Track #32 - “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses (1989)

From the album G ‘N’ R Lies

Music & lyrics by Steven Adler, Saul Hudson, Duff McKagan, W. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin

Performed by:

W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, whistling

Slash – lead acoustic guitar, backing vocals

Izzy Stradlin – rhythm acoustic guitar, backing vocals

Duff McKagan – rhythm acoustic guitar, backing vocals  

US Billboard Hot 100 - #4; US Billboard Mainstream Rock - #7

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 - #71

I’ve been walking the streets at night

Just tryin’ to get it right

It’s hard to see with so many around

You know I don’t like being stuck in the crowd

And the streets don’t change but maybe the names

I ain’t got time for the game ‘cause I need you

Yea-yeah , but I need you

Oh, I need you

Oh, I need you

Ooohh this time

There’s a scene in the 1998 high school movie Can’t Hardly Wait that shows a band setting up and about to play in the ransacked living room of the graduation house party that is the central set piece of the movie.  There are beer cans everywhere, the floor is covered in cigarette butts, and the place is just a mess. The curtains are about to catch fire. It’s a typical scene if you’ve ever been to a high school party and the unfortunate parents are away for the weekend; the host is either looking to get back at them or just doesn’t care that over a hundred teenagers will spill alcohol everywhere, have sex in the upstairs bedrooms and otherwise just trash the place. The band in question in this film are seniors, classmates of the party goers, just friends looking to entertain the crowd, but are taking this responsibility very seriously. So, they set up, the singer counts off and the drummer bangs his sticks together…and they don’t play a note. It starts when the singer (played by Breckin Meyer), sees the guitar player wearing the band’s t-shirt, blue with “Loveburger” scrawled across the front, complete with umlaut over the “U”. “Those are for the fans,” the singer yells, “you’re not supposed to wear the shirt of the band you’re in!” The bass player disagrees, and asks for a shirt. The drummer (played by Donald Faison) declares, “Well if they wear the shirts, maybe I should wear the hat,” as he dons a very serious-looking cowboy hat. Singer yells again, “Take off the hat!” Drummer and singer yell at each other, drummer comes from behind the drumkit and yanks off singer’s lace tie, crowd taunts, “You guys suck!!” Hopefully you get the picture by now but watch the movie, it’s brilliant, and might be the best high school movie of the 90s. The bottom line is that the band storms off, no music is played and the guys in the band hate each other (for now), all over a t-shirt and a cowboy hat. By the end of the movie, they’re planning a “reunion” and group-hugging. I’ve seen Can’t Hardly Wait dozens of times, and there are funnier scenes but for some reason, that one has stayed with me. I’ve often thought to myself that if I was in a band with my friends who wanted to play music and be famous and make money, that it would be the best job ever and why in the world would we ever fight? What could possibly go wrong and what would we argue about? And we would certainly never yell at each other, or God forbid, break up?! But then I look at my favorite bands or bands I don’t like for that matter, and nothing could be further from the truth in the real world: bands fight, hate each other and break up all the time. Just look at the last post on Van Halen. It didn’t matter how good they were, how brilliant Eddie Van Halen was or how much money they made; it didn’t even matter how much fun it looked like they were having. At some point, they all intensely disliked one another. And would it have mattered if Eddie and Alex Van Halen ended up with a different singer, one with a meeker personality, someone they could tell what to do? Probably not, because people are who they are, and more important, they wouldn’t have made the same music, and that band would not have been the same. And that’s just one example. Somehow, these like-minded artists need to meet each other, and create groundbreaking music despite the conflicts, in-fighting and ego trips. Even John Lennon and Paul McCartney ended up not being friends after the Beatles broke up, only reconciling shortly before Lennon’s murder in 1980. Same for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: of Jagger, Richards said that the two are not friends; “…too much wear and tear for that…” he wrote in his autobiography, Life. But Lennon had to meet McCartney; Jagger had to meet Richards. It matters not whether they are best friends. If they didn’t meet, none of that iconic music would have happened. There are exceptions, but there are few. What are the chances that four random teenage boys in Dublin come together in 1976, form one of the biggest and best bands ever, and are still together, with no lineup changes? Yes, I am sure U2 have had their share of arguments over their four plus decades together, but somehow, they’ve made it work, and not cursed each other out in public. But like I said, there are very few exceptions. There’s been one band though, in my lifetime, that you might say is a miracle; a miracle in the sense that the right people came together at the exact right time, and despite all the personality conflicts and obstacles lined up against them, put together one of the greatest albums ever. I’m talking four amazing players, all capable of writing and arranging songs, and one colossally talented, but extremely troubled singer finding one another and all that confluence of energy, conflict and ability resulting in amazing music, once in a lifetime music. And what if the world was also ready for them? What if they helped fix rock and roll, and made everybody forget about the glitz and glam of what was hard rock at the time, and helped build a bridge of sorts to the grunge era? Call it what you want…on the razor’s edge or on thin ice, or whatever, these guys always seemed thisclose to either breaking up, winding up in jail, or simply imploding. But when they were on, they were the most badass rock band to come out of the 80s. Sure, eventually it all fell apart and became a mess, but not before Guns ‘N’ Roses and their debut Appetite for Destruction became a juggernaut, and their quietest song proved how great they really were.

