Here Today... Gone To Hell!

I know I heard Axl say this back in 1999 or so, and by listening to the song and reading the lyrics, it really does not have to do with that. So did Axl rewrite the lyrics or was he misquoted, or am I thinking of another song?

It would help if you linked to the original quote.

I cannot find it, that is why I was asking. It was always in the  back of my mind that TWAT was about Axls childhood abuse. So if I am mistaken that he said that, what song did he say was.

I'm pretty sure he never put a name to the song. I think it was in the same article that was written about a John Lennon tribute song (CITR?). I don't believe there were any quotes from Axl: it might've been a Kurt Loder interview, probably around 98-2002. I'm too jazzed about my tix, and I have to go to work, but I'll look for em as soon as I can.

/Kevin

EDIT: Here it is. http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=37 Yahoo Search is MAGIC!!!

Oh so he could have been talking about there is a song on CD about my childhood abuse then there is TWAT etc etc. And since it was so long ago my mind just put those two together

I don't think Axl himself related any of the songs he was working on to his chilhood abuse.

It could be about a lot of things....past things, such as Stephanie Seymour, band breaking up.

Don't really know but that is my fav new song :peace:

http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=37

Thanks


"With 18 songs, the group's next album (they haven't released anything since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?") is a collection of songs, which in Axl's opinion are as good as "November Rain". Among them "Madagascar", included in the show on Sunday. The CD will include a tribute to John Lennon and another about child abuse"


But I dont think that was it, because I still had it assiocated with TWAT, but hopefully the song will still appear on Cd but i would like  to hear it, I am sure its a powerful song.

When I listen to TWAT, the lyrics sound like they're about a jilted ex-lover.

But who knows?

I agree that is what TWAT is not that song.

I swear I heard that TWAT was about child abuse as well, but maybe it was some other song as TWAT is clearly not about child abuse. Regardless I'm sure I once heard a title in reference to the cild abuse song. I suppose I could be wrong though as it was a long time ago.

Guys, do some research into the field of past-life regression therapy. Axl underwent this controversial method of therapy to "recover" lost memories of his childhood. Axl said in an interview with Rolling Stone that "I've done regression therapy all the way back, just about to the point of conception. I kind of know what was going on then." Not only was he able to retrieve memories of being conceived and of sexual molestation but also of a past life in which he and Stephanie Seymour were together in 15 part-lives.

There is no scientific basis for past-life regression therapy. When a person undergoes this form of treatment, they are under hypnosis and many times the psychotherapist feeds them information (this is how alien abductions are also "recovered"). When the session is done, the patient feels as if the experience is real but there is no proof that suggest that the memories recovered are actually real.

It was probably just forum speculation. Remember the title There Was A Time was in existence long before it leaked. People assumed Catcher In The Rye was about John Lennon's death and they were right. People also assumed TWAT was about child abuse because it was a long time ago. They were wrong.

I actually would think Leave Me Alone is the most likely candidate for the song about child abuse. The name was mentioned by Marco Beltrami as one of the songs he did arrangements for. The title would seem appropriate. It could also be directed at the media, or people who intrude on his reclusive lifestyle.

Hear hear.
later reserches report that a good part of those people ended up having new memories of their chilhood abuse after the therapies of the time. Hypnotic suggestions. 

Anyway the article doesn't say a song about his childhood abuse.

I always assumed "Seven" would be hte song about childhood abuse.  Who knows...

Something slightly tasteless about this thread.

Im sorry but this thread looks like an axlroseven's...

Doesnt make a lot of the sense to me. The narrator persona of the song is clearly talking about stuff that happens to an adult.

"Cocaine in the fall".

"Or the money,
Or the lawyers,
Or the stranger that she met"

or whatever it is. Just an example.

etc.

LMAO
that is so true!

what does that mean?

It's funny reading that article now - Axl said the album would be 18 tracks and would be released in June 2001. Now it's thirteen tracks and a hopeful November '06!  :no:

I'm just wondering why, if they have over 70 total songs (which is what Axl said in another interview, I believe with Kurt Loder), why they are only putting thirteen tracks on CD. I'll be happy for anything of course, but 18 does sound more realistic when you've been waiting for 14 years.  ;D

Yeah but when it was 18 the songs were much short, just  look at TWAT for example. In 1999 the song was 5 mins and now its close to 7 with the new intro. So that right would drop atleast one song. CD has an added solo in the middle and a new intro than when we first heard it at HOB and Rio III, its about a minute longer than it used to be. So that is another song dropped from the album.  I am sure they made songs longer or took out two short songs ie riyadh and silkworms to make way for a longer song so that is two for one.  So sure the track listing is going to be shorter but I am sure we will still get 80 mins of music.

Look at it this way. Would you rather have Coma and estranged on an album or perfect crime, you aint the first, garden of eden and my world

I dont think so. Axl has discussed it openly and acknowledged he has written a song about it.? It shows maturity and although a heavy subject, Im sure it is something Axl is passionate about bringing to light.

