G&R songs explained, visions and taiste.

[doooodickiebr]

i love this thread!!!

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

CIVIL WAR

This first track on Use Your Illusion II was the last studio track (as far as I know) that had the complete original line up of G&R.
The intro of this song which was a line from a movie called Cool Hand Luke is an accurate statement of disagreements that may flame into a civil war. “Some men you just can’t reach……….” Paul Newman was Luke who was the man who filled that part of the line: “Which is the way he wants. Well he gets!”
Axl describes his and many views on the hypocrisy that takes place when one is fighting for some type of justice or freedom that in some way we find our selves becoming the very enemy we were fighting in the first place.
The first verses are focusing on the ever vicious circle of war. Every century that passes another war pops up for what ever political agenda either side is waging for what they seem to believe is the right way. In the end the only thing that was accomplished was many lives dying for some cause that only reappears again. Slash and Izzy strum their guitars lightly. The lead is a light melody that kind of echos Axls whistle before he begins to sing. Than with the power of Steven Adler and Duff combined lead the whole band onto the battle field of the song.
The second verse screams Axls truth behind civil wars and its glory which was fed to the public ears as complete fairy tales to captivate their support of a war. Axls look of seriousness on this topic can be seen when he sings this song live in the Use Your Illusion II DVD. He is not joking around.
Slash steps in with a Jimi Hendrix wah lead that burns into you like a biological weapon. In many ways this song can be compared to Black Sabbaths War Pigs. Ozzy is singing the truth than handing the sentiment over to Tony Iommi to riff away on the guitar lead. Axl and Slash are delivering us the same message again. It’s a message that needs to be alerted to all of us because we’re a part of it.
In the third verse Axl shares his awaken truth from his childhood memories as many had experienced when we discovered many governments are not going to war for legitimate reasons. Rather they are hiding behind a lie only to make money to increase their power as a country.
One of my favorite lines in this song is: We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
that you can't trust freedom when it's not in your hands, when everybody's fightin'
for their promised land. (I often wonder is there such a place on Earth that is a promise land?)
The band slams back in for Axl to sing: I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
Yes indeed!!!! Sometimes I think this is some type of script used for a new movie that has the same elements of another movie we well know of. But the producers and directors are so happy to keep using the same script since everyone still goes to the movies to see that same old plot. I guess if the majority of movie goers decide when they had enough of the same script and are not going to buy into it anymore maybe those producers, directors and writers will actually try to come up with some new fresh material. A new script? Yes Mr.Millionare Politician.
Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more
---Those above lines in the third soft section are bone chilling. There is no left or right wing sentiment here. These words are the truth no matter how you try to get around it. For me it’s right up there with what Jesus said to a few standing below Him when he was crucified to the cross. He said: “Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they do.” Now Axl is no messiah. But he is a singer who likes to write the truth down on paper and sing it in a song. The band as well is playing with their best performance to get the point across. The band that were once a simple rock & roll band singing about survival on the streets are now delivering a higher message to their growing fans and media. As they learn more about business and power within the music business they are also quite aware of their political emergence upon America. I’m sure many powerful people in America were intimidated by G&R. Axl was not going to be any ones puppet from acquiring fame and fortune. Like his previous heroes Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison, Axl was going to shake the very foundations that were responsible for living a life of Hypocrisy.
In the end Axl speaks “What’s so civil about war anyway?”  I find myself asking that same question from time to time. : )

