Music Monday #36: Guns n Roses Greatest Hits

A few more EDM albums will feature on this list before it comes to an end but for now I will pull myself back or I'll end up sliding down a hill and filling the list with EDM albums.  I could write a 52 entry list of EDM albums alone if I allowed compilations by various artists but I am not going to do that.

Moving aware from EDM, one genre of music that I have dabbled in that surprises many is Hard Rock since it departs rather aggressively from the likes of Celine Dion and Kylie Minogue who can also be found in my library.  When it comes to defining Hard Rock there was only one choice so I'm going right to the top with the greatest hits album of Guns N' Roses.  The very first track that I want to feature is actually the second on the album, 'Sweet Child O' Mine' which has one of the most iconic openings ever produced, the first 30 seconds of that song alone are a masterpiece.  The lyrics to Sweet Child O Mine are perfection, those that speak most to me are "She's got eyes of the bluest skies, As if they thought of rain, I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain, Her hair reminds me of a warm, safe place, Where as a child I'd hide, An' pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by" the exquisite use of language to depict images of beauty and grace and emotional depth here is almost unparalleled.  Sweet Child O Mine is a song for those who are world weary who want to drowned it all out and get lost in the moment, lost in the lyrics, and carried away by the music.

Likewise, 'Welcome To The Jungle' employs yet another iconic opening that has been sampled so many times, featured in so many movies and TV shows throughout pop culture, Welcome To The Jungle epitomises the realisation and the awakening that everyone comes to at some point in their life that this world is a free for all filled with people who are out for whatever they can get, it's survival of the fittest, trust no-one and pursue your pleasure because everyone else is, survive by your instincts, the lyrics "Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here everyday, You learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play, If you got a hunger for what you see, you'll take it eventually, You can have anything you want, but you better not take it from me" once again are exquisite and perfectly capture the nature of life, sooner or later you're going to have to fight to survive, and learn that the things you want you have to take, they're not going to be handed to you, and that last line harkens back to that scene in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four for me "You can have anything you want, but you better not take it from me" echoes Winston's cries in Room 101 when he was faced with his worst fear, "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" showing that people will sacrifice you ensure their own survival this spoke to the raw emotion I felt when I felt alone in this world, like I couldn't depend on anyone.

Guns N Roses lyrics tap into emotions that run deep and get very intense.  Also worthy of note is 'Paradise City' which taps into this same emotion but I won't dwell on that one, instead I'd like to give particular mention to 3 tracks that demonstrate further examples of covers that I think surpass the originals, 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' originally by Bob Dylan, 'Live And Let Die' originally by Wings, and 'Sympathy For The Devil' originally by The Rolling Stones are all perfection.  Particularly I want to mention Sympathy For The Devil which is a song that has a particular meaning for me.  I've mentioned before that during my moments where I have transformed my own beliefs and questioned religions I've taken the time to explore some unorthodox beliefs for myself.  Sympathy For The Devil does not represent Devil worship as some people seem to think at surface value, anyone who has actually listened to the lyrics know their true meaning is about recognising darkness for what it is, its intensity is a reflection of the darkness within mankind, there's only one single line in the song that reveals this and it's there in black and white "When after all, it was you and me" this captures something I have held in truth and lived my life by, that is the belief that mankind was never taught to be evil it is in our nature, if you want to get rid of evil in the world then start with yourself, but most people can't, as Pink put it with Catch-22 "You're damned if you do, You're damned if you don't, We're always doing all the things, That we say we won't" so why pretend you're innocent and above it all, instead recognise the darkness and acknowledge it, "So if you meet me, have some courtesy, Have some sympathy, and some taste, Use all your well-learned politesse, Or I'll lay your soul to waste" this is putting it pointedly, recognise the darkness and do not be arrogant and ignorant of it or you will be consumed by it out of ignorance.