RIFFS / Everything but The Girl: Tracy Thorn of Everything But The Girl on Patti Smith's version of 'Gloria'

'GLORIA' was written by Van Morrison, but I never knew about his version when I first heard this in 1978. It's about six minutes long because she adds her own section at the beginning, this weird bit which is slow and languid, in which she declaims what are the opening lines of her album: 'Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.' The track then builds up behind her, really slowly, with mounting excitement until it reaches a climax.

A lot of it is just a girl's name repeated over and over, a classic songwriter's technique given a bit of sexual ambiguity because it's sung by a woman. This was the first bit of punk I'd really heard, and it was quite shocking and inspiring to me. I suppose I was looking around for female role models at the time. She's got a very deep voice for a woman, and had an androgynous look. I think in your teens you end up identifying with people the same shape as you.

It had that trash quality I loved. It was American punk, which was less thrashy than UK punk. Lenny Kaye's playing lead guitar, and he gets that garagey feel. It's an incredibly intense emotional performance, then after the climax it just fades out.

'Gloria' is on Patti Smith's 'Horses' album (Arista CD251112) and 'The Patti Smith Box Set' (RCA CD354226)

(Photograph omitted)