TWAT Discussion - your opinions

[25]

Excuse me, but it's every fan's concern that albums have good sales figures ! How the fuck are we gonna get a follow up album if the first one is one big failure !? Not only the artist is not going to be as encourgaged to make another one but he may not get the right support financially! Get it now?

No, it's the concern of some fans who are more interested in the horse-race than the music. If GNR intend to make another album there will be a label waiting on their doorstep to snap them up, chart-busting sales or not, because they're guaranteed to sell some records and selling some records is how most labels survive. But if GNR really, really need millions upon millions of dollars to make a record then you aren't guaranteed another on any UMG label anyway - you can be sure that they aren't going to funnel another $13 million into GNR again any time soon, even if they have the top-selling album of the year.

[John Galt]

I like it. A lot. 

[COMAMOTIVE]

? "That keep you up and sittin' pretty...."

This song fuckin' rocks.? and for all you fags who say "oh, i love the end of the song...."? well, you're gay.? The WHOLE song rocks.?

Take it easy there fruitcake -  Great guitars for sure, but it IS possible to like certain parts of certain songs more than other parts -

[CheapJon]

actually, TWAT would probably be the best "last song" on the album of the ones we've heard yet

[CAFC Nick]

actually, TWAT would probably be the best "last song" on the album of the ones we've heard yet

Yeah totally agree with that. What a way to bring the album to an end...Good shout 

[Vitor_Icewall]

amazing

great solo, great voice!! Pretty cool!!

bye!!

[newgnr]

this has probably been said a hundred times, but they better keep the long version and that solo at the end!!

I would hate for that solo to be cut out...It's just too damn fuckin good!!!

Honestly, like i'm a slashite (whatever...) but this is in the top 8 GNR solo's ever.

[Ulises]

One of the best songs of Guns N' Roses. No doubts.

There Was A Time, Better and Madagascar are gonna be THE SONGS of Chinese Democracy...

[tHeElEcTrIcSiNtAr]

One of the best songs of Guns N' Roses. No doubts.

There Was A Time, Better and Madagascar are gonna be THE SONGS of Chinese Democracy...

I think we better wait for the album before we make a statement like that. We could be in for a surprise.

[newgnr]

^^^oh, i hope for no suprises. I EXPECT better songs than what we've heard...not saying what we've heard is bad, but i think (matter of fact, KNOW) they can and have better "top gun" songs on CD.

[Ulises]

think we better wait for the album before we make a statement like that. We could be in for a surprise.

Mmmmm.....I think you right.

I hope that when you said "surprise" you mean a "good surprise"....yeah, could be...maybe there are bigger songs than Better or Madagascar or There Was A Time. When you have in your band one of the best vocalist of all times...anything could happen...

[tHeElEcTrIcSiNtAr]

^^^oh, i hope for no suprises. I EXPECT better songs than what we've heard...not saying what we've heard is bad, but i think (matter of fact, KNOW) they can and have better "top gun" songs on CD.

Well yeah, I know I aint gonna be surprised. I believe that every song on this record is gonna be unbelievable. I cant wait to hear the songs we havent heard yet. I can only imagine what we are in store for.

[Ulises]

The problem is that with all the leaks we listened almost the half of the album already 

[tHeElEcTrIcSiNtAr]

The problem is that with all the leaks we listened almost the half of the album already 

I know.

Well if there's still gonna be 13 tracks, and assuming that Catcher wont be on the record since they havent played it live and Axl said he wasnt sure last year, we still got 7 tunes to look forward to hearing for the first time.

[KIKO2K6]

Bucket Head outro takes that music to another level.
I can touch the ANGELS foots hearding this outro.

[Ulises]

The problem is that with all the leaks we listened almost the half of the album already?

I know.

Well if there's still gonna be 13 tracks, and assuming that Catcher wont be on the record since they havent played it live and Axl said he wasnt sure last year, we still got 7 tunes to look forward to hearing for the first time.

Obviously...and the leaks are that...LEAKS....the studio version will be better for sure!

[Nytunz]

I wonder if this song wil be titled as:

There was a time
or
TWAT

in the booklet..

[novemberparadise23]

^ lol twat would be an interesting read in the booklet 

[HoldenCaulfield]

I'd think it'll be titled "T.W.A.T (There Was A Time)" on the album. I dunno, it being GNR and everything...

[justynius]

I was reading through some poems last week and came across this one that I think might be an inspiration for TWAT. Normally, I'd say its too bold to link up a song with another work unless there's been a direct mention by the writer or its obvious (like "Catcher in the Rye")..... However, Stephanie's son is named after the poet who wrote this, and GN'R covered 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' by Bob Dylan who also took his last name for this poet. It's not hard at all to imagine Axl coming across this poem.....

Was There A Time
By Dylan Thomas

Was there a time when dancers with their fiddles 
In children's circuses could stay their troubles?
There was a time they could cry over books,
But time has set its maggot on their track.
Under the arc of the sky they are unsafe.
What's never known is safest in this life.
Under the skysigns they who have no arms
Have cleanest hands, and, as the heartless ghost
Alone's unhurt, so the blind man sees best.

Seems like a real ambiguous poem, so it's not too easy to draw a connection in meaning between the song and the poem. Furthermore, a poem this short probably isn't going to show up in many academic journals, so we can't expect much outside help interpreting it. What I can take from it seems to fit though.

In TWAT, the speaker was once a slave doing whatever the girl wanted, but after the bitch cheated on him, it taught him something about the world and he learned to be a free thinker. The broken glass in the first line would be him symbolically breaking free from self-forged slavery to her. Also, you might be able to interpret "writing on the wall" as a Charles Manson reference, which could even suggest the song is taking place in the woman's house after the speaker just broke in and murdered her.

In the poem, there seems to be a similar change in view (except it is the speaker observing it in others rather than himself). The children could once forget their troubles at the circus and get engaged enough in a book to cry over it, but all of that changes with an awareness of death ("time's maggot"). I think the "arc of the sky" is the separation between the material world and heaven, so being under it (and a part of the material world) is unsafe because things are limited and inevitably die in the material world. It is "safest" to not know ("What's never known is safest in this life") because it is a lot easier to live illusioned than confront the reality of death and your own mortal limitations. "They who have no arms" are the naive who are controlled by others, so they have "cleanest hands" (free of guilt, haven't done anything wrong) because they do not act on their own, only through what they're told by others. "No arms" could also be a pun for guns, which would simply be something like "you can't shoot anyone without a gun". The blind man sees best because he can see beyond the truth and isn't distracted by the material world shown through literal eyesight.

Overall, I see these major correspondences...

• In both, a traumatic event (cheating girlfriend, awareness of death) spurs characters to move to a greater level of consciousness
• The 'naive' states in both involve some type of slavery - in the song, the speaker would do anything for the girl... in the poem, the children have no arms to do anything out of their own will
• Both speakers feel its easier not to know ("And I don't want to know it now") than to confront the dark truth