Honestly, it’s the kind of song that makes modern streaming services sweat. If you’ve ever scrolled through Patti Smith’s discography on Spotify or Apple Music, you might have noticed a glaring, silent gap in the middle of her 1978 breakthrough album, Easter. The track is titled "Rock N Roll N," and in our current era of digital sanitation, it has largely been scrubbed, hidden, or buried behind content warnings.
But back in 1978? It was the center of her universe.
Patti Smith wasn't trying to be a racist. That’s the first thing you have to understand, even if the title makes you wince today. She was trying to be a "mutant." She was obsessed with the idea of the ultimate outsider—the person so far beyond the fringes of polite society that they became a new kind of human. To Smith, the N-word wasn't a descriptor of race; it was a "badge" for the alienated.
It was a reckless, high-stakes gamble with language. It was also, depending on who you ask, a total disaster of white privilege or a prophetic punk manifesto.
The Night Everything Changed (and the Song That Fueled It)
By the time Easter dropped, Patti Smith was already the "Godmother of Punk," but she was also a woman recovering from a literal broken neck. She’d fallen off a stage in Tampa in 1977, tumbling 15 feet into an orchestra pit. She spent months in a neck brace, reading the Bible and the works of Arthur Rimbaud.
When she came back, she wasn't just a garage rocker. She was a woman looking for resurrection.
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Easter gave us "Because the Night," the massive hit co-written with Bruce Springsteen. That song made her a star. But "Rock N Roll N" was the engine room of the album. Produced by Jimmy Iovine, the track is a feral, foot-stomping piece of classic rock and roll. It’s arguably the hardest she ever rocked. Lenny Kaye’s guitar is a buzzsaw. Patti’s voice is a gravelly bark.
She starts the song with a spoken-word rant that basically lays out her thesis:
"Nigger no invented for color, it was MADE FOR THE PLAGUE!"
She claimed the word should be redefined to include anyone "outside logic," anyone who "rises beyond the classic form." In her mind, the ultimate "Rock N Roll Niggers" were people like Jackson Pollock, Jimi Hendrix, and Jesus Christ. Even her own grandmother made the list.
The Norman Mailer Connection
Patti didn't just pull this idea out of thin air. She was heavily influenced by Norman Mailer’s 1957 essay, The White Negro. Mailer’s piece explored the "hipster"—white youth who adopted the language, music, and perceived "outsider" status of Black culture to escape the soul-crushing conformity of Eisenhower’s America.
It was a romanticized, deeply problematic view of Black struggle. Mailer saw the Black experience through a lens of existential cool and violence. Patti took that 1950s beatnik philosophy and cranked it up to 11 for the punk era.
She also took inspiration from her friend Lester Bangs. The legendary rock critic used to wear a T-shirt that said "The Last of the White Niggers." They once went on a pilgrimage together to meet William S. Burroughs, and that kind of transgressive, "shock the bourgeoisie" energy was the air they breathed.
Why the Critics Weren't Buying It
Even in the late 70s, people weren't exactly lining up to give her a pass.
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Dave Marsh, writing for Rolling Stone, hit the nail on the head in his 1978 review. He called it an "unpalatable chant." His argument was simple: Patti didn't understand that the word’s connotation wasn't "outlawry." It was subjugation. It was humiliation.
You can’t just "redefine" a word that has four hundred years of blood on it.
Lester Bangs, despite his own use of the term, was equally biting in his review. He called her a "pretentious wretch" and mocked the idea that she, living in a nice apartment on Fifth Avenue, was truly "outside society." He felt she was narcissistic, getting lost in her own poetic metaphors while the real world was dealing with actual, non-metaphorical racism.
The Contrast of Perspectives
| Source | Perspective on "Rock N Roll N" |
|---|---|
| Patti Smith | A badge of honor for social outcasts and artistic mutants. |
| Dave Marsh | A gross mischaracterization of a word rooted in suffering. |
| Lester Bangs | Pretentious "diversionary" tactic from an artist losing touch. |
| Nora Chipaumire | A heavy, violent phrase that a Black artist must "wrestle" with. |
In 2017, the Zimbabwean-born choreographer Nora Chipaumire staged a performance called #PUNK. She screamed the lyrics of "Rock N Roll N" over and over. She wanted the audience to feel the "weight" of it. For her, the song wasn't a fun punk anthem. It was a confrontation. She noted the "twisted luxury" Patti had—the ability to use the word ironically.
Is It Still Rock and Roll?
So, why does this matter now?
Because Patti Smith remains one of the most vital figures in music history. She’s the woman who wrote Just Kids. She’s the poet who proved that rock and roll could be literate, messy, and spiritual all at once.
But "Rock N Roll N" is the part of the legacy that doesn't fit into a neat box. It’s a reminder that even our idols make massive, ego-driven mistakes. She wanted to be a "mad scientist" of language, poking at something combustible just to see if it would explode.
It did. Just not in the way she thought.
Today, you won't hear her play it live. It’s been retired from the setlist for decades. In interviews, she’s occasionally tried to explain the "historical context," but the world has moved on from the idea that white artists can "adopt" racial slurs as a fashion statement for their own alienation.
How to Listen to Patti Smith Today
If you’re diving into the Patti Smith Group for the first time, don't let the controversy of one track stop you. Her work is a massive, beautiful tapestry. Here is the better way to understand her impact:
- Start with 'Horses': It’s her masterpiece. "Gloria" is the blueprint for everything that followed. It’s where she first fused Rimbaud with garage rock.
- Listen to 'Because the Night': It’s the pop song that shouldn't work but does. It shows her ability to be "mainstream" without losing her soul.
- Read 'Just Kids': If you want to understand the why behind her art, this memoir about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe is essential. It’s the best book ever written about being young and hungry in New York.
- Acknowledge the Failures: Part of being an expert on rock history is realizing that the "Golden Age" was full of flaws. "Rock N Roll N" is a artifact of a specific kind of 70s arrogance—a belief that art could transcend history.
Rock and roll isn't just about the hits. It’s about the friction. It’s about the moments where an artist reaches for something "transcendent" and trips over their own feet. Patti Smith’s career is defined by those leaps. Sometimes she soared, and sometimes, like in 1978, she hit the floor.
The next time you’re listening to Easter, pay attention to the silence where that track used to be. It says more about the evolution of culture than the lyrics ever did.