You Could Be Mine

by **Soulmonster** Sat Aug 07, 2010 6:20 pm

YOU COULD BE MINE

Album:
Use Your Illusion II, 1991, track no. 12.

Written by:
Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin.

Musicians:
Drums: Matt
Bass: Duff
Lead and Rhythm Guitars: Slash
Rhythm Guitar: Izzy
Vocals: Axl
Background Vocals: Duff, Izzy

Live performances:
'You Could Be Mine' was played for the first time at Maracana Stadium, Brazil, on January 20, 1991. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {YCBMSONGS} times.

Lyrics:

I'm a cold heartbreaker
Fit ta burn and I'll rip your heart in two
An I'll leave you lyin' on the bed
I'll be out the door before ya wake
It's nuthin' new ta you
'Cause I think *we've seen that movie too

'Cause you could be mine
But you're way out of line
With your bitch slap rappin'
And your cocaine tongue
You get nuthin' done
I said you could be mine

Now holidays come and then they go
It's nothin' new today
Collect another memory
When I come home late at night
Don't ask me where I've been
Just count your stars I'm home again

'Cause you could be mine
But you're way out of line
With your bitch slap rappin'
And your cocaine tongue
You get nuthin' done
I said you could be mine

You've gone sketchin' too many times
Why don't ya give it a rest
Why
Must you find
Another reason to cry

While you're breakin' down my back n'
I been rackin' out my brain
It don't matter how we make it
'Cause it always ends the same
You can push it for more mileage
But your flaps r' wearin' thin
And I could sleep on it 'til mornin'
But this nightmare never ends
Don't forget to call my lawyers
With ridiculous demands
An you can take the pity so far
But it's more than I can stand
'Cause this couchtrip's gettin' older
Tell me how long has it been
'Cause 5 years is forever
An you haven't grown up yet

You could be mine
But you're way out of line
With your bitch slap rappin'
And your cocaine tongue
You get nuthin' done
I said you could be mine
You should be
You could be mine

Yeah!

Quotes regarding the song and its making:

Talking about writing the song:

[Recounting the first preproduction session to Appetite for Destruction]: We booked ourselves time at S.I.R. studios with Mike [Clink] at the board, the band felt free to be ourselves; at our very first preproduction session, we started writing what would later become 'You Could Be Mine.' (...) We weren't in there to write new material, but we were so comfortable that it just came to us.

Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 166-167

'You Could Be Mine' was another track that wasn't new: it was written during the Appetite sessions and I always felt that it should have been on that album, because it is more reminiscent of that time than anything else on the Use Your Illusion albums.

Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 166-167

And this next video starts out with a pretty cool drum beat, but I actually didn’t come up with the idea. Duff did. I just want to tell the public that now.

MTV, May 1993

[Before You Could Be Mine] This is a song Izzy wrote about his girlfriend, Angela.

Fargodome, Fargo, USA, November 15, 2002

You Could Be Mine stands out because it represents my entry into Guns N' Roses. I remember I had this punk rock rolling beat at the top, and by accident I put that fill on. I threw it in because I was a huge fan of Terry Bozzio and he did that fill but about 10 million times faster.

Rhythm Magazine, July 2009

That song, and Perfect Crime, we started writing when we were doing pre-production for Appetite. You Could Be Mine was one of Izzy's riffs, and as always with Izzy, he woulc play something and it would catch me ear, and I'd play along, but in my own sort of style. [...] That song didn't change at all [when they recoded it for UYI] apart from the fact that I used a tremolo bar.

Total Guitar Magazine, July 2011

Talking about the song:

We don’t do drugs - but we do drink a lot. A lot of the drug rumors about us started because we have a song called 'Cocaine Talking' on the album. But that song’s not about us or our experiences with the drug. If you listen to the lyrics, it’s about how all these nice young girls in L.A. can’t do anything before they do their coke. The song’s definitely not a pro-cocaine song. It’s about how the shit really fucks up your head.

Hit Parader, October 1988

The beginning of 'You Could Be Mine' has got feedback on it which sounds like more than one guitar, but it's just one guitar.

