at The Bottom Line in New York City that night, and Bruce joined her band for both of them. And when I say “joined her band,” that’s no exaggeration: Bruce performed seven songs at the early show and six at the late show–ten unique songs in all, and none of them his.

Oh, and he didn’t sing, either–Bruce was purely an instrumentalist that night, accompanying Patti and her band on guitar (and occasionally piano–check out “We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together“).

At the late show, their first song was Patti’s nine-and-a-half-minute opus, “Land.” With an opening movement called “Horses,” it’s the closest the album has to a title track–a melange of punk, poetry, and even a classic rock cover (“Land of 1,000 Dances.”)

“Land” was already one of Patti’s most popular live numbers, but you can hear the crowd react in astonished excitement when Patti introduces Bruce at about the 1:30 mark below. Take a listen to The Patti Smith Group, featuring Bruce Springsteen on guitar.

Bruce had a lot of one-time-only performances that night, but none more electrifying than “Land.”

Land
First performed: November 26, 1976 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: November 26, 1976 (New York City, NY)