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

14 Years

This classic rocker is a song written by Izzy and Axl. But the song is sung mostly by Izzy.
My guess here is this song is the sentiment that Izzy felt from day one he decided to be a rock-guitarist-songwriter and devoted his time and life to making a living from it. It?s allot of fun, work, and many disappointments on the way. The funny thing about it is the years go by and than you realize that you?ve spent (in this case) 14 years of your life dealing, wheeling, compromising for the art you?ve created and worked very hard for. Izzy must have reached his point of tolerance of the music business and dealing with the members of G & R to the point of preparing a plan to depart from it all. Obviously he played a very pick part in G & R which most fans don?t see. It?s kind of a minor slap in the face when a band like G&R has so much success that loyalty and respect go out the door to the man who started the band in the first place. I?m sure Izzy held on for as long as he could. He delivered all he could from Appetite to Use Your Illusion. He was even there for the beginning of the tour for UYI. But 14 years is a long time. Izzy was really the smart one of the group. So he gracefully made a detour and decided to leave the tour. Yes this song was written way before all these events took place. But relationships in a band and outside influences to stir members in another direction from being a team can really drive nails into a coffin of a brotherhood within a band that is the key to a successful rock & roll band. Lose the brotherhood with your mates and it is a safe bet that one or two members will start holding grudges and leave a band in the height of success. Izzy doesn?t blame all of the mishaps on his band mates. In the words: Bullshit and contemplation Gossip's their trade --- tells it all.
The songs music is well written filled with some great piano. Slash?s guitar lead gives the song a nice touch of the blues for which he is a master on. Axl sings the chorus lines and even though he has given Izzy enough grief from time to time he still agrees on some of the sentiments that are felt in a high pressured band like Guns & Roses.

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

YESTERDAY


The song was written by Arkeen, James. Billy and Rose.
The song is basic enough as far as leaving the past behind and forging ahead with the future.
You can never change things that happen in the past. What memories we have of our personal lives, past political events and lost possessions and relationships are particles of dust that take off with the wind with no return. Bye bye!!!! : )
As hard as it may seem on all of us we sometimes still have total recall of a very good memories that will some how give us a smile on the face. But as Johnny Thunders once said in a song he wrote: ?You can?t put your arms around a memory!!!?

No one wants to grow old in their mind. Our physical aging is something we can not control but thinking old can be changed. We can think forever young in our minds. It?s easy. Just laugh in the face of the MAN who is chained and bound to his power trip and he will never get to control you for his master plan. As the song states: Prayers in my pocket, and no hand in destiny.
I'll keep on movin' along
With no time to plant my feet.


The music again is well arranged and has all the right elements from the beginning to the end of Axl whispering ?Yesterday?. Slash lays down a nice simple guitar lead when the minor key change kicks in that cries for Yesterdays priceless moments. But than Axl comes in again reminding us again yesterday?s got nothing for me. Heavy drums and bass. I think the new G&R should do this song for their up and coming tour to promote CD. That will put a nail in critics and some over whelming prospects of having a re-union band of the original members of G&R. After all, that was yesterday???and Dorothy honey, there really isn?t a land called OZ!!!  : )

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

KNOCKING ON HEAVENS DOOR

Of all the Bob Dylan songs I?ve often wondered why Axl and company chose this cover to remake.
Perhaps the fame that had struck Guns & Roses at that time overwhelmed Axl and company and the song echoed their sentiment. (Mama take this badge from me, I can?t use it any more). Axl might have not appreciated all the pressure of being the front man and central figure of what became of Guns & Roses in such a short period of time. Fame does have its drawbacks.
Overall the song was and is still today an excellent version compared to the many groups who have covered this song in the past. Slash and Izzy did a great job on the guitars. Duff and Matt added some real rock punch to the song and delivers it gives a hard edge to the song. The Use your illusion live dvd version is a great arrangement as well. Letting go of the song with audience participation was a great idea to get an entire audience to shout the main title of the song. Breaking out of the rock beat into a reggae strut was an unusual twist to the song. Slash?s lead solo on both versions is the original staple for this song. Nothing put pure melody leads that are silky clean and dirty mean. I?m sure Bob Dylan was impressed with the Guns & Roses version of his song.

