The History of Rock

"History of Rock" redirects here. For the vinyl record series, see History of Rock (vinyl series). For a history of rock and roll music, see rock and roll.

The History of Rock
Compilation album by Kid Rock
Released	May 30, 2000
Recorded	1992-2000
Genre	Rap metal, rap rock, hip hop
Length	64:46
Label	Atlantic
Professional reviews
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Kid Rock chronology
Devil Without a Cause (1998) The History of Rock (2000) Cocky (2001)

The History of Rock is a compilation album released by Kid Rock in 2000, as the unofficial follow up to Devil Without a Cause. After acquiring the rights to his indie-label recordings, Rock decided to release a compilation of older material. The album contains material from the albums The Polyfuze Method and Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp. The liner notes state that Rock re-recorded the songs from Polyfuze because he couldn't find the master recordings, and "remixed and touched up" the EMSP tracks to show how they would've sounded if Rock had the money to record them properly at the time. There are also three previously unreleased songs from those album sessions ("Born 2 Be a Hick" from the Polyfuze sessions in 1992, "Dark and Grey" and "Abortion" from the EMSP sessions in 1994). The only new tracks were "American Bad Ass", which was the first single from the album, and "Fuck That", which had been used previously for the Any Given Sunday soundtrack. "Fuck U Blind" was re-written from the original version, most likely to avoid a lawsuit from Madonna.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro"	Wes Chill, R.J. Ritchie	1:08
2.	"American Bad Ass"	Ritchie, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich	4:32
3.	"Prodigal Son"	Ritchie	6:41
4.	"Paid"	Ritchie	4:45
5.	"Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp" (feat. Joe C and Tino)	Ritchie, M. Gross	7:14
6.	"Dark & Gray"	Ritchie	4:56
7.	"3 Sheets To the Wind (What's My Name?)"	Ritchie	3:59
8.	"Abortion"	Ritchie	4:29
9.	"I Wanna Go Back"	Ritchie	5:29
10.	"Ya' Keep On"	B. Lomas, L. Risbrook, Ritchie, R. Thompson, C. Ward, O. Woods, D. Rowe	3:57
11.	"Fuck That"	Ritchie	3:42
12.	"Fuck U Blind"	Ritchie	3:57
13.	"Born 2 B a Hick"	Ritchie	1:42
14.	"My Oedipus Complex" (feat. Twisted Brown Trucker)	Ritchie	8:19

Tracklisting for clean version

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro"		1:07
2.	"American Bad A**"		4:32
3.	"Prodigal Son"		6:41
4.	"Paid"		4:45
5.	"Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp"		7:14
6.	"Dark & Gray"		4:56
7.	"3 Sheets to the Wind / What's My Name?"		3:59
8.	"Abortion"		4:29
9.	"I Wanna Go Back"		5:29
10.	"Ya' Keep On"		3:53
11.	"F**k That"		3:42
12.	"F**k You Blind"		1:41
13.	"My Oedipus Complex"		8:19

Success On Radio

"American Bad Ass" was the only released single from the album. It would peak at No. 20 on mainstream rock charts and No. 33 on modern rock charts. It would chart at No. 25 in the U.K., No. 26 in Germany, and No. 81 in Denmark.

Partially due to that single's radio success, the album itself managed a peak of No. 2 on the U.S. album chart, his highest-charting album until 2007's Rock N Roll Jesus, which topped the chart.

Musicians

• Jimmy Bones - Keyboards
• Joe C. - Raps
• Stefanie Eulinberg - Drums
• Shirley Hayden - Background vocals
• Jason Krause - Electric guitar
• Misty Love - Background vocals
• Kenny Olson - Guitar
• Uncle Kracker - Turntables, background vocals
• Michael Bradford - Bass guitar
• Kid Rock - Guitar, bass, keyboard, organ, vocals, drums

Notes

• The album's single, "American Bad Ass," uses the instrumental structure of Metallica's "Sad But True" throughout the entire song.
• "American Bad Ass" was later parodied by the rock band Tuff as "American Hair Band".
• WWE Superstar The Undertaker used "American Bad Ass" as his entrance theme in 2000 for his biker gimmick.
• The version of "3 Sheets to the Wind (What's My Name?)" on this album is a shorter remix of the original.
• On the clean version of this album, the song "Fuck That" is left on the CD. However, "F*ck You Blind" is taken off.
• The track "Ya Keep On" features a diss to fellow detroit rap act Insane Clown Posse in the line "Hey ho don't call me Joe, Cuz the Joe's i know can't even flow" Both ICP members real names are Joe
• "Fuck U Blind" features completely different lyrics than the original version.
• The Japanese Import contains a live version of 3 Sheets To The Wind from 3/21/99 Rochester,NY
• "Abortion" was listed as the 49th greatest conservative rock song of all time by the National Review in 2006. It is described as "A plaintive song sung by a man who confronts his unborn child’s abortion".

Selected Samples

1. American Bad Ass- "Sad But True" by Metallica
2. Prodigal Son-"When The Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin
3. Early Mornin Stoned Pimp-"Boogie Drama" by John Lee Hooker
4. Abortion-"All Along The Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix and "Private Number" by Judy Clay and William Bell
5. Ya Keep On- "Express" by B.T.Express
6. Born 2 B A Hick-"Get Out Of Denver" by Bob Seger
7. My Oedipus Complex-"Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin