"Estranged" is a song by American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

, included on their 1991 album ''

Use Your Illusion II ''Use Your Illusion II'' is the fourth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album was released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart ''Use Your Illusion I''. Both albums were released in conjunction with ...

''. The song was released as a single in January 1994.

Background

At over nine minutes long, "Estranged", also known for its music video, is the longest song on ''Use Your Illusion II'' and Guns N' Roses' second longest song overall (after "

Coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

" from ''

Use Your Illusion I ''Use Your Illusion I'' is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart ''Use Your Illusion II''. Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illu ...

''). It has many verses, no set chorus, and several distinguished

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

piano solo The piano is often used to provide harmonic accompaniment to a voice or other instrument. However, solo parts for the piano are common in many musical styles. These can take the form of a section in which the piano is heard more prominently t ...

s. ''Use Your Illusion IIs liner notes thank lead guitarist

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

for "the killer guitar melodies", which captured

Axl Rose W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr.; born February 6, 1962) is an American musician. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its incep ...

's vision. Slash has specifically stated that recording the guitar parts for this song was very intensive for him; he recorded it using a

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...

Gold Top, using the rhythm pickup with the tone turned all the way down. According to Slash, the song was written while the band was rehearsing for an extended period of time in Chicago. Axl revealed that he wrote the song during a more "bummed out" time in his life when his marriage with Erin Everly was annulled.

Music video

Released in December 1993, the official

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

(directed by

Andy Morahan Andrew Douglas Morahan (born 11 August 1958) is a British commercial, film and music video director. He is the son of director Christopher Morahan and the half-brother of actress Hattie Morahan. Married to Joanna Lewis, he has two children. ...

) is the third part of an unofficial

Del James Adalberto James Miranda (born February 5, 1964), known professionally as Del James, is an American musician, writer, journalist and artist best known for writing the short story that reportedly inspired the " November Rain" video by hard rock b ...

series of videos (preceded by "

Don't Cry "Don't Cry" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, two versions of which were released simultaneously on different albums. The version with the original lyrics is the fourth track on ''Use Your Illusion I'', while the version with t ...

" and "

November Rain "November Rain" is a song by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Written by the band's lead vocalist Axl Rose, it was released as a single in 1992 from their third studio album, ''Use Your Illusion I'' (1991). "November Rain" peaked a ...

") from the ''

'' and ''

'' albums. The estimated budget was $4 million. The video is similar in style to the previous two in the trilogy. Its live scenes were shot at

Olympiastadion Olympiastadion is the German, Finnish and Swedish word for Olympic Stadium and may refer to: * Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics (though mostly referred as simply ''Stockholms Stadion'') * Olympiastadion (Berlin), the ...

Munich, Germany Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. The song's video was placed on New York Times list of the "15 Essential

Hair-Metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...

Videos".

Description

The video is the third and final chapter in Guns N' Roses' massively popular "''November Rain'' music video trilogy" (preceded by "Don't Cry" and "November Rain"). It was directed by Andy Morahan and written by frontman Axl Rose himself. While "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" have a strong similarity (they both stage a sort of motion picture film told in vignettes and following the story of a romantic relationship), "Estranged" has very little connection to the previous story of the two previous videos. This is mainly because by Axl Rose's then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour (who played the vocalist's girlfriend in "Don't Cry" and "November Rain") had broken up with Rose before shooting the video, forcing him and the director to abandon the original plans for the shooting of "Estranged", thus leading to a thematic disconnection with the first two. However, this does not mean that the cinematic style was also lost, since "Estranged" has visuals that evoke the first two videos. The video shows Axl Rose being arrested by a group of special police officers, then taken to a mental health clinic, as definitions of various emotional disorders are seen on the screen. The protagonist (Rose) talks to the therapists about his emotional problems; a topic that was depicted in the video for "Don't Cry". In the end, the protagonist is released from the clinic and heads to an abandoned ship at sea, where the story reaches its climax: Rose jumps into the water and swims with a group of dolphins, gaining inner peace by doing so.

Reception

"Estranged" is widely considered to be one of the band's best songs. In 2017, '' Paste'' ranked the song number two on their list of the 15 greatest Guns N' Roses songs, and in 2020, ''

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-of ...

'' ranked the song number four on their list of the 20 greatest Guns N' Roses songs.

Live performances

"Estranged" was played live very frequently during the

Use Your Illusion Tour The Use Your Illusion Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses which ran from January 20, 1991, to July 17, 1993. It was not only the band's longest tour, but one of the longest concert tours in rock history, consisting of 19 ...

from 1991 to 1993. During performances of this song,

Dizzy Reed Darren Arthur Reed (born June 18, 1963), better known by his stage name Dizzy Reed, is an American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the keyboardist for the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured, and recor ...

would play piano instead of

. A live version of this song can be heard on '' Live Era: '87-'93''. During the

Chinese Democracy Tour The Chinese Democracy Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses to promote the group's album ''Chinese Democracy''. It began in 2001, with three U.S. dates and a Brazilian one, while their 2002 tour included Asian, No ...

, a riff from the song was sometimes included in

Ron Thal Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

's solo interpretation of the Pink Panther Theme. In December 2008, Axl spoke of his desire to bring Estranged back into the live set. The song was featured with regularity on the tour from 2011-2014. A recording was issued on the ''

Appetite for Democracy 3D ''Appetite for Democracy 3D'' is a live concert film released in Cinemas, Broadcast and BD/DVD by Guns N' Roses, filmed live at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas on November 21, 2012, on the tenth night of their residency, as part ...

'' video. It was played at almost every show on the " Not in This Lifetime... Tour".

Track listing

Personnel

W. Axl Rose W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr.; born February 6, 1962) is an American musician. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inc ...

– lead vocals, piano *

– lead guitar *

Izzy Stradlin Jeffrey Dean Isbell (born April 8, 1962), best known as Izzy Stradlin, is an American guitarist. He was a co-founder and rhythm guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, which he left at the height of their fame in 1991, and with whom he ...

– rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar *

Duff McKagan Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964), sometimes credited as Duff "Rose" McKagan, is an American musician. He played bass for twelve years in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late ...

– bass *

Matt Sorum Matthew William Sorum (born November 19, 1960) is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. ...

– drums

Charts

References

External links

"Estranged" -- a music video retrospective
{{Authority control 1991 songs 1994 singles Geffen Records singles Guns N' Roses songs Music videos directed by Andy Morahan Song recordings produced by Mike Clink Songs written by Axl Rose American progressive rock songs