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Get in the Ring

Most of you are already aware of the sentiment behind this little gem of a song written by Axl Rose; Duff McKagen and Slash. (I certainly agree with them when it comes to music critics who gave the band negative reviews towards the bands actions on stage.) The first time I heard this song I was raising my fist in the air and praising G&R to have the balls to write and record a song like this.
Personally I?d like to play this song at the White House in D.C. in regards to the current bullshit the US is undergoing. Of course it wouldn?t be directed at the current administration. But at the ones you are pulling the strings above our so called devoted representatives of democracy.
The music that is played really has a wild-fury of sound that projects the lyrics right in your face and makes no mistakes as far as what the band is trying to get across. It?s not enough that the guys in the band are trying to perform their music and make money for so many people who have their hands in the G&R cookie jar they also have to put up with rock critics who are so burnt out in their brains it would take a whole battalion of bleach-blonde hair silicone babes to bring them back to life.
Some rock critics in the music business have a sense of integrity and do write great reviews. Some do write bad reviews but some how still maintain some grace. But for the ones that don?t have any moral values and no more intelligence of a lab rat can obviously be annoying to any artist. Axl makes that point clear in challenging them to get in the ring and say what you?ve got to say to his face. Hey in Rocky III Mr. T shot off his mouth to Rocky and Rocky at first didn?t think much of it and got knocked out and lost his title. But Rocky than wised up for another fight and put Mr. T in his place and than some. Yes critics can say if you can?t take criticism than you may be in the wrong business. Hey Mr. Critic we can take some criticism from you but be careful what you write about an artist and their fans. If you cross the line you are going to get a fistful in your face because you yourself subscribed to winning that prize all on your own. And remember: And to all those who oppose??.Ha Ha??.well?

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Here we go you Gunners & Rosers!!!!! Two songs: Shot Gun Blues & Breakdown.   

SHOT GUN BLUES


I hate to say this but this song was never one of my favorites. When you compare it with the rest of the songs on Use Your Illusion II it (for me) doesn?t measure up to the quality of all the other selections.
My guess here is comparing a bad day with a villain who use to live in the old west were disputes about anything were solved by the ?O.K. Coral? attitude. But I can meet the sentiment half-way here as far as if ?I was a bounty hunter? and I was hired to bring down a bad man who is a murderer ; rapist; bank robber or a man who has no regard for being a good person and only quest in life is to turn everything in his path into dust because he or she are just so rotten to the core that communicating with them no longer is an option thus a shot gun is the tune that is going to solve the problem and we can be relieved that we don?t have to feel blue about that evil person who is a big joke. I?m sure there is another sentiment for this song but I am clueless.


Break Down

Now this song is on my ?A? list. The first time I heard Break Down hit me really fast with Axl whistling against a western piano. (Axl must have a thing for the old west because there are a few songs within the body of work for both Use Illusion I & II that have that piano striking the same melodic old-west saloon style where there is a man or woman in the corner playing the piano.)

We all come in from the cold
We come down from the wire
An everybody warms themselves
to a different fire
When sometimes we get burned
You'd think sometime we'd learn
The one you love is the one
That should take you higher
You ain't got no one
You better go back out and find them

How many times have we all felt like this intro verse?
The time we try to make here on Earth all depends on some type of relationship weather it?s your friends or a lover. Heck if you take away all this and just go to work and come home and isolate yourself on the weekends to yourself you know as well as I know that is not life!!!
Yet finding the right friends that are not going to screw you to the ground or use you other than being a true brother or sister is hardly a healthy friendship. The same goes with your boyfriend or girlfriend who is trying to have a decent relationship without fighting all the time. Axl says: ?The one you love is the one that should take you higher. And if that one special lover or friends are not working out than ?You better go back out and find them!!!?

In comes the whole band adding the right elements to launch that first intro verse into action.
Music to my ears!!!
Axl comes in with the second verse:


Just like children hidin' in a closet
Can't tell what's goin' on outside
Sometimes we're so far off the beaten track
We'll get taken for a ride
By a parlor trick or some words of wit
A hidden hand up a sleeve
To think the one you love
could hurt you now
Is a little hard to believe
But everybody darlin' sometimes
Bites the hand that feeds

Yes!!!! Now you?ve got a friend and/or lover and you want to let your guard down so you can be lifted up into happy land and you feel almost like a child which is what life should be about?
Than you get taken by a left turn by an issue handed to you as if the Devil himself doesn?t want anyone to feel happy in life. Bang!!!! Now you?re on the edge of a breakdown because of ridiculous suspicions and the trust that you thought you had with your partner is out the door!!!!

