Oklahoma

by **Soulmonster** Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:30 pm

BERLIN (OKLAHOMA)

Album:
Unreleased.

Written by:
Unknown.

Musicians:
Unknown.

Live performances:
As far as we know, never played live.

Information:
Written and recorded during the Chinese Democracy era. Instrumental. A version named Oklahoma dating back to 2000 was leaked in 2019. It was later re-named to 'Berlin' but this was likely also a temporary name (see below).

As the far as the songs go: 'Oklahoma' was pretty much written by the time they got to the studio. Axl wrote that with inspiration from the Oklahoma City bombing (more as a tribute to those who died, if I'm not mistaken). [...]

Dave Dominguez, Sp1at, 02/07/05

[...] Song after song combines the edgy hard rock force and pop smarts of vintage Guns N Roses with surprisingly modern and ambitious music textures. In addition to the album's almost grungy title track, tentative song titles include 'Catcher in the Rye,' 'I.R.S,' 'The Blues', [...] 'Oklahoma' - heard tonight only as an instrumental, [...] and 'TWAT,' which he says stands for 'there was a time.'"

Rolling Stone, 01/00

I was sitting in my litigation with my ex-wife, and it was the day after the bombing. We had a break, and I'm sitting with my attorneys with a sort of smile on my face, more like a nervous thing - it was like, 'Forgive me, people, I'm having trouble taking this seriously.' It's just ironic that we're sitting there and this person is spewing all kinds of things and 168 people just got killed. And this person I'm sitting there with, she don't care. Obliterating me is their goal.

Axl Speaks, Rolling Stone, January 2000

Talking about Riad And The Bedouins: It’s not Oklahoma which later became Berlin and subject to change.

Axl's chat on the fan forums, 2008

by **Soulmonster** Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:44 pm

I will just let it stand as 'Oklahoma' until we know its proper name.

by **Blackstar** Wed Sep 25, 2019 9:28 pm

Based on the first quote, this one seems to be the earliest-written song of the bunch, or at least one of the earliest.

And there must have been a few earlier versions of it than the one we got.

I really like it.

by **Soulmonster** Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:07 am

Blackstar wrote:Based on the first quote, this one seems to be the earliest-written song of the bunch, or at least one of the earliest.

Yes, pre-dating January 1998. Duff left in August 1997, so he might have been involved in the early version but also possible that Axl wrote it without Duff's involvement or that he wrote it after Duff quit.

by **Soulmonster** Wed Sep 14, 2022 6:17 pm

Based on the first quote, it sounds like there should be a version with lyrics.

by **Soulmonster** Tue Apr 09, 2024 3:05 pm

Studio engineer Sean Paden talking about that at least the kernel of what would become Oklahoma (Berlin) existed back in 1998 (Paden worked with the band from January to August 1998), but that it might just have been the name of a loop back then:

There was a lot of loops. IRS was an actual... I think if I'm not mistaken, IRS was an actual loop name. [...] I can't remember. And I think the same for Oklahoma. Like those are the only two songs that I think actually that I kind of go, "Oh, I remember that." I think they were... I don't even think they were songs, I think it were loop names. Maybe they were the songs that they were gonna call those songs and they had the idea, but those were the loop names that I would get. Like Dizzy would go, "Okay, I'm gonna play, can you record this section, call it, or label it IRS" and "Oklahoma," and I would record ADAT. And all it was was a loop. A four minute loop, a five minute loop, or a minute loop, whatever it was. And that's all he would go, okay.

GN'R Central, January 16, 2019

by **Soulmonster** Tue Apr 09, 2024 3:10 pm

I have always assumed that since Oklahoma was inspired by the Oklahoma bombings, it must date back to 1995. That isn't necessarily the case. Although not very plausible, he could have started writing the song much later, yet still be inspired by that court date back in 1995. This would fit with Dominguez suggesting Oklahoma might not have been more than a loop back in 1998. But of course, a loop could have existed back then which was intended to go on a song the band had already written, which makes sense considering the other quote from Dominguez where he says the song was fully written when he joined in January of 1998.

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