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Can someone explain Riad & The Bedouins for me?


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I love the song but I really don't think I understand what is being said. Who are Riad and the Bedouins? Who doesn't give a fuck about them and what war is he talking about? All that it makes me think of are like Arabs. Is that anything close to what he's talking about. Is it a middle eastern war type of song?
 
 
Riad N' The Bedouins
Had a plan and thought they'd win
But I don't give a fuck 'bout them
'Cause I am crazy
Oh, my salvation
All my frustrations
Caught in the lies no one had wove as well
Somewhere in time where only I could tell, oh
Riad N' The Bedouins
Say that's a war that you can't win
But I have had enough of them
And who can blame me
Sent down on desert winds
Nomads and barbarians
I won't bend my will to them
You aggravate me
Oh, my salvation
All my frustrations
Caught in the lies no one had wove as well
Somewhere in time where only I could tell, oh
Riad N' The Bedouins
Had a plan and though they'd win
Riad N' The Bedouins
Crossed the line and lost again
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It's a conspiracy song. There's a quote somewhere where Axl talks about Riad being his former brother in law who apparently is an international arms dealer who causes wars... honestly I think axl was out of his mind when he wrote that... it's a good song though IMO. Not sure why it gets so much hate. Also has one of Pitman's biggest contributions to GnR.

Edited by liers
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Here's the quote, that liers was talking about:  ''Riad is the name my one time momentary brother in law and the former brother in law of Erin Everly, went by when i knew him. Of part Lebanese descent and a former student of Pepperdine University, he claims to be an international arms dealer, billionaire with ambitions of being "king of the world". He claims to fund several medical organizations and underground Nazi organizations around the world who says his heroes are Napolean and Adolph Hitler. He claims his most prized asset is his anonymity. He also claims to be an expert in military strategy, and was the inspiration for the guns song Civil War, which was written per his request for a song how "people were stupid and he could sell them anything because men love to kill each other". He also claims to be an expert in global finance and money laundering. Living tax free in Belair last I was aware, and claiming to launder monies for wealthy individuals in several countries."

It's from the alternative CD booklet.

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3 minutes ago, StoneTempleRoses said:

Hmmm that is really strange. Is there somewhere I can see or at least read this "alternative CD booklet" How was it obtained?

It's in the Red Hand version (cover B). There was originally going to be 3 releases of CD (the artwork we got, the Red Hand, and the Grenade cover), but obviously only the bike cover came out. (Though, the Red Hand was used when they 'released' it on Rock Band). Several promo copies of the Red Hand CD were sent out apparently, because some people got their hands on it and scanned the booklet for the rest of us*. I'm too lazy to dig through the Use Your Illusion section but I'm sure there's a somewhat long thread about the alt. CD booklets. There's very few copies of the Grenade version apparently but some people have got their hands on it, too.
*There was one guy on ebay who had a whole box of promo copies, I don't know how many he sold in total though.

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My guess is Riad is that phony arms dealer and the Bedouins are Erin and Stephanie. In that case it's about the court they brought against him. 

But it also could be about Slash and GNR. The lies the told, only he knows the truth, but he doesn't care. 

Also thought how it could work for you if you were in the iraq war. It's weird that that war "ended" in 2011 and that was when the CD era ended. 

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3 hours ago, wasted said:

My guess is Riad is that phony arms dealer and the Bedouins are Erin and Stephanie. In that case it's about the court they brought against him. 

But it also could be about Slash and GNR. The lies the told, only he knows the truth, but he doesn't care. 

Also thought how it could work for you if you were in the iraq war. It's weird that that war "ended" in 2011 and that was when the CD era ended. 

Also have to remember some of these songs were pre- 9/11 up to invading Iraq and there might be some political/war themed songs in the vault. I can't imagine him not writing a '9/11 song', and he just buried it, erased it, ripped it out of the notebook, deleted it from his computer.  But there would have been a backlash if he was making his courtroom battle analogies to wartime, which would have pissed a lot of veterans off. 

 

12 minutes ago, Philipm787 said:

It is one of the worst songs ever written. Pure shite, imo.

Makes one wonder how those songs 'in the vault' really are. 

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13 hours ago, liers said:

It's a conspiracy song. There's a quote somewhere where Axl talks about Riad being his former brother in law who apparently is an international arms dealer who causes wars... honestly I think axl was out of his mind when he wrote that... it's a good song though IMO. Not sure why it gets so much hate. Also has one of Pitman's biggest contributions to GnR.

the only part i like is

Oh, my salvation
All my frustrations
Caught in the lies no one had wove as well
Somewhere in time where only I could tell

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I used to think that Slash was Rhiad and the other old members were the bedouins. Why Axl would call them that I had no idea but the lyrics being about them made sense in my head at the time. :P 

Edited by CheapJon
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2 hours ago, Bumblefeet said:

Can someone explain to me what the 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' a' aaaaaaaaaaa  aaaaaaaaaaa 

Part is about?

Yes, a massive lack of lyrical inspiration. After 10-15 years of fucking around in studios.

Edited by SoundOfAGun
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Just now, SoundOfAGun said:

Yes, a massive lack of lyrical inspiration. After 10-15 of fucking around in studios.

Riad was first played in 2001, so you're saying it was written sometime between 1986 and 1991? Interesting.

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8 hours ago, Riddick Bowe said:

Was the red hand alt. booklet released officially?

Sort of? lol. It was completely prepped for release. All known copies were in shrink wrap complete with the "Best Buy Exclusive" hype sticker. I don't believe any were ever sold at retail though.

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