When I look around
Everybody always brings me down
Well is it them or me
Well I just can't see
But there ain't no peace to found
But if someone really cared
Well they'd take the time to spare
A moment to try and understand
Another one's despair
Remember in this game we call life
That no one said it's fair

Yeah life certainly isn?t fair at all. But I guess if you are lucky enough to find the right friends that share almost half of what point of view you are based upon than that is certainly better than having so-called- friends who really don?t give a damn about you. And relationships with the one love you want to be with are no different. It?s a give and take balance that we are trying to achieve without tipping the beam to far on one side of the see-saw. When you reach that level there is no doubt that a big bang is going to hit you hard on your ass and all hell breaks loose.


Breakdown
Let me hear it now
Breakdown
let me hear it now
Yeah
Breakdown
Let me hear it now
Breakdown
let me hear it now
Get down with yo' bad self
Alright


I've come to know the cold
I think of it as home
When there ain't enough of me to go around
I'd rather be left alone
But if I call you out of habit I'm out of love and
I gotta have it
Would you give it to me if I fit you needs
Like when we both knew we had it
But now the damage's done
And we're back out on the run
Fun how ev'rything was roses
When we held on to the guns
Just because you're winnin'
Don't mean you're the lucky ones

That last verse is bare to the bones. I?ve found myself doing the same thing as far closing the doors on a social life because at certain times in your life you may not like what is going on in the social circles. It can sometimes be so contrived and phony that you?d rather stay home on the weekends and be a semi-recluse until you are ready to get back in the game. It is refreshing to get back into the scene and you are wiser now than the same people you left behind. What?s even funnier is what you thought of those people who seemed to appear to be the lucky ones are really the ones that should take a real cold hard look at themselves because they?ve been skating on the thin ice and are about to have their own self-constructed breakdown. But in the end after the long time out we get back out there to find a life that is suitable to what we are about and not what other so called leaders of the pack are about. To coin a phrase: Be true to thy self and you will find your place in society.

Towards the end on this gem of a song Axl likes to sometimes take quotes from movies to get his point across. It?s a technique that many artists use to give a song more potency in the words that describe an artist?s sentiment so that the listener understands what the song is about and has no misconceptions of what the song is about.

"There goes the challenger being chased
By the blue blue meanies on wheels
The vicious traffic squad cars are after
our lone driver
The last American hero
The-the electric sintar
The demi-god,
The super driver of the golden west!
Two nasty Nazi cars are close behind
The beautiful lone driver
The police cars are getting closer-closer...
Closer to our soul hero in his soul mobile
Yeah baby!
They about to strike, They gonna get him,
Smash! Rape!
The last beautiful free soul on this planet


But...it is written if the Evil Spirit arms the Tiger with claws
Brahman provided wings for the Dove
Thus spake the Super Guru" *
"Did you hear that"

................Yes Axl and friends!!!!! I heard that and it's as clear as a bell ringing across the land!!!!!

[seely]

^ I honestly think that last, outro bit kinda ruins the song. The rest of the song is a gem, that bit is just strange and kinda unnecessary IMO

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

"Tied Up"...........coming soon.

[seely]

I'm looking forward to it.....

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Pretty Tied Up" (subtitled "The Perils of Rock n Roll Decadence") is a song by the hard rock band, Guns N' Roses. Written by rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, it appears on the band's 1991 album Use Your Illusion II. The song opens with the sounds of a coral sitar played by Stradlin. Stradlin may have been inspired by an encounter with a dominatrix and her client, which he described in an interview:

"My Mexican friend Tony took me to meet this woman named Margot at her house. She gave us some tequila or something and she goes in the bedroom and we walk in and there's this big fat naked guy with an onion in his mouth. He's wearing women's underwear and high heels and he's tied up with duct tape against the wall. Me and Tony were like, What the fuck is going on here? Cracking up laughing. She was this dominatrix chick."

