June 18 - Gloria

Tomorrow you will see where this ends, but today, we will play one of my favorite songs. The Doors had a glorious version of it (pardon the pun - it started unintentionally, but I can't claim that anymore), but it was originally written by Van Morrison and recorded by them in 1964/65 (I was surprised to see how old the song really was). It is powerful as heck, but in the hands of Patti Smith, it becomes a completely other kind of monster. Infusing her own poetry into it, it takes the traditional garage rock song Gloria and elevates it into her personal spiritual realm. Please enjoy Gloria from Patti Smiths album Horses from 1975.