Jeffrey Isbell first met Bill Bailey at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana in the late 1970s. Bailey, Isbell remembers, was a troublemaker. Isbell, who would eventually go by the moniker Izzy Stradlin, recalls the first time he saw Bailey in 9th grade in an actual scuffle with a teacher outside the door of his classroom. Bailey ended up running down the hall, books flying in the air, with said teacher taking off after him. When the two finally met, they found they shared musical interests, mainly Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and the emerging UK punk scene. Bailey was raised in a strict religious household, attending religious services several times a week, and grew up with restrictions on everything from books to television. He found solace in the piano and soon demonstrated the vocal talent that would make him famous. Eventually, Stradlin would pursue his rock and roll dreams after graduating high school and move to Los Angeles; he quickly landed a gig as a drummer and ended up in a band called Shire. Meanwhile, Bailey discovered he was the son of a man named William Rose, a man he had never met. He soon adopted the surname Rose and began referring to himself as W. Rose. He dropped out of high school and was arrested several times for battery and intoxication and served a few jail terms while still in Lafayette.  Rose would finally move to Los Angeles in 1982 and hook up with his old friend Izzy Stradlin. Rose’s Midwest looks and demeanor didn’t quite fit in with the emerging glam metal scene at the time, but he impressed everyone with his vocal talent and stage presence. Stradlin and Rose eventually formed A.X.L., with local guitarist Chris Weber, and then renamed themselves Hollywood Rose. Rose would legally change his name to W. Axl Rose in 1986, inspired by the name of his first band. While Rose and Stradlin were making their way to the west coast from Indiana, Steven Adler (born Michael Coletti) and Saul Hudson were already in L.A., becoming fast friends at Bancroft Junior High. Hudson, who had earned the nickname “Slash” for his boundless energy, was born in London in 1965, and moved to L.A. when he was six. Adler invited Slash over to his house to see his guitar and amp, and soon Slash was practicing twelve hours a day, and ended up in his first band, Tidus Sloan, when he was in tenth grade. In 1984, a tall, lanky blonde punk rocker from Seattle named Duff McKagan had also moved to L.A. McKagan, a bassist and guitarist, was serious about becoming a musician and making it big, so he knew he needed to find other like-minded musicians to form the right band. There were alot of bands competing for attention on the Sunset Strip in the mid 80’s, so his new band needed to be different, and most of all, committed. He answered an ad for a band called Road Crew, and met Slash and Steven Adler at famed Cantner’s Deli in L.A. While Slash later blew McKagan away with his playing, McKagan didn’t feel Slash and Adler had what it took to go the distance, and he considered other options. In 1985, McKagan was invited by now guitarist Stradlin to join a band he was forming from the ashes of Hollywood Rose, and guitarist Tracii Guns’ band, L.A. Guns; the band was to be called Guns N’ Roses. The original lineup consisted of Axl Rose on vocals, Stradlin and Tracii Guns on guitars, and Rob Gardner on drums. Once again, after a few rehearsals, McKagan’s business and musical instincts began to tell him that certain members of his new band might be unwilling to commit 100% to being the biggest band in the world, and he quickly put together a makeshift club tour that would take them up and down the west coast. Guitarist Guns and drummer Gardner promptly bowed out, and McKagan remembered the two guys from Cantner’s Deli: Slash and Adler. He called them, and the classic lineup of Guns N’ Roses was born in June of 1985. According to McKagan’s autobiography, It’s So Easy: And Other Lies, “The chemistry was immediate, thunderous, and soulful. It was amazing, and all of us recognized it instantly.” They soon went out on what became known as the “Hell Tour”; cars broke down, gear was abandoned, and the band ended up hitchhiking its way back to L.A. But the disorganized tour solidified them as a band, and they ended up writing many of the songs that would end up on future albums. Guns N’ Roses instantly began to get noticed as they became mainstays on the Hollywood club scene, playing at The Troubadour and The Roxy several times a week. In March of 1986, they signed with Geffen Records for a signing bonus of $75,000, turning down Chrysalis’ higher offer because Geffen promised the band full artistic freedom. Guns N’ Roses entered the studio to record their debut album in early 1987, and Appetite for Destruction was finally released in late July of that year. At first it was barely noticed, competing with new releases by Aerosmith, Def Leppard, and U2, and MTV refused to play their first video for “Welcome to the Jungle.” The band’s A&R rep, Tom Zutaut, was worried that the label would let the record languish, so he begged David Geffen himself to put a call into MTV to try and get the video played, even if it was just one time. In late September of 1987, MTV found a timeslot: 5AM EST, on a Sunday. According to MTV lore, the switchboard lit up with demands for more plays, and eventually “Welcome to the Jungle” was put into heavy rotation. But it would take a year, and the release of other singles, notably “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, before the album finally hit #1 on the Billboard chart, in August of 1988. By then, everyone knew who Guns N’ Roses were, and they were grabbing more headlines and attention than the bands they were opening for on the road. At the time, they were the antithesis of the L.A. hard rock scene: no makeup, no hairspray, no glitz or glam; they looked dirty as a matter of fact, and they played with a swagger that matched their attitude: they looked like they just did not give a fuck. By 1989, they were the biggest rock band in the world, with Appetite for Destruction having gone platinum several times. In spring of that year, they released a quiet little acoustic song; it was from the follow up to Appetite for Destruction that could hardly be called an album. It contained four previously released live tracks, and four new acoustic songs. Obviously, I was now a fan, and owner of Appetite for Destruction; there were few of my generation back then on Long Island who weren’t. But during that memorable summer of 1989, I heard Guns N’ Roses’ new acoustic ballad and ended up playing the cassette single on repeat for several months; I didn’t even bother with the entire album for almost a year because there was only one song on it that mattered. Their debut album might be their masterpiece, but “Patience” might be Guns N’ Roses at their best.

