COMA

[GnRrOcKeR578]

Hello, i hope i'm allowed to post this message in this forum. But because it is a gnr song i guess its ok. Well i have to do a class assignment for my humanties class. People are going to bring in lyrics and the actual song and were going to study the lyrics. I chose to do Coma by GNR. Now can anyone tell me any information about the song? Besides that its about Axl's Past. Thanks

[Izzy]

www.gnrinfo.tk


Coma

Drums / Percussion: Matt
Bass: Duff
Lead and Rhythm Guitar: Slash
Rhythm Guitar: Izzy
Vocals: Axl
Sound Effects: Bruce Foster, Johann
Bitches: Susanne Filkins, Patricia Fuenzalida, Rose Mann, Monica Zierhut-Soto, Michelle Loiselle, Diane Mitchell


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audio: N/A

Single: No
Video: No

Written by: "Coma" was written by Axl and Slash. Axl wrote the lyrics, while Slash wrote the music, probably with some influence from Axl.
Written in: "Coma" was written in or before 1990.

Performed live: "Coma" was played live at least 4 times between 1991 and 1993. It was performed live for the first time in Richfield, OH, June 4, 1991.

Addiional Information: "Coma" was originally called "Girth"

In Their Own Words:

Slash: I wrote some really cool shit when I was high. There's a song called "Coma", a long song, really heavy, and I wrote that loaded.

Duff: We have actually got this song calld "Girth"... Well, it's not going to be called "Girth" on the album, it'll get changed, but it's such a heavy song we call it "Girth" for now. It's named after this guy West [Arkeen], who writes with us sometimes. He's a real little fucker, right? but his dick, it's only about this long but it's like this wide, man! so he got the girth, right? so we call this song "girth"...'

Axl: It's like 11 minutes and 45 seconds long, with no chorus. And I think there was only like one verse that somewhat repeats itself. It's Slash's baby - it's his monster. The song used to be called Girth.

Izzy: It's fuckin' 15 minutes long. And I still don't know it, man. I have to take a special chord chart with me whenever we play it. There's like 50 chords at the end of it and I just can't follow them.

Axl: Writing "Coma" on "Use Your Illusion I" was so heavy I'd start to write and I'd just pass out. I tried to write that song for a year, and couldn't. I went to write it at the studio and passed out. I woke up two hours later and sat down and wrote the whole end of the song, like, just off the top of my head. It was like, don't even know what's coming out, man, but it's coming. I think one of the best things that I've ever written was maybe the end segment of the song "Coma". It just poured out. I thanked Slash for that, because I used to curse him, going, "Man, that son of a bitch has written this thing and I've got to write to it and don't know what to write." It was so hard; it made me feel like, "I don't know how to write, I should just quit." But I finally did write it, and I ended up feeling a lot better about a lot of situations that I expressed in that song.

Slash: I like "Coma" a lot. It's got a defibrillator in it - you know, the instrument that starts your heart when it's stopped. And there's some EKG beeps too. We were just fucking around, but the song is heavy, and Axl's vocals are gorgeous - I mean really amazing.

Axl: I started writing about when I OD'ed 4 years ago. And the reason I OD'ed was cos of stress - I couldn't take it. And
I just grabbed this bottle of pills, in an argument, and just gulped them down. And I ended up in the hospital. But I liked that I wasn't in the fight anymore. And I was fully concious that I was leaving. I liked that. But then I go - all of the sudden my first real thoughts were that 'ok, you havn't toured enough, the records not gonna last, it's gonna be forgotten, listen man, you have work to do. Get out of this!' And I went 'no', and I woke up, and pulled myself out of it.
But in the describing of that, some people could take it wrong, and think this means 'go put yourself into a coma'. And, so, it's really tricky, and I'm still playing with the words, to figure like, how to show some hope in there.

Duff: "Coma" is monstrous!

Slash: Mike put something on the little rhythm part between the chords. I don't know what he used. I was going for a certain kind of a sound. Since I don't use effects, I don't know anything about them, except for echoes. I told him what I wanted, and he managed to pull it out of his rack somehow.

