Patti Smith's controversial 1978 song "Rock N Roll N—" was quietly removed from streaming services at some point over the last few months, as reported by Rolling Stone.
The track, which closes out the A-side of Easter, was co-written by Smith and her guitarist Lenny Kaye. Using the slur to describe outsiders in the music industry and the world at large, she calls figures like Jimi Hendrix, Jackson Pollack, Jesus Christ and "grandma" the N-word.
In the liner notes for Easter, Smith wrote, "N— no invented for color it was MADE FOR THE PLAGUE. The word (art) must be redefined — all mutants and the new babies born sans eyebrow and tonsil … any man who extends beyond the classic form is a n—."
Over the years, Smith has doubled down on her decision to use the slur repeatedly. In a 1978 Rolling Stone interview, she defended using the word to describe Mick Jagger after the interviewer implied the Rolling Stones bandleader "hadn't suffered like anyone who had grown up in Harlem."
"Suffering don't make you a n—. I mean, I grew up poor, too," she said. "Ya think Black people are better than white people or sumpthin'? I was raised with Black people. It's like, I can walk down the street and say to a kid, 'Hey n—.' I don't have any kind of super-respect or fear of that kind of stuff."
She further bolstered her use of it in a 1996 interview with the same magazine, and continued to use the word itself:
I was taking this archaic use of the word n— and sort of reinventing it. It was the idea of taking a word that was specific and hurtful to people and obliterating it, blowing that apart and reinventing it so it was more like a badge of courage. Like the kids did with the word punk. It was part of my group's attempt to break the boundaries, to obliterate labels.
"Rock N Roll N—" will remain on physical and downloaded copies of Easter. Smith has yet to comment on the situation.
The track, which closes out the A-side of Easter, was co-written by Smith and her guitarist Lenny Kaye. Using the slur to describe outsiders in the music industry and the world at large, she calls figures like Jimi Hendrix, Jackson Pollack, Jesus Christ and "grandma" the N-word.
In the liner notes for Easter, Smith wrote, "N— no invented for color it was MADE FOR THE PLAGUE. The word (art) must be redefined — all mutants and the new babies born sans eyebrow and tonsil … any man who extends beyond the classic form is a n—."
Over the years, Smith has doubled down on her decision to use the slur repeatedly. In a 1978 Rolling Stone interview, she defended using the word to describe Mick Jagger after the interviewer implied the Rolling Stones bandleader "hadn't suffered like anyone who had grown up in Harlem."
"Suffering don't make you a n—. I mean, I grew up poor, too," she said. "Ya think Black people are better than white people or sumpthin'? I was raised with Black people. It's like, I can walk down the street and say to a kid, 'Hey n—.' I don't have any kind of super-respect or fear of that kind of stuff."
She further bolstered her use of it in a 1996 interview with the same magazine, and continued to use the word itself:
I was taking this archaic use of the word n— and sort of reinventing it. It was the idea of taking a word that was specific and hurtful to people and obliterating it, blowing that apart and reinventing it so it was more like a badge of courage. Like the kids did with the word punk. It was part of my group's attempt to break the boundaries, to obliterate labels.
"Rock N Roll N—" will remain on physical and downloaded copies of Easter. Smith has yet to comment on the situation.
