Lyrics for 14 Years as interpreted by mike

14 Years Lyrics
I try and feel the sunshine
You bring the rain
You try and hold me down
With your complaints
You cry and moan and complain
You whine an tear
Up to my neck in sorrow
The touch you bring
You don't just step inside to 14 years
So hard to keep my own head... that's what I say
You know... I've been the beggar...
I've played the thief
I was the dog... they all tried to beat
But it's been
14 years of silence
It's been
14 years of pain
It's been
14 years that are gone forever
And I'll never have again
Your stupid girlfriends tell you
That I'm to blame
Well-they're all used-up has-beens
Out of the game
This time I'll have the last word
You hear what I say
I tried to see it your way
It won't work today
You just don't step inside to 14 years
So hard to keep my own head...
that's what I say
You know... I've been the dealer...
hangin' on your street
I was the dog... they all tried to beat
But it's been
14 years of silence
It's been
14 years of pain
It's been
14 years that are gone forever
And I'll never have again
Bullshit and contemplation
Gossip's their trade
If they knew half the real truth
What would they say
Well I'm past the point of concern
It's time to play
These last 4 years of madness
Sure put me straight
Don't get back 14 years
In just one day
So hard to keep my own head
Just go away
You know... just like a hooker she said
Nothin's for free
Oh I tried to see it your way
I tried to see it your way

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Lester
09-25-2002

Rated +1 
14 years of silence, 14 years of pain... Sounds like one hell
of a happy mariage, huh? It's damn miserable to have a woman
who believes you're hurting her by just being a husband.
Especially if that woman listens to her dumb friends who dunno
a thing what's going on beteeen her and her man, but always try
to give her profound advise on how she is mistreated, poor plus
on how she deserves more just becuz she's a woman. God damn, it
happened to me once, some really stupid people fitting their
nose where it doesn't belong and messing things up, so I kinda
feel this one.

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inchainsfreak
04-16-2003

Rated 0 
its about drug abuse and the 14 years of excess and fucking and parting of everthing the goes with being the biggest rock back of the time

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Lester
04-24-2003

Rated 0 
i think the song pretty ambiguous, just like any song, and you cant say that its about this and not that.

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slickvic
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
ok inchianfreak, besides the 14 part wat makes u possibly think that is baout drugs, it isnt at all, its about wasting 14 long years of ur life with a good for nothing rottin cunt

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Lester
06-06-2003

Rated 0 
well, howbout this and that: 14 years of excess (...) spent with ussless, worthless, ever-whining and moaning bitch? does that matter? gnr is fuckin great music and that music is gonna be around for the next couple of milleniums, thats all that really matters!

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Kizy GNFRFukinRoxx
06-04-2004

Rated 0 
It's a hell of a song!!! And the beginning of it? With that drum shit? Just roxx

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michellew2k
10-04-2004

Rated 0 
I really believe that Izzy (who sang the song) wrote this about Axl Rose, which is funny and ironic. And very true...hahaha the band referred to in the song could easily be Guns N Roses now lol

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themovieaddict
02-07-2005

Rated 0 
I think this is a song about a guy who goes to jail and doesn't come out for 14 years. He was involved with others in whatever crime he committed - hence the line, "Your stupid girlfriends tell you that I'm to blame...." He also says "...I was the dog they all tried to beat," as in prison abuse?

That's how I've always interpreted it.

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paulmartin
02-15-2005

Rated 0 
Actually your all wrong. It's actually a song hitting out at critics who called them an overnight success and who say they would just be a flash in the pan. 14 years refers to the time spent as "the beggar" and "the thief" and as "as the dog... they all tried to beat" (possible referring to jailtime) and of course as "the dealer hangin' on your street". Basically all the shit the band went through before they were successful. The second verse refers to "stupid girlfriends" and parents who think they won't last long. The last verse is about the lies printed about their past (If they knew half the real truth what would they say) and the "last four years of madness" since the release of Appetite For Destruction when they became successful. At a 1991 concert in los angeles, axl introduced the song by saying "This is for all of those who, have the impression that we're any form of an overnight success, this is called 14 Years."

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1 Reply
Locke Dartill
04-10-2005

Rated +1 
I know this for a fact.

Izzy Stradlin sung this song, and I am almost positive he wrote the song.

Izzy Stradlin was the first member of Guns N Roses to drop out. Steven Addler was kicked out for drug use and couldn't perform while recording Use Your Illusion One and Two, which is why they got Matt Sorum. Izzy Stradlin left Indiana with Axl Rose to L.A where they were in several bands together. Izzy Stadlin had to put up with Axl for many many years before he was fed up enough to walk away, leaving in the middle of the Use Your Illusion tour.

On a final note, the band Guns N Roses got the name because the origional three who were in the band were Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, and Tracy Guns(Lead Guitarist). Tracy Guns, not being able to put up with Axl, left to form his own band called L.A. Guns. Which left the band without a Lead Guitarist and they already needed a bassist and a drummer.

Moral of the story, Axl is a very difficult person to put up with and anyone would get fed up with him. Honestly, I'm impressed Izzy Lasted out as long as he did, because he was with Axl for such a long time and in multiple bands with him, such as AXL and Hollywood Rose.

But that's besides the point. Lyrics are ambigious anyway, and what an artist intends isn't always how the listener interperets it. Each song means something different to each person, and no one person is more Right or more Wrong than any other person. Each view and opinion is legitimate, no matter how much an individual may disagree, it is still a valid one.

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melm4402
04-12-2005

Rated 0 
I think it's about Axl's Bipolar Depression..

