A review of Guns N' Roses' "Locomotive"

What we've got here is the piece de resistance of the Guns N' Roses catalog. Inexplicably, it is a hidden gem amidst the tour de force Use Your Illusion albums. Let's take it blow by blow.

Matt Sorum leads the charge by laying down the groove on drums. Then, Duff comes in and gets his five seconds of 4-string glory. What's next is a twin guitar barrage of rifftastic genius. One can envision Izzy Stradlin on his telecaster and Slash on his Les Paul laying it down with bloodshot eyes, cigarettes dangling from their lips, cocaine and alcohol coursing through their veins.

Axl then joins the group and puts down eight minutes of possibly his lyrical zenith. What seems like stream of consciousness rambling is filled with gems like:

"You can use your illusion, let it take you where it may. We live and learn and then sometimes it's best to walk away. Me, I'm just here hangin' on to my only place today. At least for now anyway, I've worked too hard for my illusions just to throw them all away."

The riffage continues and Slash stretches out for no less than FIVE guitar solos, including during the epic outro, where Axl reminds us that "Love's so strange."

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I remember there were times when I would listen to this eight and a half minute freakshow rocker 20 times in a row. I still think of this song as what I had hoped modern American rock and roll would become.

......and then Nirvana came around the corner.