Coma
(Slash / Rose)

Hey you caught me in a coma
And I don't think I wanna
Ever come back to this...world again
Kinda like it in a coma
'Cause no one's ever gonna
Oh, make me come back to this...
world again
Now I feel as if I'm floating away
I can't feel all the pressure
And I like it this way
But my body's callin'
My body's callin'
Won't ya come back to this...
world again
Suspended deep in a sea of black
I've got the light at the end
I've got the bones on the mast
Well I've gone sailin',
I've gone sailin'
I could leave so easily
While friends are calling back to me
I said they're
They're leaving it all up to me
When all I needed was clarity
And someone to tell me
What the fuck is going on
God damn it!

Slippin' farther an farther away
It's a miracle how long we can stay
In a world our minds created
In a world that's full of shit

Help me
Help me
Help me
Help me
Bastard

Please understand me
I'm climbin' through the wreckage
Of all my twisted dreams
But this cheap investigation just Can't stifle all my screams
And I'm waitin' at the crossroads
Waiting for you
Waiting for you
Where are you?

No one's gonna bother me anymore
No one's gonna mess with my head no more
I can't understand what all the fightin's for
But it's so nice here down off the shore
I wish you could see this
'Cause there's nothing to see
It's peaceful here and it's fine with me
Not like the world where I used to live
I never really wanted to live

Zap him again
Zap the son of a bitch again

Ya live your life like it's a coma
So won't you tell me why we'd wanna
With all the reasons you give it's
It's kinda hard to believe
But who am I to tell you that I've Seen any reason why you should stay
Maybe we'd be better off
Without you anyway
You got a one way ticket
On your last chance ride
Gotta one way ticket
To your suicide
Gotta one way ticket
An there's no way out alive
An all this crass communication
That has left you in the cold
Isn't much for consolation
When you feel so weak and old
But is home is where the heart is
Then there's stories to be told
No you don't need a doctor
No one else can heal your soul

Got your mind in submission
Got your life on the line
But nobody pulled the trigger
They just stepped aside
They be down by the water
While you watch 'em waving goodbye
They be callin' in the morning
They be hangin' on the phone
They be waiting for an answer
When you know nobody's home
And when the bell's stopped ringing
It was nobody's fault but your own
There were always ample warnings
There were always subtle signs
And you would have seen it comin'
But we gave you too much time
And when you said
That no one's listening
Why'd your best friend drop a dime
Sometimes we get so tired of waiting
For a way to spend our time
An "It's so easy" to be social
"It's so easy" to be cool
Yeah it's easy to be hungry
When you ain't got shit to lose
And I wish that I could help you
With what you hope to find
But I'm still out here waiting
Watching reruns of my life
When you reach the point of breaking
Know it's gonna take some time
To heal the broken memories
That another man would need
Just to survive

*Dr. Michael Smolens, #Sam Straton and ¤Steve Rogers are credited in Coma. They were the doctors and ambulance attendents who saved Axl's life after a drug overdose. When GN’R should record Coma, Axl asked if they would like to help. They agreed and they are saying:
(at 2:57 of the song)
* "OK, let's get this guy in the program please, we're losing him."
# "Start an IV please."
* "Come on ... his airways ... someone's got to protect his airways. I want two ..."
# "Where's the defibbrilator?"
* "Two IV's over here please. That's two more now. We're losing him."
# "Let's go."
* "OK, we're starting to lose this guy. Where's the crash cart? I want his airways protected, two IV's."
# "... slow motion here. This guy's goin ..."
¤ "Let's get him in ER."
¤ "Let's get him in ER."
# "... goin out on us."
¤ "Who's got the defibrillator?"
(at 5:44 of the song)
* "OK, we're starting to lose this guy. I want that IV and his airway protected!"
# "Let's get some people in here!"
* "Get the crash cart please, we're losing this guy. He's goin ..."
# "Give me an airway please."
* "... goin under."
# "How 'bout an IV stat?"
* "OK ... you better protect the airway, you're starting to lose him."


"Coma" appears on the following album:
"Use Your Illusion I"

Musicians on the studio recording
Drums / Percussion: Matt
Bass: Duff
Lead and Rhytm Guitars: Slash
Rhythm Guitar: Izzy
Vocals: Axl
Sound Effects: Bruce Foster, Johann
Bitches: Susanne Filkins, Patricia Fuenzalida, Rose Mann, Monica Zierhut-Soto, Michelle Loiselle, Diane Mitchell

Special Thanks to Dr. Michael Smolens, Sam Straton and Steve Rogers

The story behind the song
Axl - Writing "Coma" on "Use Your Illusion I" was so heavy I'd start to write and I'd just pass out. I tried to write that song for a year, and couldn't. I went to write it at the studio and passed out. l woke up two hours later and sat down and wrote the whole end of the song, like, just off the top of my head. It was like, don't even know what's coming out, man, but it's coming. l think one of the best things that I've ever written was maybe the end segment of the song "Coma." It just poured out. I thanked Slash for that, because I used to curse him, going, "Man, that son of a bitch has written this thing and I've got to write to it and don't know what to write." It was so hard; it made me feel like, "l don't know how to write, I should just quit. But I finally did write it, and l ended up feeling a lot better about a lot of situations that l expressed In that song."
Slash - "I like 'Coma' a lot. It's got a defibrillator in it- you know, the instrument that starts your heart when it's stopped. And there's some EKG beeps too. We were just fucking around, but the song is heavy, and Axl's vocals are gorgeous- I mean really amazing."
  "I wrote some really cool shit when I was high. There's a song called Coma, a long song, really heavy, and I wrote that loaded."
Duff - "Coma is monstrous"

Other information
"Coma" was originally called "Girth".