The song is about stereotypes, individuality and being crazy. Someone who is, as she says, 'outside of society,' and * a rebel ('In my heart I am an American artist') and she does what she wants - 'I was lost in a valley of pleasure and the cost didn't matter to me, the cost was to be outside of society.' Then she references Jimi Hendrix, Jesus Christ, Grandma and Jackson Pollock (an artist) and how they were all 'n i g g e rs,' or outcasts.
Dont Wanna be
a
Bum,
",you better
Chew Gum
"

Whe Patti Smith used the word beep she did used it in the same aggression that the racists would use it, but in this case she's using it to replace the word outcast, as one of the posters said before me. She's a poet and she's a punk so it seems fitting that she would use an offensive word like that.

I haven't beep much with the past, but I've beep plenty with the future. Over the skin of silk are scars from the splinters of stations and walls I've caressed. A stage is like each bolt of wood, like a log of Helen, is my pleasure. I would measure the success of a night by the way by the way by the amount of piss and seed I could exude over the columns that nestled the P.A. Some nights I'd surprise everybody by skipping off with a skirt of green net sewed over with flat metallic circles which dazzled and flashed. The lights were violet and white. I had an ornamental veil, but I couldn't bear to use it. When my hair was cropped, I craved covering, but now my hair itself is a veil, and the scalp inside is a scalp of a crazy and sleepy Comanche lies beneath this netting of the skin. I wake up. I am lying peacefully I am lying peacefully and my knees are open to the sun. I desire him, and he is absolutely ready to seize me. In heart I am a Moslem; in heart I am an American; in heart I am Moslem, in heart I'm
an American artist, and I have no guilt. I seek pleasure. I seek the nerves under your skin. The narrow archway; the layers; the scroll of ancient lettuce. We worship the flaw, the belly, the belly, the mole on the belly of an exquisite whore. He spared the child and spoiled the rod. I have not sold myself to God.

I can't answer for Patti, but I think it's because black people used to be outcasts from society. This song is her way of taking the word and using it to describe any kind of outcast, regardless of race.

SO WHY EXACTLY DID SHE CHOOSE THAT WORD TO DESCRIBE HERSELF AS OUTCAST?

Thanks for the name and lyrics. I appretiate your help.

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I have this song off the Natural Born Killers Soundtrack and I want to know what's said in the spoken into. It ends with "spare the child and spoil the rod. I have not sold myself to God". I'd sincerely appreciate help with the rest.

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I hope this helps,
Rock n' Roll "N" is a bout being an outcast, a not fully accepted individual.
"Baby was a blacksheep, Baby was a whore, etc."
Snoop Dogg, Spike Lee & Jesse Jackson are definitely not in that category, they have been fully accepted by the press & the community.
Patti Smith always explains the fact that the song is not about race, but about being an outcast before she sings it during concerts.
Maybe her grandmother really was an outcast, I don't know.

i agree with gert that axel would have been killed for singing that song, but patti gets away with it because she's not labeled a hate monger like Mr. Rose was. I think it would be cool if some country artist like Garth Brooks or Hank Williams, Jr. would sing the song with the same lyrics, that would be too funny.
And replace Jesus Christ, Grandma & Jackson Pollack's names with Snoop Dogg, Spike Lee & Jesse Jackson That would start a freakin' race war man, but it would be funny!
Where I come from in Serbia, the "N" word is not used, but we use other names for backdoor people.
PREGRAG WAS HERE!