One wouldn’t tend to think of W. Axl Rose as a leading force for political change or spokesperson for the disenfranchised. File that alongside “Guns N’ Roses is nothing without Slash and Izzy et al from the Appetite For Destruction days.” For proof of the latter, use your ears as opposed to your illusion as one listen to the devastatingly brilliant Chinese Democracy by those neither stuck in 1987 nor swimming in the pop culture cesspool reveals this is a masterpiece. For the former, have a chat with those wonderful people who brought you Tiananmen Square (original story from the New Zealand Herald):
A newspaper published by China’s ruling Communist Party is blasting the latest Guns N’ Roses album as a “venomous attack” on the Chinese nation.
Delayed since recording began in 1994, Chinese Democracy hit stores in the U.S. on Sunday, although it is unlikely to be sold legally in China, where censors maintain tight control over films, music and publications.
In an article headlined “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn.”
Something tells me “democracy as a pawn” is going to become quite the buzzphrase.
Oh, and those subversive lyrics?
It don’t really matter
Gonna find out for yourself
No it don’t really matter
Gonna leave this thing to
Somebody elseIf they were missionaries
Real time visionaries
Sittin’ in a Chinese stew
To view my disinfatuationI know that I’m a classic case
Watch my disenchanted face
Blame it on the Falun Gong
They’ve seen the end
And you can’t hold on nowCause it would take a lot more
hate than you
To end the fascination
Even with an iron fist
More than you got to rule a nation
When all I’ve got is precious timeIt don’t really matter
Guess I’ll keep it to myself
Said it don’t really matter
It’s time I look around
For somebody elseCause it would take a lot more
time than you
Have got for masturbation
Even with your iron fist
More than you’ve got to rule a nation
When all we’ve got is precious time
More than you’ve got to fool a nation
When all I’ve got is precious timeIt don’t really matter
I guess you’ll find out for yourself
No it don’t really matter (matter…)
So you can hear it now
From somebody else
Keep on rockin’ in the free world, Axl.
Wow. Those are some powerful lyrics. Hope that everyone over there hears it.