Guitar For The Practising Musician, April 1992

[Being asked what 'With your bitch slap rappin' and your cocaine tongue' means]: It doesn’t mean anything. And if it means something, I don’t remember it.

Popular 1, September 1993; translated from Spanish

My personal favorite Guns N' Roses song, that would be You Could Be Mine.

GN'R Social Media, June 23, 2016

Talking playing the song live:

The first time I had to play 'You Could Be Mine' [live] my mind went "What have I done, I've gotta sing this now!"

TMS with Eddie Trunk, November 2011

[Talking about his favourite songs to play live]: The [title] track to Chinese Democracy is one of my favorites, also "You Could Be Mine".

LA Weekly Blog, December 2011

I really always get a kick out of playing You Could Be Mine. It is just a bass heavy, great riff song, it's really fun to play.

Fanpass TV, May 16, 2014

My favourite song to play is You Could Be Mine, that’s so fun to play as a drummer. It’s a lot of fun. That one’s like shifting in a car. You’re peeling out then hit a low gear, then you’re cruising. You have to shift the gears. It’s balls out.

Music Radar, June 2016

You Could be Mine [is my favorite to play]. I like the more funky and grimy stuff like Brownstone, Rocket Queen and Jungle but You Could be Mine is the most fun to play.

Soundreliance.com, August 15, 2015

The most fun song I play every night is You Could Be Mine. I love Matt's parts, I love them. It sounds like you're changing gears in a car, it's amazing, you know.

One On One With Mitch Lafon, July 31, 2015

My favourite song to play is You Could Be Mine, that’s so fun to play as a drummer. It’s a lot of fun. That one’s like shifting in a car. You’re peeling out then hit a low gear, then you’re cruising. You have to shift the gears. It’s balls out.

Music Radar, June 11, 2016

by **Uli** Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:47 am

Flashback: Guns N' Roses Meet the Terminator

In video for 1991's "You Could Be Mine," The T-800 targets Guns N' Roses for termination

"You Could Be Mine" was actually written around the time that Guns N' Roses recorded Appetite for Destruction, but they didn't start playing it live until early 1991. To promote the single, they shot a video in which the Terminator shows up at a Guns N' Roses concert to target the band for termination.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/guns-n-roses-meet-terminator-arnold-schwarzenegger-in-video-w473072

by **Soulmonster** Wed May 09, 2018 6:53 pm

The first quote from Duff is interesting. Both because he hilariously claim the band doesn't do drugs, but also because he mentions what must be You Could Be Mine (=Cocaine Talking) and that it is on the album - in 1988! Maybe he meant on the forthcoming album, or maybe he was so drunk he couldn't remember they hadn't released the song already.

by **Soulmonster** Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:38 am

Paul Elliott, writing for Kerrang!, would in June 1991 say that the band had a demo of You Could Be Mine with them to England in June 1987:

"THE BAND had a rough demo of 'You Could Be Mine’ when they were holed up in Kensington on their first trip to the UK back in the Summer of ’87. Between those famous Marquee gigs, they played a song on a ghetto blaster and sang Axl’s lines in rough harmony. The band are now a little older and a lot richer, but this song is still the same hard bastard, only with cooler guitar breaks" [Kerrang! June 20, 1991].

Together with Duff's quote above, it implies it was worked on around the time when the band wrote and recorded 'Appetite' and considered to include it.

by **Soulmonster** Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:08 pm

'You Could Be' mine stands out because it represents my entry into Guns N' Roses. I remember I had this punk rock rolling beat at the top, and by accident I put that fill on. I threw it in because I was a huge fan of Terry Bozzio and he did that fill but about 10 million times faster.

Rhythm, November 2007

by **Blackstar** Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:37 am

This is a song Izzy wrote about his girlfriend, Angela.

Fargodome, Fargo, USA, November 15, 2002

by **Soulmonster** Sun Sep 11, 2022 10:33 am

I really always get a kick out of playing You Could Be Mine. It is just a bass heavy, great riff song, it's really fun to play.

