Coma (song)

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"Coma"

Song by Guns N' Roses
from the album Use Your Illusion I
Released	September 16, 1991
Recorded	A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Studio 56, Image Recording, Conway Studios & Metalworks Recording Studios 1990-1991
Genre	Hard Rock
Length	10:13
Label	Geffen Records
Writer(s)	Axl Rose/Slash
Producer(s)	Mike Clink
Use Your Illusion Track Listing track listing
Dead Horse (15)	"Coma" (16)

"Coma" is the longest song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It appears on the 1991 album Use Your Illusion I and lasts over 10 minutes. The song showcases every facet of what made the band popular. Included in the complex composition are intense lyrics, a haunting riff, an epic guitar solo, drum crescendos, and seamless transitions between high and low tempo sections.

Written by Axl Rose and the band's guitarist Slash, Coma is a song which has been given different meanings. Some see it as the story of someone who has lived a bad life and is now dying. There are suggestions that it is a message to ex-Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler who was fired by Rose because of his drug addiction or that it is the story of a drug overdose that Axl Rose survived.^{[citation needed]} An interesting point to note is that the doctors' voices which can be heard at various points throughout the song are the actual doctors who saved Axl: out of gratitude for their work he invited them to play a part in the recording of the song. In an interview, Axl talks about writing "Coma":

"I tried to write that song for a year, and couldn't. I went to write it at the studio and passed out. I woke up two hours later and sat down and wrote the whole end of the song, like, just off the top of my head. It was like, don't even know what's coming out, man, but it's coming. I think one of the best things that I've ever written was maybe the end segment of the song "Coma". It just poured out." [1]

The song has only been played live four times, possibly due to its length and the strain it causes the singer. A live version was featured on Japanese and vinyl copies of Guns N' Roses' live album Live Era: '87-'93.

[edit] External links

Coma lyrics and possible interpretations of the words

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