Previous ||| Next
Ridiculously Long Songs I Like; Estranged
Among the kids I grew up with you either had Use Your Illusion Part 1 or you had both. I didn't know anybody who only owned Illusion 2 (and yet supposedly it was the better seller). So anybody who heard Estranged (9:23) had already heard the vastly more frequently played November Rain (8:57), both tracks parts 3 and 2 respectively of the Don't Cry trilogy that spanned both albums. An overblown hard rock power ballad that I discovered only after Illusion 1 snapped in my Walkman and I had no other GnR to listen to, these days I find I would rather listen to Estranged than November Rain.
You expect a quiet and meek start, with Axl's lyrics and whispering faking you out before pow, there's Slash and the piano chords you're going to be hearing for the next ten minutes. Even Axl drops the whiney whispering and instead wails again like the true rock crooner god that he was (is?). Military drumming and a valid use of the tremolo arm take us through several verses where we're led to understand that yes, he might *seem* to be a wild child but actually he's a fragile little wuffly bunny wabbit who seeks the love of a... well, a complete sex goddess like Stephanie Seymour if you don't mind.
If I remember my MTV days there was lots of running around on rooftops and SWAT helicopters in the video, but that was back in the days when MTV would show music videos instead of Pimp My Sister
This is a song that just doesn't give up on you, it gives you verse after verse and guitar solo after guitar solo. If you like the Roses then you're well served here and don't need to have any other helpings of Sweet Child or You Could Be Mine and it even has dolphins that were drawn into the recording studio by the high pitched whining of, no, not Slash's guitar work, Axl's voice. Either that or they got Celine Dion to lay down some backing vocals.
Y'know what, I think I'm on verse seven by now and to tell you the truth I am so utterly bored of this now that I'm going to give up on it. Let me just smash up this hotel room and perform a shameful cover of Bob Dylan before burning out every session musician in Hollywood trying to make a comeback album...
May.24.2007