Slash has stated that the song was written one night at Izzy's house, before the band went to Chicago to write. According to him, Izzy was so high on heroin that night that he made a sitar out of a cymbal, a broomstick, and some strings, thus serving as the inspiration for the sitar heard at the beginning.   

When I heard this song for the first time it really hit me as a hard rock in your face song.
The build up of the song in the beginning is a missile that is about to launched. The one part that really is the lift off for this song is the short descending bass riff by Duff. That riff along with Matt doing his drum intro into igniting the song is where it?s at. The whole band jumping in with Slash and Izzy continuing that eastern guitar riff is gold!!!

Axl doing the job of singing what Izzy wrote about in his middle register voice is perfect for the song. ?She?s pretty tied up and you can ride her? is a staple of rock & roll life as a performer in any band. ?I can?t tell you she?s the right one.? Yeah well you never know if a one night stand with any girl is necessary going to be your soul mate for life. Or for that matter a few months.
Slash lays down some ill-wah-wah leads that fit the song very well. You can?t get any better than his lead here without killing that section with over playing or under playing.
And after the lead section once again Duff does that bass riff that brings you out of the stop section right back into the last verse.

It?s funny that in this song there?s a line that says: ?Once there was this rock & roll band rolling on the streets. Time went by and it became a joke. We just needed more and more fulfilling. Time went by and it became a joke. (It knocks me out that Izzy wrote this back than and yet Chinese Democracy is suffering right now as if it was a joke.) Izzy could have been seeing into the future. Or perhaps he was just talking about the band at that time when they were nobody before Appetite and now with the success he looked back at how they were dismissed as never making it big. But I guess G&R and Izzy had the last laugh when the tables turned.
The end jam of the song is also exploding with the band jamming out the riff while Slash is melting away his blues-rock riffs all over the place. While all this is going on Axl repeats ?I can?t tell you she?s the right one??..ohhhhhhhhhhh?

Rock & roll at it?s best with that kick in your hip that makes you want to actually get up and dance with that long-legged blonde haired woman who is the mistress of rock & roll and passionate nights of???.(I?ll leave you to fill in the space!!!)   

[14 Yrs Of Silence]

It?s funny that in this song there?s a line that says: ?Once there was this rock & roll band rolling on the streets. Time went by and it became a joke. We just needed more and more fulfilling. Time went by and it became a joke. (It knocks me out that Izzy wrote this back than and yet Chinese Democracy is suffering right now as if it was a joke.) Izzy could have been seeing into the future. Or perhaps he was just talking about the band at that time when they were nobody before Appetite and now with the success he looked back at how they were dismissed as never making it big. But I guess G&R and Izzy had the last laugh when the tables turned.

I'm a big fan of this song.  Referring to the verse above, not sure if Izzy or Axl wrote this bit, but most definitely it was forseeing the future of the band at that time.  Axl in his recent posting in the boards was quoted as saying "On one hand I knew the band was over before we started touring Illusions but you have hope? but I saw it more like the Titanic sinking than moving on or surviving. And in reality I went the distance with each and every one in Guns to where they felt for whatever reasons they either couldn?t or wouldn?t give what Guns required.".  I imagine Izzy also saw this coming and he obviously opted out of being part of the band for their world tour once the albums came out.  In many minds, the band was becoming overbloated with too many hanger-ons and employees.  And as is quoted in the song, time went by and it all went up in smoke! 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

"Subtitle: Complicity"

I'm still working on Locomotive since it is one of the tracks that I do admire. Plus this track kind of sounds like you're strapped to a high-speed locomotive running down that train track about 500 miles an hour!!!!!!! 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Locomotive

?I BROUGHT ME AN ILLUSION
AN I PUT IT ON THE WALL
I LET IT FILL MY HEAD WITH DREAMS
AND I HAD TO HAVE THEM ALL?