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Popcorn_adler
05-04-2005

Rated 0 
Axl didnt sing the damn song...IZZY DID!
It sorta reminds me of like, troubled family eg axl's, izzy's...You know...cant get back the last 14 years of thier lives...

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barnlewbram
07-23-2005

Rated 0 
i think this song is about, well love, someone left him then a little whial later 14 years is probably not the real date maybe forteen weeks or mounths n they just changed it cos its easyer to sing n soudns better, and realy hurt him and he has sufferd all this time missing her "But it's been
14 years of silence
It's been
14 years of pain
It's been
14 years that are gone forever
And I'll never have again"
and then maybe just recoverd when, 14 weeks or mounths or wot ever desided they wanted him back n exspected to just walk straigt back into a relationship and open arms "You don't just step inside to 14 years" hes saying u cant jsut jump straight back in right away its gonna take time which he doesnt want to wastecos its bean so hard for him just to survive without her and now hes over her she wants him back "Don't get back 14 years
In just one day So hard to keep my own head
Just go away"

i duno thats what i think but wot everyone else has said makes sence to i think its just one of those songs any one can inturpert in a way that relates to them.

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Popcorn_adler
03-29-2006

Rated 0 
I was the dog... they all tried to beat
But it's been
14 years of silence
It's been
14 years of pain
It's been
14 years that are gone forever
And I'll never have again

Reminds me that the first years of life sucked. for 14 years (For me) were shit, I wondered who my dad was, some dickhead who I found out recently contacted my uncle...
...grr...

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chaddmso
04-05-2006

Rated 0 
although i know that there is no relation whatsoever, the song actually kinda makes sense with the book the count of monte cristo.

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wwb
04-12-2006

Rated 0 
This song is about Izzy and Axl's friendship, that, around 1990, had been going on for 14 years. Izzy had written this track, called Axl and Axl told him he was also writing one song called 14 Years. So, Izzy mixed his (which was finished) with some parts of Axl's and there you have it.

Now, in 2006, this could very well represent GNR's situation:

"I was the dog... they all tried to beat" - GNR was on top of the world by 1991

"But it's been
14 years of silence" - It's been 14 and a half years since GNR last released original material

"It's been
14 years of pain" - For us, GNR fans, seeing the original band break apart

"Bullshit and contemplation
Gossip's their trade
If they knew half the real truth
What would they say" - So many things have happened and only they know it. There has been so much speculation around GNR, yet none is particularly accurate

"These last 4 years of madness
Sure put me straight" - It's been 4 years since the failed 2002 tour. I hope they have really put Axl straight, cause I'm seeing GNR at Rock In Rio and I want Axl to show up

Anyway, this is Izzy on top of his game. Great lyrics, probably the best out of all GNR songs, and he sound great singing as well.

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1 Reply
mikeythings
07-31-2006

Rated 0 
Izzy has a fantastic rock n roll voice, along wiv Duff. They should have just kicked out Axl and sung the dam songs themselves. Izzy held the band together. After he left, no new material, members wanted to leave, Slash left after his solos wer left out of Sympathy for the devil, new guitarist slagged off slash, sorum kicked off, axl sacked him, duff is just great and left, dizzy reed licks axls ass so he stayed. I just think this song along with So fine showed how great gnr were without Axl. I also think this song is about the shit Izzys had to put up with "these last 4 years of madness"...87-91...gnr hittin it big, well done Izzy for pissing on Axls parade, and right at the begining of Axls masterpiece :D

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songs4aburningcity
08-09-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about a marriage although it is quite ambiguous nd could be interpreted so many different ways. This is my fave gunners song. Maybe cus it actually means sumthing unlike most the other crap they say eg, love letters, sex in general, some weird shit place called paradise city, sex with older women, etc. This interesting though nd it makes sense that axl didnt write it

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MikeyMonroe
01-08-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about the 14 years Izzy spent in Indiana in his childhood, 4 years about the band 87-91. Izzy was a drugdealer in the early L.A time I think and even plays the drugdealer in Welcome to the jungle video.

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spooner113
06-07-2007

Rated 0 
its one those songs u can sorta take ur own way i guess. u could day u just had a really crappy 14 years, or u just wasted 14 years doing stupid crap, or didnt spend how u wanted .

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Macdaddy Mj
08-17-2007

Rated 0 
locke dartill, ok thx for sharing ure knowledge for no reason at all, but! the name is Guns N' Roses because it was made up of members from two different bands, the Hollywood Roses, and the L.A. Guns, and, u r right about everything else, and that no one is right on this, it's how we interpret the song, so any prick who says that he is right should fuck off, cuz we cant say for sure if he's right or wrong.

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yater007
03-12-2008

Rated 0 
Paulmartin is correct. There is a video on You Tube
where GNR is on stage in Stockholm Sweden in 1991. Axl screams at the beginning of the track this song is about how long it took us to get to here (success in Hollywood). 14 years of hard work to make it big.

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thankgodforbeef21
07-14-2008

Rated 0 
I just think its a song that could have many meanings depending on how you interpret it... i mean i think they wrote it about what paulmartin said, that sounds the most um... well it just makes the most sense... and i always took it as a marrige but then i was like, "well that makes NO sense really since none of them were married in this point in time! and locke dartill, youre wrong. First adler got kicked out and thennn izzy left

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RHCPzephyr
10-06-2008

Rated 0 
i know izzy sung this, but the voice in the chorus really sounds like axl

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cubbyblues
11-06-2008

Rated 0 
The voice in the chorus sounds like Axl because it IS Axl.

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