You're Crazy

by **Soulmonster** on Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:42 pm

YOU'RE CRAZY

Album:
Appetite for Destruction, 1987, track no. 10 (electric).
Lies, 1988, track no. 7 (acoustic).

Written by:
Lyrics: Axl Rose
Music: Izzy Stradlin and Slash.

Musicians:
Vocals: Axl Rose; lead Guitar: Slash; rhythm guitar: Izzy Stradlin; bass: Duff McKagan; drums: Steven Adler.

Live performances:
The fast, electric version that appears on 'Appetite for Destruction' was played live for the first time on May 13, 1986, at Raji's, USA. Interestingly, Guns N' Roses played under the name "Fargin Bastyrdes" since they had been asked to stay low for some time. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {YOURECRAZYSONGS} times.

Lyrics:

I've been lookin' for a trace
Lookin' for a heart
Lookin' for a lover in the world that's much to dark
You don't want my love
You want satisfaction
You don't need my love
You gotta find yourself another
Piece of the action

Said where you goin'
What you gonna do
I been lookin' evrywhere
I been lookin' for you
You don't want my love
You want satisfaction
You don't need my love
You gotta find yourself another
Piece of the action
'Cause you're crazy
You're fuckin' crazy
Ya know you're crazy
I said you're crazy

Say boy where you comin' from
Where'd ya get that point of view
When I was younger
Said I knew someone like you
And they said
You don't want my love
You want satisfaction
You don't need my love
You gotta find yourself another
Piece of the action
'Cause you're crazy
You're fuckin' crazy
You know you're crazy
I said you're crazy
Ooh you're crazy
You know you're crazy
Well you're crazy
You know you're crazy
You know you are
Bring it down
You're fuckin' crazy

Quotes:

It's called 'You're Crazy' 'cause I didn't want some asshole picking it up and they go, 'they put fuck on here,' and then they won't even give it a chance. It was written on acoustic, about another girl we know who was crazy [An Interview With The Gunners, Hit Parader - March 1988]

The original way 'You're Crazy' was written, was without the curse words. THEY didn't come in until it came on full electric, in front of a crowd with some girl trying to hit me with a beer bottle, and I started directing the words directly at her. That's where the curses happened. I stamped her head with the bottom of my mic stand, and she kept coming at me! I didn't even know her -- nobody in the band knew her. She hit Duff with a beer bottle [Nussbaum (1988) Soft As A Petal/Sharp As A Thorn, Rock Scene - April 1988]

When I play that song, I don't even know what I'm playing. It's just such a kick in the ass for me, so I run around. I try to concentrate on the music and keep kinda stationary, except on that song. I don't play the same solo every night 'cause I'm not on the same wavelength as other nights [An Interview With The Gunners, Hit Parader - March 1988]

Talking about the version on Lies: You're Crazy is a song we originally wrote as an acoustic song right after the band was signed. But we worked on it during rehearsals and it popped up as an electric song on Appetite. Now it's been taken back to its original pace, though it has remained electric. We weren't trying to make it better, we just did it this way because we wanted to [Hit Parader, May 1989].

We wrote an acoustic version of 'You're Crazy' that ended up as an electric version on Appetite and in its original form on Lies. We worked that up at Dean Chamberlain's, giving it that edge by speeding it up about twenty beats per minute from its original state ["Slash", 2007]

'You're Crazy' was written around the same time as 'Mr. Brownstone.' It was originally a slow acoustic song that we wrote while sitting in the living room one night. Then Axl, Izzy, Duff and I went down to a rehearsal studio that we were working out of and, of course, turned everything up to 12. All of a sudden it took on this real breakneck speed. Axl actually enjoyed making the adjustment [Back to the Jungle, Guitar Edge Magazine, March 2007]

On March 31, 1988, we did another acoustic performance (...) on a show that was called Fox Late Night (...). The reason I remember that performance so well is because we played 'Crazy' the way it was always meant to be played: slower, sleazy, more bluesy, with much more feeling, and not the frantic sped-up version on Appetite. Even though Axl had to censor himself for TV and leave out all the "fuckin's," he did a masterful job, and it's definitely my favorite rendition of 'Crazy' ["My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, pp. 160]

I moved into this apartment building and my next-door neighbor was West Arkeen, this crazy little guitar-player guy, this little freak. He went to the Guitar Institute a couple blocks from our house, and he came out of the Institute, and there was some guy selling an Alesis drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder. It was apparently Sheila E.’s bus driver. Somehow he got stiffed and he’s like, “Fuck it, I’m selling this shit.” So West comes home with this drum machine, [and] we figured out how to use the stuff. The demo of “It’s So Easy” was pretty great. West at this exact same time had taught me how to tune the guitar to open E. We used like, every feature on the drum machine: cowbell, woodblock, and everything on this demo. I sang it, tuned the guitars, put the drum track on, and it was just this cool little lazy summertime hit. West and I would recall all these “summertime hits,” we’d call them. I had an apartment and West had an apartment before we had a rehearsal space, and it became an encampment for about two months for the band. “It’s So Easy,” “Yesterdays,” and I think “14 Years,” a lot of songs were recorded on West’s four-track. I think “You’re Crazy” came out on the West four-track. Sitting in an apartment, we’d play a lot of acoustic guitars, so I think “Easy” was recorded on acoustic guitar. Thing about our songs, we played ’em all on acoustic guitar. “Night Train,” we wrote on acoustic guitar. Because we’d write them in little cramped apartments [The Onion A.V. Club, May 2011]

'You're Crazy' acoustic performed live at The Late Show, March 31, 1988:

You're Crazy NeWborder_zpsk3uwcgt1

by **Soulmonster** on Wed Sep 12, 2018 3:35 pm

A quote to be included:

Axl, talking about the acoustic version found on 'GN'R Lies': "I think 'Crazy' sucks. The band's great but I think I sound like shit. It's a very special, magical song. Everytime we record 'Crazy' something happens. When it's really on, the band goes into a trancelike state. You leave everything else behind. I don't think I quite hit what I was looking for. I don't think there's a major problem with it, I just don't think we quite hit it, I think everything else kicks ass!" [RIP, April 1989].

by **Soulmonster** on Thu Jan 09, 2020 3:41 pm

About the acoustic version on Lies:

It’s a lot bluesier, which is the way me and Axl and Izzy originally wrote it. I think I prefer the slower version, it’s got something. And... I don’t know, but every time we do “You’re Crazy” in that slower style something weird happens, something magical. We’ve never done it the same way twice...

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

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