Yup! Your life and my life can be a well constructed illusion because we love to live in a world of our own that are drawn from our imaginations. But just like having a poker face and trying to bluff your opponent into thinking you have something you really don?t will certainly put you in the loser seat of life. Sometimes an illusion has to have substance. And if you don?t lay down a full house, straight flush or four aces once in awhile and back up your illusion, you?re going to lead people to believe you are bluffing all the time. Thus your illusion will be shattered like glass hitting the ground.

Slash really goes off on bitching with his lead guitar in the sections were Axl is not singing. The heavy drums and bass of Matt and Doug is the fuel or charcoal pumping the furnace of this song while Slash and Izzy are the wheels on the train track heading through several sections of Axl blowing his aggravated descriptions of a few illusions about life, personal ambitions, love and fame.

I BROUGHT ME AN ILLUSION
AN I PUT IT ON THE WALL
I LET IT FILL MY HEAD WITH DREAMS
AND I HAD TO HAVE THEM ALL
BUT OH THE TASTE IS NEVER SO SWEET
AS WHAT YOU'D BELIEVE IT IS...
WELL I GUESS IT NEVER IS
IT'S THESE PREJUDICED ILLUSIONS
THAT PUMP THE BLOOD
TO THE HEART OF THE BIZ

Do I need to explain to all you gunners now what Axl and his new cd is doing as far as his illusion and the music biz-ness interpretation. 

BUT I FEEL AS THOUGH YOU RAPED ME
'CAUSE YOU CLIMBED INSIDE MY WORLD
AND IN MY SONGS
SO NOW I'VE CLOSED THE DOOR
TO KEEP THE COLD OUTSIDE
SEEMS SOMEHOW I'VE FOUND THE WILL TO LIVE
BUT HOW CAN I FORGET YOU
OR TRY NOT TO REJECT YOU
WHEN WE BOTH KNOW IT TAKES TIME TO FORGIVE

I?ve read or have seen a few interviews about Axl?s character from people or friends who are close to him. They admit that Axl can be a very hard man to get along with but that Axl is also one of the friendliest guys you?d ever had the privilege to meet. It comes down to the artist?s illusion which is their muse that gives them the strength to create and perform. The following line sums it up:

I'VE WORKED TOO HARD FOR MY ILLUSIONS
JUST TO THROW THEM ALL AWAY

Hey relationships are no different. Sometimes a woman expects too much from a man when we are in a head over the heels love relationship. The insanity of keeping a love affair going sometimes is enough for both a man and a woman to run off the tracks of a freaking crazy locomotive train with out of control emotions splintering a love-friendship relationship into a total cluster $%^&!@!!!!
All you can do is:

BUT MY BABY'S GOT A LOCOMOTIVE
MY BABY'S GONE OFF THE TRACK
MY BABY'S GOT A LOCOMOTIVE
GOT TA PEEL THE BITCH OFF MY BACK
I KNOW IT LOOKS LIKE I'M INSANE
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK I'M NOT TO BLAME
NO

In the dramatic arrangement of music that is reckless and in control at the same time the song comes to a partial rest:  IF LOVE IS BLIND I GUESS I'LL BUY MYSELF A CANE

LOVE'S SO STRANGE--------------------and the song comes back in with a percussion vibe jam to the many sounds of Axl reprising these words that Love?s so strange. Yes even love is an illusion that two people paint on a wall for awhile until you run out of paint and you start smashing the empty paint cans on each others heads.
Coming in and out of Axl?s chants, Slash adds some very nice-blues-wah-wah guitar licks that are slowly melting the Locomotive Train until the end of the song were all is left is a pool of hot-molting-illusions on a train track wreck for the clean up crew to come in and post: Caution, toxic left over illusions may be harmful to your health!!!! 
 

