Before I start - I am in this subreddit a LOT, and I know a lot of y'all fervently hate "Guns and Roses"!!! I can definitely understand why, as Lizzy has a boatload of better songs than this one. However, I'm tired of the people saying it's bad. I don't want to underestimate or be condescending to anyone's intelligence level but I have a working theory that to love this song more, you have to know where it comes from. Buckle in, because I should be doing my college coursework, but I have a hyperfixation 🚗

Crucial Context

• We're all aware that UV was made with live instrumentation and produced by Dan Auerbach. It's a stark shift from the torch style of BTD, but the lush and slow quality of the music is fully reflective of the era that Lana was trying to encapsulate. It was so different, in fact, that the album was stuck in limbo for about six weeks before it was officially released because execs didn't like what they heard. The transition from hip-hop Nancy Sinatra to a more guitar-based, reverb-drenched sound was understandably a bit jarring! A sentence from Wikipedia (sorry, but this sentence is apt): "The sound of Ultraviolence was characterized as dream pop,^([15])^([16]) psychedelic rock,^([17]) desert rock^([18]) and slowcore^([19]) with some elements of blues rock, soft rock and indie rock.^([15])^([20])^([21])^([22])^(") (That's all you need to keep in mind.)
• Some artistic names to know: we're all familiar with Nancy Sinatra. When examining BTD, we're hearing higher "execution" production and trip hop beats that make the album sound 2012 with clear '50s-'60s references. (Picture the poster for Lolita.). Then, enter the '60s-'70s - drugs, cults, counterculture movements, The Eagles and The Beach Boys are king. A thin veil of weirdness, when examining this era retrospectively, prevails. Bands were getting together, breaking up, going through rough patches, finding their sound. The Beach Boys had gone from "happy surfer group" to "weed-fueled melancholic chroniclers of the human condition" and The Eagles' "Hotel California" is a horror story.
• We have a picture, now, of how this era - and how LDR draws from it - is different from the conventions we were used to from her. The lush quality of the instruments in UV parallel's Beach Boys and Leonard Cohen producer Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" that creates an overwhelming and hypnotic effect; on UV Lana is singing about yearning, subjugation, neglect, and pain overall. Her inner world becomes her outer world, and her delivery complements what's going on musically or, at times, surrenders to it. It's uncomfortable, it's a statement, and it was attacked by some at the time for its depiction of DV. One of my favorite things about this record is that it refuses to capitulate or make itself more palatable - thus, my transition to Guns and Roses.

Guns and Roses

• It's a bonus track. Immediately, this signals that it doesn't fit the sonic narrative of UV, or even the quality of the main tracks. Before you come for me, I'm not saying Guns and Roses is the best song ever written or that it's better than her unreleased tracks.
• It's not produced by Dan Auerbach. Nowels actually had his hands in this version, which I find interesting, and can possibly explain the sonic difference. Its repetitive quality - something it gets criticized for - arguably, carries over into the title track for Honeymoon, which Nowels produced. "Honeymoon" sounds like a doped-up, fairytale-esque account of fatalistic love. Guns and Roses doesn't get this same grace.
• It's lyrically lazy, you might say. It's repetitive, you might say. News: this is the point. I'm imploring you to listen to the following, and you will see that she is following a specific musical tradition that she did not follow previously. This is why the song got singled out; it's not her greatest songwriting, but it is supposed to feel like one long stretch of highway, one dreamy trip. A lot of 60s music relies less on lyrical complexity and vividness and more on the sound + feeling. Examples:
  • Jefferson Airplane - "Comin' Back to Me" - written after a very strong joint shared by the band. It's slow, simple, and still.
  • The entirety of "Death of a Ladies' Man" by Leonard Cohen. It's the famously quiet Leonard Cohen over sometimes chaotic backing, and there's a characteristic resigned air to him. Repetition serves the point. Repetition in Guns and Roses is like recounting a fleeting encounter with a person she once knew, maybe for a short time, soaking in the details, and getting lost in the memory.
  • "Pale Blue Eyes" by the Velvet Underground. "Linger on, your pale blue eyes." Multiple times. It's not very advanced but it's arresting.
  • I could name other artists from this era that feel like they're reading a thought, or a diary entry, scribbled down, over some backing.
• Counterargument: Some say it's structurally flat. I disagree.
  • "He loved guns and roses" over and over because that's the structure of the songs of the era. Think of the girl groups; they didn't have a particularly long lexicon or even long songs. Also, thematically - the song recalls a biker of some sort with which there was a dalliance and now it's over. "He loved guns and roses." That's all she has left. She's not really present; she's living inside the memory when she sings, embodying it, with the guitar whines on and on.
  • There's a clear bridge. "I can feel it coming in the air tonight..." - this is where it hits, and is a very clever use of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. The Collins song is famous for its eeriness, its stillness.
  • The stasis-like quality of the song is its purpose!! It wants you to feel uncomfortable, stuck in this reflection, and like you're going nowhere.
• The imagery - "heavy metal," "motorcycle," "Las Vegas," "Detroit." Etc. Etc. We're not getting a fully formed story because the song feels like a distant memory of a lover. Even the way she's singing is somewhat revealing - she knows this is a brief moment of reflection. The song is narratively sparse, sonically telling.
• "You've got game, boy." I keep thinking about this. It's unconfirmed, but the wording makes me think of good ol' Charlie Manson's "Look At Your Game, Girl." We know that Lana has referenced cults before, but this odd little drop makes the song feel more lived-in in regard to the era. It makes it feel mythological, just like all the other influences in this song. The song sounds drugged-out, and these references and her rhetorical choices make it feel like a haunted artifact.
• Guns 'N' Roses itself. The woman has an unreleased song entitled "Axl Rose Husband" - we know how she feels about the leather jacket, biker aesthetic. Apply that visual imagery to this song when you listen. The opening chords - you're riding down a long, dusty highway.

TL;DR: I'm tired of seeing people complain that this song is boring and shitting on it. That's corny and played out. IMO it's a sonic outlier that drew undue attention because of LDR's foray into a sub-sub-genre I just described. Listen to some of the songs I mentioned, and you'll see what she's drawing upon. I've always loved Lana's deep appreciation for music and those that came before her, and to emulate her influences. This is one such example. Some of you would have a hard time with '60s-'70s music because it doesn't have an easily trace-able through line. Doesn't mean you have to love it, or agree that it should've been on UV, but let me know your thoughts. 🫶 I'm writing this very quickly, so I know I repeated myself - sorry about that.