Patti Smith wrote the lyrics for this song in the early 1970s following an argument with her sister Linda. The New Yorker recalled in her lyric collection Complete: "The words for 'Redondo Beach' were written in 1971. I was sharing a space near the Chelsea Hotel with Robert [Mapplethorpe] and my sister Linda. One afternoon I had a rare argument with my sister and she left. She didn't return and by nightfall I was worried. Needing time to think, I took an F train to Coney Island and sat on the littered beach until the sun rose. I came back, wrote the draft and fell asleep. When I awoke, she had returned. I showed her what I had written and we never quarreled again." Smith published the lyrics as a poem entitled "Radando Beach" in her 1972 book Kodak. A few years later, Smith returned to the verses for her debut album, Horses, and completed the song with the help of her guitarist Lenny Kaye and keyboard player Richard Sohl, who came up with a reggae arrangement.
Smith used to introduce the song on-stage by announcing, "Redondo Beach is a beach where women love other women." Many have interpreted the lyrics as being the lament of a lesbian whose girlfriend had committed suicide and was washed up on a Los Angeles beach. (The titular place is a Los Angeles beach popular with lesbians and gays).
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