Gilby: "Coma" [gave me most trouble] without doubt. I still don't know it. It's like this 15- or 20-minute song with no
repeats. Oddly enough, I really love playing "Coma" because it's different every time. I also like "Pretty Tied Up" and "Locomotive." I like playing the fast, hard ones.

[norway]

great song welcome 2 d board

Thats from his interview with loader and stuff?

[Mr.Intensity]

Coma by far and away is my favorite Guns N Roses song. It is a masterpiece. This song is very under-rated.

[Voodoochild]

It's funny... I was trying to play this song in my guitar today, but forgot the chords, lol. I thought: "fuckin' slash, this is too damn long to play!!".   
Still, I LOVE to listen and to play this song. 

[Axl4Prez2004]

 ? Wow, that's a great choice of songs! ?You're going to have a blast discussing that one! ?More useless trivia about Coma: ?the doctor who actually treated Axl after an o.d. has his voice on the track during the treatment sequence.

 ? Have fun! ?I think this song has alot to say about Axl and his relationship with the world...even almost 15 years after the song was written!

-Axl4Prez ?

[GnRrOcKeR578]

This is song is actually very important to me in a way. I was totally stressing things and i listened to it and wow i just kinda disappeared into my own little world like Axl did. BTW I SAW VR YESTERDAY! SLASH,DUFF, AND MATT OWNED. WEILAND ROCKS.

[Vicious Wishes]

Without a doubt, one of my all time favorite GnR tracks. It's basically two songs in one(imo). The first part deals with going down into the coma, the second, fighting for life. Love it, love it, love it.

[Ignatius]

Izzy's comments about the song are hillaroius 

Could you imagine the guy while playing the song live saying something like "Slash stop right there, what's next a G or C"?

[Drew]

www.gnrinfo.tk


Coma

Drums / Percussion: Matt
Bass: Duff
Lead and Rhythm Guitar: Slash
Rhythm Guitar: Izzy
Vocals: Axl
Sound Effects: Bruce Foster, Johann
Bitches: Susanne Filkins, Patricia Fuenzalida, Rose Mann, Monica Zierhut-Soto, Michelle Loiselle, Diane Mitchell


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audio: N/A

Single: No
Video: No

Written by: "Coma" was written by Axl and Slash. Axl wrote the lyrics, while Slash wrote the music, probably with some influence from Axl.
Written in: "Coma" was written in or before 1990.

Performed live: "Coma" was played live at least 4 times between 1991 and 1993. It was performed live for the first time in Richfield, OH, June 4, 1991.

Addiional Information: "Coma" was originally called "Girth"

In Their Own Words:

Slash: I wrote some really cool shit when I was high. There's a song called "Coma", a long song, really heavy, and I wrote that loaded.

Duff: We have actually got this song calld "Girth"... Well, it's not going to be called "Girth" on the album, it'll get changed, but it's such a heavy song we call it "Girth" for now. It's named after this guy West [Arkeen], who writes with us sometimes. He's a real little fucker, right? but his dick, it's only about this long but it's like this wide, man! so he got the girth, right? so we call this song "girth"...'

Axl: It's like 11 minutes and 45 seconds long, with no chorus. And I think there was only like one verse that somewhat repeats itself. It's Slash's baby - it's his monster. The song used to be called Girth.

Izzy: It's fuckin' 15 minutes long. And I still don't know it, man. I have to take a special chord chart with me whenever we play it. There's like 50 chords at the end of it and I just can't follow them.

Axl: Writing "Coma" on "Use Your Illusion I" was so heavy I'd start to write and I'd just pass out. I tried to write that song for a year, and couldn't. I went to write it at the studio and passed out. I woke up two hours later and sat down and wrote the whole end of the song, like, just off the top of my head. It was like, don't even know what's coming out, man, but it's coming. I think one of the best things that I've ever written was maybe the end segment of the song "Coma". It just poured out. I thanked Slash for that, because I used to curse him, going, "Man, that son of a bitch has written this thing and I've got to write to it and don't know what to write." It was so hard; it made me feel like, "I don't know how to write, I should just quit." But I finally did write it, and I ended up feeling a lot better about a lot of situations that I expressed in that song.

