Catcher in the Rye - Song and Lyrics

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[November_Rain]

I love this song. It?s one of my favourites

[ZoulonFire]

How a body took the body
Gave that boy a gun

This one... a) it's what I hear, and b) it's a reference to the novel......   works for me!

[gabble]

How a body took the body
Gave that boy a gun

I still think it might be a nod to an old Scottish traditional named "Comin' Thro' the Rye", which was eventually given lyrics by Robert Burns.? This song was mentioned in the novel? when Holden and Phoebe discuss Holden's dream of being a "catcher in the rye" for all the innocent children.? It's based around his misinterpretation of the lyrics.

Part of the lyrics are as follows:

Gin a body meet a body
Comin' thro' the rye
Gin a body kiss a body
Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin' frae the town
Gin a body kiss a body
Need a body frown?

[littleredcorvette]

I love how the first verse has a totally different melody to the second verse and that there are two choruses with the catcher in the rye part and the na na na part. I love Axl's clean, emotional vocal. I lov the unexpected synth breakdown and May's guitar solo. The last verse that goes a minute and a half, the one quote above, is extra special, there's somthing about the melody and hurt in the vocals, especially when he sings 'you were the instrument, you were the one' and 'you took our innocence beyond.....'. I love the nod to the Beatles melodically and with the na na na part.

Having listened to the other leaks literally hundreds of time, I'd only listened to Catcher maybe 5 times until the other day, mainly because the quality is so bad it ruins it. I can only imagine the final version being really special.

Within the leaks alone there is such an incredible melting pot of styles and Axl uses so many textures of his voice it's unbelievable.

 

[plasmabeam]

Just for the record, I had to read Catcher in the Rye for my AP English class this year. I got a bit excited about it (I normally hate reading) because of the Guns song, so I actually read the whole thing instead of Sparking it. It easily turned out to be the greatest book I've ever read, and I identified with Holden Caulfield so much that it was scary. The hilarious sarcastic tone and all the cynicism... nothing beats it 

[GNRreunioneventually]

listening to it now great song

[BlowUpYourVideo]

I believe it's

How a body
Took a body

There's a relation to John Lennon and Mark Chapman as well.

[seely]

I actually think that out opf all the leaks we've had so far, it's definately the weakest one out of them all

But yeah, the final verse is pretty cool- but that's it really

[littleredcorvette]

So has anyone got a decent idea of what it's about? I don't see how it all relates to Chapman, but then Axl seems to be making a point of writing something Beatle/Lennonesque. The googled lyrics above blatantly aren't all right but even so I can't figure the song out at all.

[Olorin]

"The weakest"?!!!

 :no:This song is so beautiful it makes me want to cry. I find this song one of the most beautiful and complex song Axl Rose has ever written.
 Please dont mistake me for an ignoramus who bandys the word "complex" because Axl once referred to his new material as "complex" - the way that word was hijacked and abused on the boards when describing the leaks really upset me.

What I love and find enchanting is how ambiguous this song is.

Whats this song about?

Is it Axl speaking of his pains over the years, his struggle to overcome his own demons?
Is it about Mark Chapman and John Lennon?
Is it based on the novel?
Is it about me? Because I can relate to every word!

Analize this song and you can relate it to anyone of those things, or a combination of them and that is the true mark of a truly brilliant piece of song writing.

This is the song that really gives me hope for the music that Axl has been working on over the years.

Better, IRS, CD are great, awsome!!! For me they are the equivalent of Jungle, Paradise City, Sweet Child.

But Catcher in the Rye has the lasting appeal and potential for continual new apprieciation that songs like Coma, Breakdown, Locomotive have now.
They were not the songs that grabbed the attention like the big hits did, but like drinking fine wine, they take time to aquire the taste that enables you to really appreiciate what the maker wanted to create and for you to experience.