Fanpass TV, May 16, 2014

by **Soulmonster** Tue Sep 20, 2022 7:39 am

New single released today, from May 16, 1991, at the Ritz. This was the third time the song was played live and from the third and last "warm-up" show before the UYI tour started: https://www.a-4-d.com/t4990-12-january-july-1991-touring-mayhem#19453

It's interesting to hear it, but I am not the biggest fans of Axl's vocals from this period.

by **Soulmonster** Tue Sep 20, 2022 7:44 am

by **Soulmonster** Fri Oct 07, 2022 7:38 am

by **Soulmonster** Fri Oct 07, 2022 7:46 am

Not a big fan of the video. I generally don't like it when they mix in footage from other songs and shows to make the performance "cooler". I would have preferred just using multiple cameras from the same performance. Makes it more truthful. I also don't like that Izzy is barely featured.

As for the performance, really sloppy and poor with mistakes all over and Axl's voice is terrible. I'd gladly take any performance after 2009 over this.

Still, cool to see.

by **Blackstar** Fri Oct 07, 2022 8:13 am

I would have preferred a video with the actual performance of You Could Be Mine as well. But I guess that will be on the blu-ray, and this video serves as some kind of a trailer for it, so I think it's a good video as such.

Soulmonster wrote:As for the performance, really sloppy and poor with mistakes all over and Axl's voice is terrible. I'd gladly take any performance after 2009 over this.

I think the band in 1991 still had some of the raw energy of the Appetite era, and spontaneity - and even the sloppiness - was part of that whole charm. I definitely prefer that over technically "flawless" performances.

by denitza Fri Oct 07, 2022 9:59 am

I like the video because it has a nostalgic perspective for me. The 90s was a great decade!

by ludurigan Fri Oct 07, 2022 1:34 pm

Soulmonster wrote:Not a big fan of the video. I generally don't like it when they mix in footage from other songs and shows to make the performance "cooler". I would have preferred just using multiple cameras from the same performance. Makes it more truthful. I also don't like that Izzy is barely featured.

My thoughts exactly

Soulmonster wrote: As for the performance, really sloppy and poor with mistakes all over and Axl's voice is terrible.

Yes it is sloppy, yes it has mistakes, yes Axl voice is not great.

Maybe other songs won't have so many mistakes. I listened (and listened and listened) to dozens of bootlegs by them, I know some of them by heart, and I have NEVER, EVER heard ANYTHING REMOTELY SIMILAR to the full blown mess that is the intro of the song.

I fully believe they did this on purpose to back up their bullshit, three-decade long narrrative that "Izzy can't play", "Izzy's amps had to be turned off during the Illusion Tour because he was playing all wrong etc". Well, guess what, four months before this show Izzy was playing (and singing) magnificently in Rio including the new songs! So how you expect me to believe that he forgot how to play 4 months later?

Anyway, I love it the way it is. THAT is (was) Guns n' Roses. For real. Like you said above, thruthful. The truth is what it is and it is always better than the fake stuff. Like the nonsensical, comical, pathetic Axl studio vocals on "Fake Era 1987-1993".

I just wish I could hear (and see) Izzy's guitar properly, I just wish I could hear the backing vocals properly all through the song (and not just for the spots that they chose to allow me to hear it) etc.

by ludurigan Fri Oct 07, 2022 1:36 pm

Blackstar wrote:I would have preferred a video with the actual performance of You Could Be Mine as well. But I guess that will be on the blu-ray, and this video serves as some kind of a trailer for it, so I think it's a good video as such.

I think the band in 1991 still had some of the raw energy of the Appetite era, and spontaneity - and even the sloppiness - was part of that whole charm. I definitely prefer that over technically "flawless" performances.

I second all of that!

by **Soulmonster** Fri Oct 07, 2022 1:37 pm

I vastly prefer Axl's voice in the 80s to these grating chainsaw sounds.

As for Izzy, I agree it is too bad he is so low in the mix but when I said it was sloppy playing I was thinking about Slash's performance. Just lots of mistakes.

But all in all, great with warts and all.

by ludurigan Fri Oct 07, 2022 2:29 pm

Soulmonster wrote:I vastly prefer Axl's voice in the 80s to these grating chainsaw sounds.

As for Izzy, I agree it is too bad he is so low in the mix but when I said it was sloppy playing I was thinking about Slash's performance. Just lots of mistakes.