Remember way back to when we discussed Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”, and I told you about the visit to the stereo store? And the salesman advised me that when testing speakers to play something either with an acoustic guitar, or a female voice, and he proceeded to play “Fast Car” to test various speakers for me? So, there was more to that exchange, but I knew we would be talking about “Patience”, so I left it out, but now it’s relevant. Before he pressed play on the CD player, the salesman asked me if I played guitar, to which I regrettably, sadly replied, “No.” Sidebar: I took guitar lessons for about a year when I was eight years old, and I gave it up; WORST mistake I ever made. Anyway, he went on to say that it’s near impossible to cover up mistakes when playing an acoustic guitar, but you can often get away with errors with an electric guitar, because of the distortion and the volume. He went on to say that it’s also more difficult to fret the strings on an acoustic guitar, because they’re a thicker gauge than electric guitar strings. You really need to move your fingers deftly and have the strength (and callouses) to make the notes sound clean, which takes years of practice. Bottom line is an electric guitar is more forgiving to the ear than an acoustic guitar. This gentleman went on to say that it took real talent and confidence to play acoustically and sing at the same time. I’m not sure exactly what this had to do with selling me a stereo, but after hearing “Fast Car” coming out of those top-of-the-line speakers, I completely understood what he was saying; the clean notes of the acoustic guitar were better to listen to when figuring out what speakers to purchase. I was fascinated, and I tried to think of any music I had at home that was all acoustic. Remember, at that time we’re about a year away from Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora playing “unplugged” at the MTV Video Music Awards, and thus launching MTV’s Unplugged series into the musical consciousness of the public. You’d probably have to go back to the beginning of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s to hear any quality musicians just singing with their acoustic guitars: James Taylor, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and others, all come to mind. In the glam-soaked, Marshall-stack heavy 1980s, this music was hard to come by. So, back to Guns N’ Roses. By now, they are one of the biggest rock bands in the world, and the Appetite for Destruction cassette is basically on repeat for me (I would receive the CD that Christmas and thank God because that cassette was about to fall apart.) Much like Van Halen, I liked Guns N’ Roses instantly. While Van Halen was certainly more fun, Guns N’ Roses had a groove that had me air-drumming and shouting those R-rated lyrics whenever I heard them. Axl Rose seemed to have a different persona and voice for each song, and the double guitars with the inventive solos by Slash gave them a full, raucous sound. They were quickly dubbed the “world’s most dangerous band” and were being anointed as the next great rock and roll band, the next Rolling Stones or Aerosmith. They toured extensively, and their videos for “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, and “Paradise City” were on heavy rotation on MTV. To date, Appetite for Destruction is certified 18X platinum in the U.S, and has sold 30 million copies worldwide since its release. It’s the seventh best-selling of all time in the U.S, and the best-selling debut album ever. In late 1988, they quietly released a new album…sort of. It contained four previously released live tracks, and four new acoustic studio songs. I didn’t even know it when it came out…and then in late spring of the following year, as I was wrapping up my freshman year in college, I saw the “Patience” video. Guns N’ Roses doing an acoustic song, a ballad no less, with no drums?? As the song begins, the band is in a studio, sitting among throw pillows, and area rugs; Rose alternates between sitting and standing as he sings. Drummer Steven Adler, with nothing to do, lights incense, helps sing back up, and otherwise looks whimsically bored. No amps, no distortion, and the “world’s most dangerous band” not looking dangerous at all; Slash isn’t even wearing his trademark top hat with the belt wrapped around it, and you can actually see his eyes. But the song was amazing, and now it hit me, once again, what that stereo salesman was talking about…it all sounded so clean, and perfect, even Axl’s voice. He switches keys at the end of the song, singing in a soulful almost-baritone at first, and then in his trademark wails on the last verse. I loved it, this toned-down Guns N’ Roses, and “Patience” quickly became one of my go-to songs during that memorable summer of 1989. Later that year as I mentioned, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed stripped down versions of “Livin’ On a Prayer” and “Wanted Dead or Alive”, a performance I caught live on the VMA’s, and the Unplugged series soon followed. Every artist you could think of ended up on that show, playing acoustic versions of their songs; some with mixed results, but some were monumental performances. Of course, Nirvana in 1994; Eric Clapton in 1991, which ended up winning Album of the Year; Pearl Jam, 10,000 Maniacs, Mariah Carey, Duran Duran, and a Yo! MTV Raps show which featured LL Cool J, De La Soul and MC Lyte are just a few of the memorable shows I remember watching. I don’t want to go down the Unplugged road too much; we’ll get into the history of MTV’s show and one other band’s performance in a later post. But in terms of rock bands replacing electric guitars and amps with acoustic guitars, “Patience” set the bar for me back in 1989. To this day, I will go out of my way to find acoustic music, especially acoustic versions of rock songs. I know “Patience” is stripped down to begin with, but I think that’s what I love about it; Guns N’ Roses arranged it that way to begin with, and it really shows how talented they were at writing and arranging songs. They’ve had a checkered history to say the least, and there are some interesting personalities in that band, but you can’t argue the impact they had on music back then. Too bad that version of Guns N’ Roses didn’t go on longer. In the end they weren’t the next Rolling Stones or even Aerosmith, but we were probably lucky they ended up together in the first place.