Slash: I like "Coma" a lot. It's got a defibrillator in it - you know, the instrument that starts your heart when it's stopped. And there's some EKG beeps too. We were just fucking around, but the song is heavy, and Axl's vocals are gorgeous - I mean really amazing.

Axl: I started writing about when I OD'ed 4 years ago. And the reason I OD'ed was cos of stress - I couldn't take it. And
I just grabbed this bottle of pills, in an argument, and just gulped them down. And I ended up in the hospital. But I liked that I wasn't in the fight anymore. And I was fully concious that I was leaving. I liked that. But then I go - all of the sudden my first real thoughts were that 'ok, you havn't toured enough, the records not gonna last, it's gonna be forgotten, listen man, you have work to do. Get out of this!' And I went 'no', and I woke up, and pulled myself out of it.
But in the describing of that, some people could take it wrong, and think this means 'go put yourself into a coma'. And, so, it's really tricky, and I'm still playing with the words, to figure like, how to show some hope in there.

Duff: "Coma" is monstrous!

Slash: Mike put something on the little rhythm part between the chords. I don't know what he used. I was going for a certain kind of a sound. Since I don't use effects, I don't know anything about them, except for echoes. I told him what I wanted, and he managed to pull it out of his rack somehow.

Gilby: "Coma" [gave me most trouble] without doubt. I still don't know it. It's like this 15- or 20-minute song with no
repeats. Oddly enough, I really love playing "Coma" because it's different every time. I also like "Pretty Tied Up" and "Locomotive." I like playing the fast, hard ones.

Thanks for posting Izzy. I'd never read these comments before.

[darkmonth]

while Slash wrote the music, probably with some influence from Axl.

HAHAHA!  No.

[Wooody]

while Slash wrote the music, probably with some influence from Axl.

HAHAHA!? No.

were you there ? NO.

[axl_rose_700]

while Slash wrote the music, probably with some influence from Axl.

HAHAHA!? No.

Why not? Just because Axl wasn't really a music writer didn't mean he didn't have influence in how he wanted things to sound.

[2NaFish]

slash wrote all the music for it. "It's Slash's baby - it's his monster" - Axl.

[Mikkamakka]

slash wrote all the music for it. "It's Slash's baby - it's his monster" - Axl.

Slash is a well-known liar and misled Axl. The truth is that Axl wrote the whole song.

[jaknudsen]

slash wrote all the music for it. "It's Slash's baby - it's his monster" - Axl.

Slash is a well-known liar and misled Axl. The truth is that Axl wrote the whole song.

 

Read the quote again, I think you misunderstood it. It says that AXL said the song was Slash's baby, not that SLASH did. If Axl wrote the song, he would be the liar according to your quote from 2Na.

[darkmonth]

slash wrote all the music for it. "It's Slash's baby - it's his monster" - Axl.

This was my point here.  Slash wrote it all.  I just laughed because people on this board usually have a tendancy do say "Axl helped..." or "Axl brought it out of...." or "Axl made it what it is..." etc.

They can't just allow someone else to have written one of the best peices of music GnR has ever had, without Axl's input (which with Coma, is extremely common knowledge).

[Izzy]

slash wrote all the music for it. "It's Slash's baby - it's his monster" - Axl.

This was my point here.? Slash wrote it all.? I just laughed because people on this board usually have a tendancy do say "Axl helped..." or "Axl brought it out of...." or "Axl made it what it is..." etc.

They can't just allow someone else to have written one of the best peices of music GnR has ever had, without Axl's input (which with Coma, is extremely common knowledge).

Well clearly Axl was involved, he didn't spend months writing this thing just to accept whatever Slash gave him, Coma is their combined talents, and virtually all the other songs where to......

[metallex78]

Loved reading all those quotes from the band, are there any morne about the other Illusion songs?

Coma and Estranged are my fav GN'R songs, just so deep and so fuckin heavy.
It makes me sad that we'll never hear any more Axl/Slash collaborations like that anymore.

[D]

i agree totally metallex

estranged is number 1
coma a close 2nd on my all time fav GNR songs


its so emotional and deep and really pulls me outta the funk

i listen to Oh My God first for the rage
then i listen to Coma for the anger and confusion
then i listen to Estranged for the misery and then for the hope

a great formula for when u feel like shit!!!!!!!