But all in all, great with warts and all.

Yeah, I agree, there are a lot of 80s live recordings were Axl's voice is much better than on this recorrding.

1991 was a rough year for him voice-wise.

There are some good shows. Rio (both nights). Alpine Valley night 1 also. He seems to have a great voice on that night.

I like how he soldiered through most of it and pushed it to the very limit. He would never, ever do that again.

In 1992 he completely changed his approach and started to sing in a controlled, restrained, studied way. And that is basically like saying that Axl started to sing in a "non-Axl" way.

That, along with Izzy leaving, Tracy and Roberta circus, Goldstein enabling, Slash and Duff zombieness, and Axl growing isolation from the real world changed completely the entire dynamics of the band -- or what was left of it.

I didn't really notice Slash's mistakes there, other than small things here and there. Was there any major mistake that you noticed by Slash that annoyed you when you heard it? I am curious about it.

Maybe I am just too used to them thanks to bootleg addiction, hahahaha, I don't know. I guess he just played like that back then, very loose, and he always recovers well somehow. All the greats do.

I love that he still plays loose like that even though his playing style has changed dramatically on the last ten years or so and I don't like much of it.

by **Soulmonster** Fri Oct 07, 2022 2:41 pm

ludurigan wrote:
Soulmonster wrote:I vastly prefer Axl's voice in the 80s to these grating chainsaw sounds.

As for Izzy, I agree it is too bad he is so low in the mix but when I said it was sloppy playing I was thinking about Slash's performance. Just lots of mistakes.

But all in all, great with warts and all.

Yeah, I agree, there are a lot of 80s live recordings were Axl's voice is much better than on this recorrding.

1991 was a rough year for him voice-wise.

There are some good shows. Rio (both nights). Alpine Valley night 1 also. He seems to have a great voice on that night.

I like how he soldiered through most of it and pushed it to the very limit. He would never, ever do that again.

In 1992 he completely changed his approach and started to sing in a controlled, restrained, studied way. And that is basically like saying that Axl started to sing in a "non-Axl" way.

That, along with Izzy leaving, Tracy and Roberta circus, Goldstein enabling, Slash and Duff zombieness, and Axl growing isolation from the real world changed completely the entire dynamics of the band -- or what was left of it.

I didn't really notice Slash's mistakes there, other than small things here and there. Was there any major mistake that you noticed by Slash that annoyed you when you heard it? I am curious about it.

Maybe I am just too used to them thanks to bootleg addiction, hahahaha, I don't know. I guess he just played like that back then, very loose, and he always recovers well somehow. All the greats do.

I love that he still plays loose like that even though his playing style has changed dramatically on the last ten years or so and I don't like much of it.

No, I can't hear any big mistakes with Slash's playing (the intro is Izzy's fault, in my opinion), but there are some missed notes, bad notes and not perfect bends throughout. Just a bit sloppy. More sloppy than expected for Slash, even in this period. The main problem with the guitars is really that we don't hear so much of the interplay of guitars since Izzy is so low in the mix, but that could also be that Izzy had a bad night and didn't play well Razz

As for Axl's voice. It was really weird in 1991. One thing is how much distortion (rasp) he applies so it masks the nuances and makes it harder to hear if he's even on key, but he also seemed to have less sustain in 1991 - he barely held the notes. It is just weird. And when he needed to sing fast and with holding his breath, and aggressive, like in the middle part of this song, it just turns into a garbled mess. It must have taken a terrible toll on his vocals. I just don't get why he decided to sing like this and not like in 1988. He roped himself in a bit for '92.

by ludurigan Fri Oct 07, 2022 3:05 pm

I bet Matt is very happy with the video.

I would say he fully deserves all the air time he gets on it as his drumming -- specially the inttro -- is a major driving force of the song and feels fantastic on it.

I wonder if Steven played it too different on the Apppetite era takes that he certainly did.