[seely]

good stuff 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Thanks to all you have indulged themselves in this thread.
So..........what is the next one.

Oh yeah.

So fine!!!

Stay tuned...........

(At the end of the live version off of the DVD----Axl & Doug: "Why-----because she's smart!!!" "You've got that right!!" 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Hang on folks. I was very busy the last four weeks. I hope to get the next song for all of you!!! 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

So Fine

You wouldn?t think that Duff can right a song like this one. Duff takes on the lead vocals for this gem of a song. It?s your basic love song for a girl that has it all. The phrase she?s so fine is a guy?s way of confirming a very attractive girl who not only is good looking but is also intelligent and charming. The whole package is special.
Axl helps out on vocals during the bridge parts screaming: ?I want to reach up and grab them for you!? When you want to give the moon and the stars to the one you love you know you?ve found that special person that knocks you out head over heels. That?s the kind of love you want to give the whole planet Earth to.
Slash comes up with a ?very fine? lead for this song. It?s melodic enough to put you in that romantic state of mind when you are gazing into your soul-mates eyes. The rest of the band does a very good job all around. They are not overplaying the song to the ground. All the drums and bass move the song in the right way. The piano is delicate and adds that sophistication under the lyrics of the song that coins the name of the song title itself. So fine???yes indeed!!

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

Estranged...........next. 

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

ESTRANGED

Well we?ve come to the cross roads of the epic G&R song.

es?trange 
tr.v. es?tranged, es?trang?ing, es?trang?es
1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate.
2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations

The most mystified part of this song now describes the social reaction and behavior of society and our uncertainty of the time we are living in. I?m willing to lay odds on the fact that many people are singing the first few lines which Axl penned:

When you're talking to yourself
and nobody's home
you can fool yourself
you came in this world alone
(Alone)

I think originally Axl wrote this song from the heartache he had experienced from a falling-in love relationship that went sour. As many of you may be aware of sometimes the broken heart opens a door in the mind that analysis ones life were your own self-esteem is crushed and fear creeps in like a spider that webs a net over its prey to the point of immobilizing yourself into an alienated state of hysteria. When this occurs your shield for sanity is removed and thinking about self-termination becomes an available choice to check out.

Video captured: In the movie-shot video we see the ambulance and police arriving at Bills home because he is at the breaking point of leaving everything behind. The police come crashing into the dark house searching for Bill. And Bill is so gone he is on a shelf lying down immobilized. (I can picture a scene that was left out of the video were one of the medics finds Bill on the top shelf and as they are lowering him down the medic mimes the words that Axl is singing and says:

So nobody ever told you baby
How it was going to be
So what'll happen to you baby
Guess we'll have to wait and see
ONE, TWO

The band plays a few measures of sympathetic music were Slash gets to play some beautiful phrases of melody that my ears have not heard since the master of melody-lead guitar David Gilmour of Pink Floyd has recorded. The sound of Slashes guitar was recorded in the right definition of tone that brings out the best possible sound from a Les Paul guitar.

Axl sings the third verse in describing the situation as if he is sitting down with a therapist telling him how he feels and what happen and what led him to feeling estranged.

Old at heart but I'm only 28
And I'm much too young
To let love break my heart
Young at heart but it's getting much too late
To find ourselves so far apart

I don't know how you're supposed
To find me lately
An what more could you ask from me
How could you say that I never needed you
When you took everything
Said you took everything from me

Video Captured:
Bringing Axl and his team mates into the picture of what he is describing also reflects each members estranged illusions of their own sanity taking some toll from the pressures of super-stardom success. The idea of inserting real live footage of the band & crew on stage and off-stage shows what every professional musician and road crew must go through to get to the next performance of their show. Another example of when any human being spreads themselves too thin by the stressful life they have to endure, you can bet that there is a sense of estrangement knocking on the back door of the health department of our mind and spirit.