Was it perhaps This I love, or was that about Dylan?. Now Im thinking about it, it would seem unlikely it was that one although that one was mentioned around the same time Axl made his revelations public

TWAT could very well be about his childhood abuse or anyones childhood abuse, for that matter. ?We're used to interpretations of love songs, but read the lyrics from the perspective of an abused child... Broken glass and cigarettes, writing on the wall - things that an abused child may see. ?"There was a time" is a phrase of reminiscense and could be a retrospective view of his past. ?The battle of the evils could be a battle of parents...Doctors and lawerys and social workers are typical people that an abused child deals with regularly, in common times, and "thought I had it all" is just Axl saying that he didn't know any different. ?Most children being abused don't know they're being abused - because they know no differently. ?Most cases result in a child witnessing a "normal" family life and the absence of abuse in that setting drives them to reflect upon their own lives and realize that the discomfort brought forth by their abuse was previously hidden by the factor of ignorance. ?The devil hates a loser - and, in turn, hates the abusive parent.

Let your minds wander on this one. ?It's a close fit, in my book. ?:peace:

interesting, but Im pretty sure thats about a woman. What about the "I would do anything for you" part ?

Children feel a need to do anything for their parents, like it's an obligation - no matter how badly the child is being treated.

never really sounded like a "child-abuse" song to me..
and, if it was..then, I ask..why would it be called "T.W.A.T."

another word for pussy..for child-abuse..
that doesnt really add up..

Interseting point GNR Blues, but I still say it's about Seymour.  Axl thought Seymour was an unfit mother and perhaps called a social worker to "save" Dylan?  Wasn't she a big cocaine abuser also?  Lawyers had to have been involved.

And the stranger that she met?  The guy she went with after leaving Axl.

Are you saying Axl's only memories of being abused as a child are from regression therapy? Never heard that before.

Irina doesn't think so (and she's an expert? :hihi: )

-There Was A Time-
We see a describtion of a place, with broken glass, cigarettes, writings on the wall. We also see a describtion of a woman (could it be Erin? not sure), to whom he (Axl?) gave everything, protected her from everyone, and she did everything for him. But she couldn't remember where she was, she was sleeping with other people - her lawyers, her doctors, even strangers, she was unfaithful to him. It made him lose everything, but he gained one thing out of this - knowledge. Just when he thought that he'd heard it all, that there's nothing that can surprise or shock him - she hurt him. It gave him knowledge, he learned not to trust women too easily. It took a long time to overcome this, but eventually it was for the best, meant to be.
We see a mention of "cocaine in the hall", and also connotations of a court. Now, I think this has to do with Stephanie or Erin, who had sued Axl for battery. But since cocaine is mentioned, and Erin has never been on drugs (at least not willingly), and Stephanie was known for her cocaine use, there's a chance that this song (or at least the second verse) is about Stephanie. There are descriptions of discussions in a court, the woman had her way with the law, twisted it for her own sake, and these laws kept her up, and she was sitting pretty on a pedestal of fear - probably a hint that Stephanie claimed for physical abuse and that she was afraid of him. Now, after the trial is finished, she is sleeping peacefully - she is no longer afraid, and she is with another man. Now he (Axl?) finally sees that this relationship was a mistake, and happened in the bad time. But even if he had known the way this relationship would have ended, it wouldn't have changed a thing. He would still go through it. And he would still do anything for her - apparently he still loves her (?).


http://experts.about.com/q/Guns-N-Roses-471/Better-Time.htm

Your mother married your biological father when she was in high school?

Yeah. My mom's eyes actually turn black whenever it's brought up how terrible this person was. And what I found out in therapy is, my mother and him weren't getting along. And he kidnapped me, because someone wasn't watching me. I remember a needle. I remember getting a shot. And I remember being sexually abused by this man and watching something horrible happen to my mother when she came to ge me.

You can read the entire interview here: http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=56

And while we're on the topic of sexual abuse, IIRC a lot of women in the mid-90's UK started having recurring memories of a satanic cult capturing and taking advantage of them. There were several separate cases on the matter, all of them founded via hypnosis. When hypnotized, a person is actually in a very open state mentally, and the brain is piecing together material not from past events, but from current ones. Therefore dimmed memories can easily mesh up with new, false material.

So it's debatable whether the memories recovered with such methods are your own memories at all. They'll definelty appear vivid and real, because there tends to be some sort of foundation based upon actual memories, but that's sometimes all that there's to it.

Thanks for that. I didn't know that. Interesting.

The interview also says;

Rose's brother, his sister and a family friend corroborated the allegations concerning his stepfather. Rose's mother and stepfather declined comment. So who knows?

No

The song could be about more than one thing.  Very often songwriting involves masking what you're saying behind other meanings.  It's a subtle art - and hey, axl's had plenty of time to practice.

He already brought it to light, though. And boldly spoke about it in Rolling Stone that time.

Are we to expect an album where half the songs are lost loves (women) and the other half about his child abuse?

I don't know how accurate that poolside interview is, but in it he references Slash's desire to only make sad songs about drugs.. :P So there goes Axl with his songs about for not love affairs and kid abuse...................

Axl doesn't make claims of being sexual molested by his stepfather. In regards to his stepfather, Axl accuses him of molesting his sister and beating him and his silblings. Whenever Axl talks about being molested, he says it was at the hands of his biological father and those are the memories recovered through past-life regression therapy.

Yep.
It appears that his stepfather was strict and brutal to his family but wasn't sexually abusive to his stepson. Save that he molested Axl's sister, according to Axl, which axl didn't know till the previous year. Neither did she, maybe?

Well, according to the interview Axl was beaten by his stepfather on a regular basis. Physical abuse. It's not clear whether that was from regression therapy or not but i'm guessing he would remember that without regression therapy.

Nothing bad really... but the title reminds me of those made by arv's