Funniest part on the video is on the intro when they show an actual "real" live scene of Matt. This is right when the complete mess is going on on the intro and Matt does this "what the fuck is going one here" face...

did you guys notice that?

by ludurigan Fri Oct 07, 2022 3:35 pm

Soulmonster wrote: No, I can't hear any big mistakes with Slash's playing (the intro is Izzy's fault, in my opinion), but there are some missed notes, bad notes and not perfect bends throughout. Just a bit sloppy. More sloppy than expected for Slash, even in this period. The main problem with the guitars is really that we don't hear so much of the interplay of guitars since Izzy is so low in the mix, but that could also be that Izzy had a bad night and didn't play well

As for Axl's voice. It was really weird in 1991. One thing is how much distortion (rasp) he applies so it masks the nuances and makes it harder to hear if he's even on key, but he also seemed to have less sustain in 1991 - he barely held the notes. It is just weird. And when he needed to sing fast and with holding his breath, and aggressive, like in the middle part of this song, it just turns into a garbled mess. It must have taken a terrible toll on his vocals. I just don't get why he decided to sing like this and not like in 1988. He roped himself in a bit for '92.

Ah, ok, I see. That explains why I didn't even notice Slash's sloppiness, I guess I am too used to it and I guess I actually enjoy most of it!

Yeah I agree 100%, Izzy really fucked that intro. I guess he is not even playing the notes right. It seems like he is playing the riff one fret above (or one frete below?) the right fret... Really, really, really weird, I have never ever seen/heard him do anything like that.

Yeah, I agree, the main problem is that we don't hear the interplay, Izzy is too low. How on earth someone decides to do that and how on earth that decision is approved and ends up on the final product? That is completely beyond me.

I agree with how you describe Axl's voice. It does masks the nuances, it does make it harder to hear, and the fast parts are just like you said: a garbled mess.

I think I have a possible answer for your question of why he decided to sing like this and not like he did in 1988.

I believe that maybe in his mind he was trying to sing just like he did in 1988 -- just like he always did.

But at that point that was impossible because his throath was so damaged. So his voice came like that.

Here is an analogy to explain it better...

Picture a very fit young person, someone who runs 10km per day, who is in real good shape. Imagine that you are sitting on a bench in a park and this person runs right past you. It looks effortless. That was Axl throath in 1988.

Now you are sitting on the same bench. This same person is 20kg heavier, 20 years older, in really bad shape. That was Axl throath in 1991. Damaged.

I think Axl tried and tried to go past the physical damage and limitations of his throath and tried to go on as ih he could magically change it and move past the physical limitations out of sheer will power. There is a point in our lives when most of us deny or refuse to acccept our physical decadence until reality bites, isn't there? It must have been really dramatic for him to notive that he didn'tt have the same physical ability to sing like he wanted right at the start of the biggest tour of his life and one of the biggest tours in rock n roll history. And the fact that he pushed it even harder must have, as you said, taken a terrible toll on his vocals and made the situation (the physical damage) even worse.

It came to a point where (accorrding to an Axl 1992 MTV interview that you probably have seen) a doctor said he needed to stop singing like that otherwise bla ba bla... and that was when he changed his singing ways...

Do you think that makes any sense?

by **Soulmonster** Mon Apr 17, 2023 2:20 pm

Frank talking about drumming on You Could Be Mine:

The most fun song I play every night is You Could Be Mine. I love Matt's parts, I love them. It sounds like you're changing gears in a car, it's amazing, you know.

One On One With Mitch Lafon, July 31, 2015

by **Soulmonster** Tue May 23, 2023 10:04 am

My favourite song to play is You Could Be Mine, that’s so fun to play as a drummer. It’s a lot of fun. That one’s like shifting in a car. You’re peeling out then hit a low gear, then you’re cruising. You have to shift the gears. It’s balls out.

Music Radar, June 11, 2016

by **Soulmonster** Tue May 23, 2023 5:46 pm

My personal favorite Guns N' Roses song, that would be You Could Be Mine.

GN'R Social Media, June 23, 2016

by **Soulmonster** Wed Sep 06, 2023 7:21 am

Bring asked about what the lyrics written on Appetite for Destruction mean:

“Cocaine tongue, you get nothing done.” Well, think about it and just read it. I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. And it’s lyrics to one of the new songs on the next record. It’s a song called “You Could Be Mine”.

102.7 KIIS FM, October 1988

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