THE GENERAL - MONSTERS - Official Discussion Thread. NO LINKS OR ASKING FOR LINKS

[drlaban]

1 hour ago, JimiRose said:

think its still about child abuse and vulnerability. the axl scream bit is obviously his comeback to his stepfather as are the choruses. The verses are a bit harder coz they could seem to be about a lover, but again i think they could be relating to child abuse and rape. 

One thing I don't get, if this song is what we knew as 'Soul Monster' Or 'Monstrocity' why change it to Monsters? Those other two are such better names for songs. Monsters is a bit lame in comparison, especially for such a heavy song

Unless there are several monsters.

[megaguns1982]

1 hour ago, D4NNY said:

And nowadays we just hope we don’t hit an area with bad signal and lose our streaming. I’d take a skip over a song outright stopping. Happens to me often while working and it truly is annoying 😂

MP3 players were awesome, no skipping or signal dropouts.  Not sure why they’ve become almost obsolete, I certainly use mine particularly whilst flying.

 

[AxlRQ93]

1 hour ago, JimiRose said:

 

They bridge is definitely about child abuse. I'm not sure why everyone thinks every song is about slash. 

The first half of the lyric is all about a child trying to impress an adult and doing what it thinks will make the parent happy without knowing it was abuse, it's a common thing in cases like this. 

The second part is like his survivors mentality and acceptance he's waited too long for justice. 'no on left who wants the truth' 'the dirty secret' 'who thought i'd be around to shed a light on you' - I know Axl bears a grudge and is a bit pyscho, but if these lyrics are about his guitarist leaving his multi million pound success story of a band then it's genuinely insulting to humanity. but they're not, so dw!

The more I did, what I did, I did for you
There's no excuses for the hell on Earth you put me through
I never cared how much I cared, when I cared for you
To make you better there was nothin' that I wouldn't do
I doubt there's anybody left that wants to know the truth
The dirty secret that you hid away inside of you
Who ever thought I'd be around to shed a light on you
Well here's the story, baby, I got nothin' else to do

 

that reads more like post break up anger, than something one would say to someone that sexually abused them. There’s also the “I would do anything for you” idea that’s in There Was A Time also.

[Jonni_D]

11 minutes ago, megaguns1982 said:

MP3 players were awesome, no skipping or signal dropouts.  Not sure why they’ve become almost obsolete, I certainly use mine particularly whilst flying.

 

Still use mine daily at work I've ve had it for best part of 20 years and still going strong!

[weaponsnflowers]

1 hour ago, JimiRose said:

 

They bridge is definitely about child abuse. I'm not sure why everyone thinks every song is about slash. 

The first half of the lyric is all about a child trying to impress an adult and doing what it thinks will make the parent happy without knowing it was abuse, it's a common thing in cases like this. 

The second part is like his survivors mentality and acceptance he's waited too long for justice. 'no on left who wants the truth' 'the dirty secret' 'who thought i'd be around to shed a light on you' - I know Axl bears a grudge and is a bit pyscho, but if these lyrics are about his guitarist leaving his multi million pound success story of a band then it's genuinely insulting to humanity. but they're not, so dw!

The more I did, what I did, I did for you
There's no excuses for the hell on Earth you put me through
I never cared how much I cared, when I cared for you
To make you better there was nothin' that I wouldn't do
I doubt there's anybody left that wants to know the truth
The dirty secret that you hid away inside of you
Who ever thought I'd be around to shed a light on you
Well here's the story, baby, I got nothin' else to do

 

Looks more like something he would say about his ex. Why would he call his abusive parent "baby"? Obviously Axl feels he was the victim and Stephanie or whoever this is about had a dirty secret. Maybe that SHE was the psycho or whatever. It's all in the past. But clearly this song reads more like a breakup song.

[Free Bird]

31 minutes ago, megaguns1982 said:

MP3 players were awesome, no skipping or signal dropouts.  Not sure why they’ve become almost obsolete, I certainly use mine particularly whilst flying.

 

I'll give you a hint  😉 

It starts with Smart and ends with phone 

[Gaanzer]

23 minutes ago, Jonni_D said:

Still use mine daily at work I've ve had it for best part of 20 years and still going strong!

Still have one in the car with tons of cool songs I "curated" almost two decades ago. Brings me back to the "good old days" instantly. 

[megaguns1982]

16 minutes ago, Gaanzer said:

Still have one in the car with tons of cool songs I "curated" almost two decades ago. Brings me back to the "good old days" instantly. 

Same, I backed up all of my cds 20 years ago, numerous downloads. All categorised.