And here is the video for “Patience”. If you’ve seen any of their other videos, especially some of their later ones which were mini-movies, it’s quite a contrast. Enjoy! 😊

Thank you again for stopping by and checking things out! Sign up for email updates to get new posts delivered to your inbox and if you’re enjoying the posts, please feel free to share the link with your friends!

Next time…is it the first rap song ever? Three guys from New Jersey sample an R&B groove and hip-hop is born, and it becomes your host’s sendoff to the ‘burbs.

P.S.

 “Patience” peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album G N’ R Lies has sold 5 million copies in the US to date. Despite the success of “Patience”, I’ve always looked at the album as a placeholder while Guns N’ Roses toured and wrote and recorded their next album…which took three years. During that time, there were riots at two shows in New York, Axl was arrested for assaulting security guards, and two fans were killed during their show at the Monsters of Rock festival in the UK in August of 1988. Then in July of 1990, drummer Steven Adler was fired during the recording sessions for the new album for excessive drug use. The final Guns N’ Roses track he would appear on was “Civil War”; he was replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. People have argued that this completely changed the sound of the band, and I agree 100%. The groove of Guns N’ Roses’ music that I mentioned above is what made them unique for that time, and Adler gave those songs a “swing”, or a “push and pull” with his drumming, rather than the hard driving, pounding drum sound often associated with hard rock and heavy metal. And that’s no disrespect to Matt Sorum, who is a great drummer; I just think they were a better band with Steven Adler. They also added keyboardist Dizzy Reed during the recording sessions and fired their manager in the spring of 1991. The band released their next album as two volumes, Use Your Illusion I & II, both released on September 17, 1991. There were thirty songs in all, over two hours of music across the two albums. I bought both immediately when they came out. There was so much anticipation for new music from Guns N’ Roses and I was way too curious not to get my hands on them right away. Plus, I had heard the first single, “You Could Be Mine” earlier that summer in the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and I thought it was a banger. So, when I bought the two CD’s I expected much of the same, and while there are some great tracks, I have to tell you, two straight hours was a lot to get through. The albums include covers of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (meh), and Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” (faithful), and there were some memorable videos, with “Don’t Cry”, and of course, “November Rain” being the standouts. “November Rain” was the most expensive video ever made at the time, with a budget of $1.5 million, and even though it’s over the top (a Jesus statue crying blood, the raining on the wedding, the funeral, Slash soloing in a field AND on top of a piano), it’s still a great song and one of the best videos ever. It’s the oldest song to achieve over 2 billion views on YouTube. To this day, my wife says “November Rain” is still one of her all-time favorite songs. To me “November Rain” is the last bit of 80s-90s rock and roll excess before the minimalism of the grunge era; Guns N’ Roses were still one of the biggest acts in the world, and they wanted you to know it with that video. I recently listened to both albums again as I was writing this, and I don’t think my feelings on them have changed. There are some great moments, but it lacks the raw swing and crunch of Appetite for Destruction. I also learned “November Rain” was originally supposed to be on Appetite for Destruction, but since they already had the power ballad “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, it was omitted. I’m sure it would have sounded different and been out of place on Appetite, so good choice, in my opinion. During the Use Your Illusion tour (which lasted over two years), Axl’s behavior became more erratic and destructive, and he became more controlling with the band and how they spent their money. He was arrested after jumping into the crowd to assault a fan who was recording the show in St Louis in 1991, and while touring with Metallica in 1992, Axl led the band offstage after a shortened set, claiming he was having throat issues. Metallica had already ended their set early after James Hetfield suffered burns on his arm, so an already restless crowd rioted, causing multiple injuries and arrests. