Axl is a complex character, apparently now completely burnt toast.  He was a first-class jackass when he was obsessed with himself, which was apparently most of the time, but where he cared to turn his attention outward, or inward with honesty, he could occasionally be brilliant.  In his prime he was a masterful rock lyricist and fine melodic songwriter, and was, IMHO, the best hardrock singer of all time.  Here's some of my favorites of his songs.   Guns was a great band on record, and when Axl wasn't being a self-obsessed jerk, a fine live band, too.      [A word about the background image.  It's a bit on the Village People side of things for me, but the spiral swirl and the "galactic" overlap/interaction with Slash in the background struck me as being too perfect for a site about music, astronomy, and opinion....  I found it here, but don't know its provenence beyond that.  Please don't sue.]


    Don't Damn Me


Don't damn me
When I speak a piece of mind
'Cause silence isn't golden
When I'm holding it inside
'Cause I've been where I have been
An I've seen what I have seen
I put the pen to the paper
'Cause it's all a part of me

Be it a song or casual conversation
To hold my tongue speaks
Of quiet reservations
Your words once heard
They can place you in a faction
My words may disturb
But at least there's a reaction

Sometimes I wanna kill
Sometimes I wanna die
Sometimes I wanna destroy
Sometimes I wanna cry
Sometimes I could get even
Sometimes I could give up
Sometimes I could give
Sometimes I never give a fuck

It's only for a while
I hope you understand
I never wanted this to happen
Didn't want to be a man
So I hid inside my world
I took what I could find
I cried when I was lonely
I fell down when I was blind

But don't damn me
When I speak a piece of mind
'Cause silence isn't golden
When I'm holding it inside
'Cause I've been where I have been
An I've seen what I have seen
I put the pen to the paper
'Cause it's all a part of me

How can I ever satisfy you
An how can I ever make you see
That deep inside we're all somebody
An it don't matter who you wanna be
But now I gotta smile I hope you comprehend
For this man can say it happened
'Cause this child has been condemned
So I stepped into your world
I kicked you in the mind
An I'm the only witness
To the nature of my crime

But look at what we've done
To the innocent and young
Whoa listen to who's talking
'Cause we're not the only ones
The trash collected by the eyes
And dumped into the brain
Said it tears into our conscious thoughts
Won't you tell me who's to blame

I know you don't wanna hear me cryin'
And I know you don't wanna hear me deny
That your satisfaction lies in your illusion
But your delusions are yours and not mine
We take for granted we know the whole story
We judge a book by its cover and read what we want
Between selected lines

Don't hail me
And don't idolize the ink
Or I've failed in my attentions
Can you find the missing link?
Your only validation is living your own life
Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time
So I send this song to the offended
I said what I meant and I've never pretended
As so many others do intending just to please
If I damned your point of view
Could you turn the other cheek

But don't damn me
When I speak my piece of mind
'Cause silence isn't golden
When I'm holding it inside
'Cause I've been where I have been
An I've seen what I have seen
I put the pen to the paper
'Cause it's all a part of me
Don't damn me
I said don't damn me
I said don't hail me
Don't damn me


   Garden Of Eden

It's a critical solution
And the east coast got the blues
It's a mass of confusion
Like the lies they sell to you

You got a glass jawed toothache
Of a mental disease
An they be runnin' round back
See 'em line up on their knees
'Cause the kiss ass sycophants
Throwin' penance at your feet

When they got nowhere to go
Watch 'em come in off the streets
While they're bangin' out front
Inside their slammin' to the cruch
Go on an throw me to the lions
And the whole damn screamin' bunch
'Cause the pissed-off rip-offs
'R' everywhere you turn
Tell me how a generation's
Ever s'posed to learn
This fire is burnin'
and it's out of control
It's not a problem you can stop
It's rock n' roll

I read it on a wall
It went straight to my head
It said "Dance to the tension
of a world on edge"
We got racial violence
And who'll cast the first stone
And sex is used anyway it can be
Sometimes when I look out
It's hard to see the day
It's a feelin' you can have it
It's not mine to take away

Lost in the garden of Eden
Said we're lost in the garden of Eden
And there's no one's gonna believe this
But we're lost in the garden of Eden
This fire is burnin' and it's out of control
It's not a problem you can stop
It's rock n' roll
Suck on that

Looking through this point of view
There's no way I'm gonna fit in
Don't ya tell me what my eyes see
Don't ya tell me who to believe in
I ain't superstitious
But I know when somethin's wrong
I've been draggin' my heels
With a bitch called hope
Let the undercurrent drag me along

Lost in the garden of Eden
Said we're lost in the garden of Eden
And there's no one's gonna believe this
But we're lost in the garden of Eden

Most organized religions make
A mockery of humanity
Our governments are dangerous
And out of control
The garden of Eden is just another graveyard
Said if they had someone to buy it
Said I'm sure they'd sell my soul

This fire is burnin' and it's out of control
It's not a problem you can stop
It's rock n' roll
Lost in the garden of Eden
(An we ain't talkin' about no
poison apple or some missin' rib ya hear)
Said we're lost in the garden of Eden
Said there's no one's gonna believe this
Said we're lost in the garden of Eden
This fire is burnin' and it's out of control
It's not a problem you can stop
It's rock n' roll

 

        Civil War

"What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
Now I don't like it any more than you men."

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
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

And
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

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

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

"We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer..."

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
And I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
I don't need one more war

I don't need one more war
What's so civil 'bout war anyway...

  Breakdown

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 her

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

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

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

Breakdown
Let me hear it now
Breakdown
Yeah
Breakdown
Breakdown
Let me hear it now

"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"


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