Sympathy For My Ear Lobes

I have a lot of problems with the song today. There are some songs that shouldn't be touched. I don't want to seem like I'm anti-cover songs because nothing could be further from the truth. Discovering a good cover song is like finding gold nuggets in the river when trying to build sand castles (I'm sorry what?). Take for example David Cook's cover of Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby. This song has no business being as good as it is, but Cook knocks it out the park. He totally takes the song and transforms it into his own. Same goes with Sara Bareilles's version of (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay. Here she takes a classic song and still manages to make it her own, and not offend the original. That's the trick of a good cover. Make it your own and not offend. That doesn't happen with this Guns N' Roses butchering.

First off I like Guns N' Roses, or at least the majority of their songs. I wouldn't call myself a Guns N' Roses fan but come on who doesn't have some of their stuff on their ipod? While I like a number of their songs I want to make it clear... I hate Axel Rose. I actually think I might dislike him more than Fred Durst (I know). Sorry of all of you GNR fans but the dude is a scumbag like a million times over. From screwing his drummers girlfriend in the studio and recording for a song to walking off stage in Germany (?) because he felt upstaged that James Hetfield was set on fire and had to be rushed to the hospital. There's just a laundry list of reasons why Rose sucks at being a human being.

I believe that this version of Sympathy of the Devil was released for the first time on the Greatest Hits album. It should have stayed buried in a vault. For starters it offers nothing new. There is no new spin on the song, it provides nothing jaw dropping. Yeah Slash lays down a pretty wicked solo, but when does Slash not lay down a wicked solo? Rose's mumbling at the start of the song is supposed to come off as sort of dark and sinister but instead comes off sloppy. I'm convinced that either he doesn't understand the song and only wanted to record it because the word "devil" was in the title or he was afraid of the biggness of the song (with it being a Rolling Stones song and all) and that's why he never released it. It's placement on the Greatest Hits record is clearly a marketing technique to get us the public to buy the record. Boo.

Devil is a timeless song that really doesn't give room for variety. That song will always be that song, the only thing you might be able to do it acoustically but I even think that would work here. The Stones own this song and the fact that GNR thought that they could do it justice or do it better is a testament to Rose's arrogance and douchey-ness. Stones covers would fun to listen but I don't know if I want to hear anyone else trying to take on Beast of Burden or Start Me Up. Now that I'm writing this I don't think anyone should be doing covers of the Stones. It just doesn't work. I can't think of one good cover of a Stones song outside of someone doing Wild Horses (which works really well with a woman's voice).

So lets sum it up. GNR songs good on their own. GNR covering the Stones bad. And Axel Rose sucks out loud all the time.