 These days if I find something cool I just rip the audio from YouTube and add it manually to my player. It works for me.

 

[Miden34]

3 hours ago, JimiRose said:

 

They bridge is definitely about child abuse. I'm not sure why everyone thinks every song is about slash. 

The first half of the lyric is all about a child trying to impress an adult and doing what it thinks will make the parent happy without knowing it was abuse, it's a common thing in cases like this. 

The second part is like his survivors mentality and acceptance he's waited too long for justice. 'no on left who wants the truth' 'the dirty secret' 'who thought i'd be around to shed a light on you' - I know Axl bears a grudge and is a bit pyscho, but if these lyrics are about his guitarist leaving his multi million pound success story of a band then it's genuinely insulting to humanity. but they're not, so dw!

The more I did, what I did, I did for you
There's no excuses for the hell on Earth you put me through
I never cared how much I cared, when I cared for you
To make you better there was nothin' that I wouldn't do
I doubt there's anybody left that wants to know the truth
The dirty secret that you hid away inside of you
Who ever thought I'd be around to shed a light on you
Well here's the story, baby, I got nothin' else to do

 

i think its "The hell i let you put me through."

[AxlRQ93]

1 hour ago, weaponsnflowers said:

Looks more like something he would say about his ex. Why would he call his abusive parent "baby"? Obviously Axl feels he was the victim and Stephanie or whoever this is about had a dirty secret. Maybe that SHE was the psycho or whatever. It's all in the past. But clearly this song reads more like a breakup song.

and didn’t Axl say the cd material was supposed to be his side of the Seymour breakup or somethin

[Voodoochild]

2 hours ago, megaguns1982 said:

MP3 players were awesome, no skipping or signal dropouts.  Not sure why they’ve become almost obsolete, I certainly use mine particularly whilst flying.

 

I just download the tunes I want to listen offline on Apple Music or Spotify.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[megaguns1982]

2 minutes ago, Voodoochild said:

I just download the tunes I want to listen offline on Apple Music or Spotify.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

I wasn’t even aware that you can do that. Sounds handy, but what do you do when it comes to songs like monsters or the general?

[GnR Chris]

1 hour ago, Miden34 said:

i think its "The hell i let you put me through."

Nah, I hear “hell on earth.”

[Miden34]

Off topic but someone give a good, deep cut of an album with some weird shit on it. 

[Voodoochild]

1 hour ago, megaguns1982 said:

I wasn’t even aware that you can do that. Sounds handy, but what do you do when it comes to songs like monsters or the general?

Then I use mp3. You can download music player apps that function just as you expect. Or you can upload for personal use on your Spotify or Apple account

[GNRmello77]

6 hours ago, JimiRose said:

think its still about child abuse and vulnerability. the axl scream bit is obviously his comeback to his stepfather as are the choruses. The verses are a bit harder coz they could seem to be about a lover, but again i think they could be relating to child abuse and rape. 

One thing I don't get, if this song is what we knew as 'Soul Monster' Or 'Monstrocity' why change it to Monsters? Those other two are such better names for songs. Monsters is a bit lame in comparison, especially for such a heavy song

I think he chose Monsters as he felt all the wrong doings to him felt like being chased by monsters? 

[TiedHands]

Still can't believe people think "Monsters" is about child abuse lol. It's clearly about a break up. Those aren't lyrics that an adult male is singing to his father that abused him as a child. I would argue that the bridge *could be* but it would make no sense for that to be the only part of the song that is. 

[meadsoap]

6 hours ago, weaponsnflowers said:

Looks more like something he would say about his ex. Why would he call his abusive parent "baby"? Obviously Axl feels he was the victim and Stephanie or whoever this is about had a dirty secret. Maybe that SHE was the psycho or whatever. It's all in the past. But clearly this song reads more like a breakup song.

That's because he's not singing to his abusive stepfather. He's singing to his neglectful mother. Everything in this bridge are things he's said about his mother a few times before. That she put him through hell by marrying a man that abused her children, and did nothing to defend them from him. That he wanted to help his mother because he saw her as a victim too, but he doesn't feel sympathy for her any longer. There were reports that his mother didn't want to leave the house out of embarrassment after Axl did the tell-all interview exposing her neglect. It's all right there in your face if you know what to look for.

