Gloria

by Patti Smith

Gloria cover art
  • Type: Single
  • Released: April 1976
  • Label: Arista
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 8:03
  • Community rating: 4.15/5 from 3 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

A radical, punk-rock deconstruction of the classic Van Morrison garage-rock standard. Smith opens the track with the famously sacrilegious spoken-word line, 'Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine', before slowly building the arrangement into a frantic, chaotic three-chord climax. It formally introduced the downtown New York punk scene to the broader musical consciousness.

Genres

Descriptors: live, cover, unpolished, vocal-driven, classic

Tracklist

  1. Gloria (In Excelsis Deo) (4:47)
  2. Gloria (Version)
  3. My Generation (3:16)

Credits

  • Patti Smith Group - primary artist
  • Patti Smith - written-by
  • Van Morrison - written-by
  • Pete Townshend - written-by

More from Patti Smith: full discography