Anyway, time for old Gandalf to get back to his whisky

[[mango]]

 On an ordinary day
Not in an ordinary way
All at once this song I heard
No longer would it play for anybody
Or anyone
That needed comfort from somebody
Needed comfort from someone who cared
To be
Not like you
Unlike me
And then the voices went away
From me
So many set the wheels in motion
Haunts our memories
You were the instrument
You were the one
How a body took the body
Gave that boy a gun
Took our innocence
Beyond our stares
Some type of moment
There we got it
All alone with her today



http://www.gnrsource.com/songinfo/cd/catcher.htm

[Olorin]

So has anyone got a decent idea of what it's about? I don't see how it all relates to Chapman, but then Axl seems to be making a point of writing something Beatle/Lennonesque. The googled lyrics above blatantly aren't all right but even so I can't figure the song out at all.

Smoke Weed And You Will Know

You need to sink into in my friend, at the moment I am relating it to mental illness, something close to my heart- and also I believe close to Axls(Dont flame me for my enlightened assumption )

But as I suggested in my post above I believe it can be related to a number of things.

[Olorin]

Don't you just love the tone in how he sings "But every time I see them makes me wish I had a gun..."

I dont know why, its just so sad and heartfelt, and the way he says it - its just perfect.

[rockNroses]

That song is just unreal, quite hard to not get sucked into it. Maybe the most compelling GN'R song and lyrics ever along with Sweet Child O' Mine? I think the song is about mind control and things "planted" into your soul as a child?

Love the part where it goes "You decide..." there's no turnign back in the song from there, you just have to keep listening.

Great great song, one of my favourites. Hope they will play this live! The song deserves it!

[Olorin]

Took our innocence, beyond our scabs, sometimes we only think we got it all when no one else is there.[/size]

For me the final line is:

You took our innocence beyond odd stares, sometimes we only think we've got it all when noone else is there.

[littleredcorvette]

I'm really enjoying this thread.

I just realised 'You took our innocence' is surely a reference to Axl and his sister being abused (or even raped as Axl says he found out through regression therapy hence his bad back and posture) by William Rose, their real father.

Way back in those RIP and Rolling Stone interviews in 91-92 Axl was talking about working through all his complex childhood traumas and it makes sense that he'd put the thought into songs.

In the 1999 RS interview he said that sometime he'd go down to the studion in the late 90's and not know what he'd be able to do. And then he'd express 'life suck' but he'd express it in a really beautiful way. That's what he does anyway on e.g. Madagascar, TWAT etc but even moreso here in Catcher.

I'd just really like to know exactly how far Chapman, the novel and what I hear as a deliberate musical nod to Lennon/The Beatles fit into it.

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Wikipedia sez: Mark David Chapman, who assassinated John Lennon, was carrying the book when he was arrested immediately after the murder and referred to it in his statement to police shortly thereafter. John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was also reported to have been obsessed with the book.


Also, I hear the final line as

Took our innocence
Beyond our stares
Sometimes the only thing we got at all
When no one else is there

Not hugely different from what's been said, I know, but just what I hear.



You gave that boy a gun - I doubt this is relevant, but the guy who shot Dimebag Darrell of Pantera onstage used a gun given to him by his mother. Lennon and Darrell were both killed on December 8 as well.

Well, I'm done.

[gunns1]

On an ordinary day
Not in an ordinary way
All at once this song I heard
No longer would it play for anybody
Or anyone
That needed comfort from somebody
Needed comfort from someone who cared
To be
Not like you
Unlike me
And then the voices went away
From me
So many set the wheels in motion
Haunts our memories
You were the instrument
You were the one
How a body took the body
Gave that boy a gun
Took our innocence
Beyond our stares
Some type of moment
There we got it
All alone with her today



http://www.gnrsource.com/songinfo/cd/catcher.htm

I got "All alone with him today...

at the end, so mabye it is the John Lennon reference,
and it actually fits more... why would it be her? if it is about john lennon?

thats my interp

[November_Rain]

How is it that you don?t hear/understand the words/lyrics that are in your own language?