Young at heart an it gets so hard to wait
When no one I know can seem to help me now
Old at heart but I mustn?t hesitate
If I'm to find my own way out

Still talking' to myself
and nobody's home
(Alone)

In the true sense of being a Gunner we are going to do everything we can do to get through the chaos.
Even the best of us sometimes are going to get dragged down to hit the pavement and feel the crushing weight of the world. But to coin a phrase ?we never say die?.

The band goes into a reprise with Slash dangling his leads on top of the bands music which is well arranged and supplies a wide open feel and space for the melody-line of that singing guitar to shine and cut right through.

So nobody ever told us baby
how it was going to be
so what'll happen to us baby
Guess we'll have to wait and see

Now after all the sections of Axls lyrical content, Slashes guitar leads, setting up the philosophical mood of what being Estranged is all about we come to a section of the song which has a spiritual-religious mood.

A Spiritual-religious mood? What the #$%^ is Bitch Slap Rappin talking about???

Some music has a formula to it that automatically sends an impulse to activate a certain ambiance. In the case of the piano section of this song we are talking about gospel music. I don?t know if Axl & or Dizzy decided to play a gospel-mood music here but the section of music that is now being lead by the piano is gospel music. Why is it called gospel music? It?s because that certain way of playing the piano had been adapted for decades in all churches. It wasn?t gospel music for the form. It was the form (or formula) that had been adapted for the gospel. That kind of music gives a sense of serenity to the mind, spirit and soul.

Video captured: As the gospel begins we see in the video a white house with everyone dressed in white. : ) Yes a place were someone must go when all else fails in coping with the illusion of life when it is shattered right before your very own eyes. It?s a place to re-focus ones mind.
As you see Bill turning a corner with a painting of Christ on the wall behind him you get the sense of healing and rejuvenation. Yes our hero on his way to recovery and maintaining his title with a new maturity and aspect on life. As he is escorted to the limo we see the first glimpse of hope of an image of a dolphin. The dolphin representing Bills new friend and beacon of leading Bill down the right path. I like the guy in the mirrored glasses who looks a lot like the actor Sam Elliott. He kind of reminds me of a father figure who is there to make sure no one messes with Bill because he has a job to finish and it?s very important he fulfills the mission.

Axl continues singing his new aspiration and hope of moving on. The lyrics are now sung against the gospel music with the rest of the band playing it light.

When I find out all the reasons
Maybe I'll find another way
Find another day
With all the changing seasons of my life
Maybe I'll get it right next time
An now that you've been broken down
Got your head out of the clouds
You're back down on the ground
And you don't talk so loud
An you don't walk so proud
Any more, and what for

Slash comes in with perhaps his best melodic lead guitar of all the G&R songs ever recorded.
A touch of an angel kind of lead that sends shivers down the spine.

Well I jumped into the river
Too many times to make it home
I'm out here on my own, an drifting all alone
If it doesn't show give it time
To read between the lines
'Cause I see the storm getting closer
And the waves they get so high
Seems everything We've ever known's here
Why must it drift away and die

Video captured:
Bill is shown here what it was like trying to swim in his nightmare. It?s not easy when one part of you wants to die and than the better part of one?s self is trying to save you. You?re stuck with me, my self and I. But the lucky ones whose time is not yet to expire have a guardian angel. The dolphin is the symbol of the rescue. The dolphin is a very intelligent mammal and can sense danger in the ocean. It?s well known that if you are going to get attacked by sharks and there are a school of dolphins near by, they will surround you and protect you from the sharks. Bill is lucky enough to have the dolphin swim to his rescue. In that sign it gives the better side of Bill to save himself from ending his own life.
The storm is a heavy one. So is Slashes lead guitar blistering from the depths of the ocean as he rises up from beneath the hurricane.

I'll never find anyone to replace you
Guess I'll have to make it thru, this time- Oh this time
Without you

I knew the storm was getting closer
And all my friends said I was high
But everything we've ever known's here
I never wanted it to die

Sometimes???..it?s best to lose your illusions so that you can be set free to live.