It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, boogie woogie, jazz and swing music, and was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. For the TV program, see History of Rock 'n' Roll (TV series) For the radio program, see The History of Rock and Roll. (Though the original track on Easter is printed as "Rock N Roll Nigger," the N has been variously rendered as &, 'n', and N'."History of rock and roll" and similar terms redirect here. But her version still isn't heard very often and remains unlikely to redefine the "n" word into something good. After her version was used on the soundtrack of the 1994 film Natural Born Killers, there were several recordings: one by Son of Slam on Trailer Parks, Politics & God, another by Marilyn Manson on Smells Like Children, and a third by Brix Smith that first appeared on the Dressed to Kill label's A Tribute to Patti Smith album and subsequently on the collections Kill Everyone and I Spit on Your Gravy. "Rock N Roll Nigger" was not performed by anyone other than Smith until the 1990s. For example, critic Dave Marsh said, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, "Smith doesn't understand the word's connotation, which is not outlawry but a particular kind of subjugation and humiliation that's antithetical to her motives." Doubtless she understood the connotation and wished to change it, but that's more than one song and one songwriter could achieve. Her instinct in trying to break a society-wide taboo may have been true to her sense of artistic risk, but it also exposed her to ridicule. ![]() ![]() ![]() Smith was widely criticized for her use of the word "nigger," both in the song itself and in casual conversation. Beyond her use of the "n" word, "Rock N Roll Nigger," which followed on from the poetry recitation "Babelogue" on Easter, was a frantic rock song in which Smith took an explicitly defiant stance: "Outside of society, that's where I want to be." The song was a compelling rave-up with a great guitar hook, bringing the first side of Easter to a triumphant conclusion, and clearly intended as a successor to Smith's earlier song "Horses," which also mixed edgy poetry with rock & roll power. Nevertheless, on her third album, 1978's Easter, she tried: "nigger no invented for color," she wrote elliptically and ungrammatically in the album's liner notes, "it was MADE FOR THE PLAGUE the word (art) must be redefined-all mutants and the new babes born sans eyebrow and tonsil-outside logic-beyond mathematics poli-tricks baptism and motion sickness-any man who extends beyond the classic form is a nigger-one sans fear and despair-one who rises like rimbaud beating hard gold rythumn outta soft solid shit." In this sense, she seemed to be using the word in the sometimes honorific way it is sometimes used between African-Americans (though practically never by whites), and she followed this in the song lyrics, in which people she appeared to admire - Jimi Hendrix, Jesus Christ, Jackson Pollock, and "Grandma, too!" - were called "nigger" admiringly. Smith came out of a poetic tradition that deliberately looked to decadent subject matter and used debased language as a means of transcendence, but the "n" word may be the most difficult term in the English language to re-contextualize. Patti Smith has always been a provocative writer and performer, and her song "Rock N Roll Nigger" must rank among her most provocative statements, if only because of its use, and attempted redefinition, of a particularly odious epithet.
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