This is an excerpt of his Rolling Stone Interview from the early 90s where he talks about his mom, and the lyrics of the bridge match it on every detail:

 

"And I basically put thoughts together about how sex is power and sex leaves you powerless, and picked up a lot of distorted views that I've had to live my life with. No matter what I was trying to be, there was this other thing telling me how it was, because of what I'd seen. And then she married someone else, and this person basically tried to control me and discipline me because of the problems he'd had in his childhood. And then my mom had a daughter. And my stepfather molested her for about twenty years. And beat us. He beat me consistently. I thought these things were normal. Basically, I've been rejected by my mother since I was a baby. She picked my stepfather over me and watched me get beaten by him. She stood back most of the time. Unless it got too bad, and then she'd come and hold me afterward. She wasn't there for me... I couldn't allow myself to be a real man, because men were evil, and I didn't want to be like my father. I've always felt this urge to go back and help my mom. I felt obligated to, but I don't anymore. She fed me and put clothes on my back, but she wasn't there for me..."

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by meadsoap

[meadsoap]

And there's also to possibility that a song can be about multiple people or events at once. If you're channeling a specific emotion for a song (like in this, resentment for someone putting you through extreme emotional distress + bittersweet satisfaction when their actions are exposed), different life events can come to mind and become connected even if they're seemingly unrelated on the surface-level, because you felt the same emotion in each situation.

It's obvious at the time Axl was writing this song, he felt betrayed/wronged/abused by multiple people in his life. His parents, his past lovers, his friends,  former managers, etc. There was a lot for him to pull from, so who's to say he didn't take a little bit from all of his experiences and combine it into one song?

[Blackstar]

I have thought that Perhaps could be about his mother (the verses at least). 

Not any parts of Monsters though.

[GNR 1991]

Just purchased both the Hard Skull SHM-CD and Perhaps SHM-CD from CDJapan to get some minor discount. Not sure if I should cancel my Perhaps vinyl at this point, but I'm wondering -- where are you guys playing CDs nowadays? lol

My MacBook doesn't have a cd slot, my PS5 doesn't support, my car doesn't support, etc. Cheap CD player? Apple USB Superdrive?

[Appetitefordiscussion]

6 hours ago, megaguns1982 said:

I wasn’t even aware that you can do that. Sounds handy, but what do you do when it comes to songs like monsters or the general?

I prefer a SoundCloud membership over anything. Can download for offline PLUS you can upload your own files. Pretty sweet deal 

[jekylhyde]

59 minutes ago, GNR 1991 said:

My MacBook doesn't have a cd slot, my PS5 doesn't support, my car doesn't support, etc. Cheap CD player? Apple USB Superdrive?

I don't know what kind of external hardware options or extensions there are for Apple products, but maybe an external dvd-player for your Macbook? I use one for my desktop PC. Works like a charm. Mostly. All CD's work well, some older DVD's have some hiccups.

(I use still use CD's and DVD's pretty regularly. Makes me feel old sometimes, but they both are good formats. My favorite songs, shows and movies don't go *poof* because of some company's whim.)

[weaponsnflowers]

3 hours ago, meadsoap said:

That's because he's not singing to his abusive stepfather. He's singing to his neglectful mother. Everything in this bridge are things he's said about his mother a few times before. That she put him through hell by marrying a man that abused her children, and did nothing to defend them from him. That he wanted to help his mother because he saw her as a victim too, but he doesn't feel sympathy for her any longer. There were reports that his mother didn't want to leave the house out of embarrassment after Axl did the tell-all interview exposing her neglect. It's all right there in your face if you know what to look for.

This is an excerpt of his Rolling Stone Interview from the early 90s where he talks about his mom, and the lyrics of the bridge match it on every detail:

 

"And I basically put thoughts together about how sex is power and sex leaves you powerless, and picked up a lot of distorted views that I've had to live my life with. No matter what I was trying to be, there was this other thing telling me how it was, because of what I'd seen. And then she married someone else, and this person basically tried to control me and discipline me because of the problems he'd had in his childhood. And then my mom had a daughter. And my stepfather molested her for about twenty years. And beat us. He beat me consistently. I thought these things were normal. Basically, I've been rejected by my mother since I was a baby. She picked my stepfather over me and watched me get beaten by him. She stood back most of the time. Unless it got too bad, and then she'd come and hold me afterward. She wasn't there for me... I couldn't allow myself to be a real man, because men were evil, and I didn't want to be like my father. I've always felt this urge to go back and help my mom. I felt obligated to, but I don't anymore. She fed me and put clothes on my back, but she wasn't there for me..."

 

You make a good point, I totally forgot that. And he makes a good point, it happens in abuse cases that the love hungry mother ingores the child when something bad is going on. Sad stuff all around. 

[D4NNY]

8 hours ago, Voodoochild said:

I just download the tunes I want to listen offline on Apple Music or Spotify.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

You never play a random playlist or album when you feel like hearing something different or new?