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin left abruptly in the middle of the tour in November 1991, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke, who finished the tour. The tour ended on July 17, 1993; it was the last time drummer Sorum and guitarist Clarke played with the band, and the last time Slash would play with them until their reunion in 2016. After the Use Your Illusion albums, I literally stopped reading about and keeping track of the drama. Axl sued to retain the Guns N’ Roses name, and hired and fired members, changed management, and kept promising to deliver the next album, already titled Chinese Democracy. Slash would officially leave Guns N’ Roses in October of 1996, and Duff McKagan left in 1997, both citing the fact that there was no more structure in the band, and that they had not recorded a new song in years. That left Axl Rose as the last original member, and with a brand new lineup, Chinese Democracy finally arrived in November 2008 to generally favorable reviews, and former Guns N’ Roses members having favorable reactions. However, Steven Adler said it shouldn’t have been billed as a Guns N’ Roses album, since Axl is the only original member who appears on it. I’ve listened to the album exactly once, and I personally think it’s Axl’s record; he wanted complete control and Chinese Democracy was the result.  In 2012, Guns N’ Roses were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2016, original members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan reunited and went out on the very successful Not in This Lifetime tour. Since then, they have continued to tour, and even released new music, something they all swore would never happen again. I considered trying to get tickets when they reunited, but like Van Halen, I was unsure if they would have the same energy, so I never went…and like Van Halen, no regrets here at all. However, Guns N’ Roses continue to be one of my favorite bands from the 80s, and Appetite for Destruction is one the best albums released in my lifetime. I now own the vinyl version, remastered on two discs, and it still sounds like it did when everyone in my high school owned it and I heard it everywhere. And “Patience” is still a track I find myself adding to playlists; I still think it’s their best song.

Just like Van Halen, there are many sides to the Guns N’ Roses story, and three of the members of the classic lineup have written memoirs. I’ve read all three and highly recommend them: My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, Drug and Guns N’Roses by Steven Adler; It’s So Easy: And Other Lies by Duff McKagan; and Slash: The Autobiography of Slash by Slash. There are unauthorized bios of Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin out there which I won’t read, so we’ll just have to wait until they each publish their own memoirs to hear their sides of the story. I also highly recommend Nothin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the 80s Hard Rock Explosion by Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock. Full disclosure, I have not finished reading it yet, but it was a great resource for this piece; check it out if you’re a child of 80’s rock like me. 😊

Lastly, in 2020, Chris Cornell’s cover of “Patience” was released, three years after his death. Cornell was teaching his daughter Toni how to play the song, and he recorded it as a tribute to one of his favorite bands. It’s a wonderful version, and very faithful to the original. I’ll leave the video here…

See you next time…

JS

2/18/2024