God, remember GNR? I sure do: I saw them four times in concert and recall standing in line for my pre-ordered copies of Use Your Illusion 1&2. On cassette. To play on my boom box. Grown-up me is absolutely flummoxed by this, but 14-year-old me sure did have a thing for Axl, which, in hindsight was totally a harbinger of what the next two decades were going to hold in store for me but that’s neither here nor there. I remember thinking “Estranged” was, like, totally a masterpiece and I think even taped the video of it at some point? It’s a little hazy. Anyway, I happened upon the video again recently and, well, now just can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stress enough how bananas it is. Beyond Bananas: the Estranged Story.
Do people even make songs that are over nine minutes long anymore? It seems pretty clear to me now that this is a song that has given way to all the many many voices and personalities banging around in Axl Rose’s head. There’s the stadium rock part; the marching band drums; all that weird over-whispered “Allllloooone” stuff; a pretty piano interlude; and no real chorus that I can find. And yet? The video manages to be EVEN weirder! And awfully expensive looking. If you can make it through the whole thing, I recommend it as it tends to get more and more ridiculous as time goes on and might surely be up there for the most pretentious hair metal video ever (think about it: “Cherry Pie” was pretty clear in its intentions wasn’t it?) but please do note:
Axl is wearing a Charles Manson t-shirt. Always classy. But probably still better than having a shirt on later that says “Deep”. Cause….no.
It’s all vaguely stupid and early 90s-y but then ups the ante at 5:25 when a dolphin swims out of a PLANE.
The sequence that starts at 7:03 makes me laugh every single time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
But perhaps, best of all, is the the little something that happens AFTER the song is finished? Please see: 9:35
So is the explanation that there IS no explanation to this mess? Perhaps it should just be thought of as a little piece of history where you can can actually SEE a band losing their collective mind. Oh, GNR.
