you've caught me in a coma
And I don't think I wanna
Ever come back to this
World again
Kinda like it in a coma
'Cause no one's ever gonna
Oh make me come back to this
World again

Now, I feel as if I'm floating away
I can't feel all the pressure, and I like it this way
But my body's calling
My body's calling

Won't you come back to this world again?

Suspended deep in a sea of black
I've got the light at the end, I've got the bones on the mast
Well, I've gone sailing
I've gone sailing

I could leave so easily
My friends are calling back to me, I said, they're
They're leavin' it all up to me
When all I needed was clarity, and
Someone to tell me what the fuck is going on
Goddamn it

Slipping farther and farther away
It's a miracle how long we can stay
In a world our minds created
In a world that's full of shit

(Help me)
Okay, let's get this guy in the program please, we're losing him (start an IV Please)
Come on, his airways someone's got to protect his airways I want two
Where's the defibrillator?
Two IV's over here please, that's two more now, we're losing him (let's go) (help me)
Okay, respond, we're losing this guy (help me)
Where's the, where's the crash- what's going on? anyways, in protective two IV's
(Bastard) slow motion here (let's get him in ER)
Going out on us
Who's got the defibrillator?

Please understand me

I'm climbing through the wreckage of all my twisted dreams
But this cheap investigation just can't stifle all my screams
And I'm waiting at the crossroads, waiting for you
Waiting for you
Where are you?

No one's going to bother me anymore
No one's going to mess with my head no more
I can't understand what all the fightin's for
But it's so nice here, down off the shore
I wish you could see this, 'cause there's nothing to see
It's peaceful here and it's fine with me
Not like the world where I used to live
I never really wanted to live

Ah
Okay, we're starting to lose this guy
I want that IV and his airway protected (let's get some people in here)
Get the crash cart please, we're losing this guy, he's going under (give me an airway please)
Clear
Zap him again
How about an IV, stat?
Okay you better protect the airway, you're starting to lose him (clear)
Zap the son of a bitch again

Listen to me
Axl, are you listening to me?
No, don't walk away from me "Get back over here
('You are such a fucking prick, I am so pissed with you)
All I hear is bullshit, all the time
All you ever wanna do is have sex, sex sex
I just don't give a shit anymore

(I love you)

You live your life like it's a coma
Won't you tell me why we'd wanna?
With all the reasons you give, it's
It's kinda hard to believe
But who am I to tell you that I've seen
Any reason why you should stay?
Maybe we'd be better off without you, anyway

You got a one way ticket, on your last chance ride
Got a one way ticket to your suicide
Got a one way ticket, and there's no way out alive

An' all this crass communication that has left you in the cold
Isn't much for consolation when you feel so weak and old
But if home is where the heart is, then there's stories to be told
No, you don't need a doctor, no one else can heal your soul

Got your mind in submission, got your life on the line
But nobody pulled the trigger, they just stepped aside
They be down by the water
While you watch 'em waving goodbye

They be calling in the morning, they be hanging on the phone
They be waiting for an answer, but you know nobody's home
When the bell's stopped ringing
It was nobody's fault, but your own

There were always ample warnings
There were always subtle signs
And you would have seen it coming
But we gave you too much time
And when you said that no one's listening
Why'd your best friend drop a dime?
Sometimes, we get so tired of waiting for a way to spend our time

An' it's so easy to be social
It's so easy to be cool
Yeah, it's easy to be hungry, when you ain't got shit to lose
And I wish that I could help you with what you hope to find

But I'm still out here, waiting
Watching reruns of my life
When you reach the point of breaking
Know it's gonna take some time
To heal the broken memories
That another man would need just to survive


Lyrics submitted by mike, edited by laura11489

Coma Lyrics as written by Izzy Stradlin Saul Hudson

Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Coma song meanings
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  • +3
    My Interpretation

    This has recently overtaken Estranged as my favourite GN'R song. It's so musically complex, and the lyrics speak to me in a very particular way. I think most people here have gotten pretty close to the meaning in the first few parts: the desire for isolation, taken to the extremes of death or brain-death. But there's one detail of the final rant that no one here has focused on, so let me give my two cents.

    Starting with the part "You live your life like it's a coma..." I noticed something a couple of years back. It starts focusing on the second-person pronoun "you" where beforehand the song was sung in the first person. Now, this might sound like a minor grammatical quibble, but what if it's more important than that? Perhaps the character singing the final portion of the song is not Axl at all, or any part of his psyche. It is, literally, someone else.

    I always felt that this song involves self-restraint when it comes to suicide. Perhaps Axl doesn't want to die, but a COMA might be seen as a bit more acceptable. In the first few parts, there are a number of lines where he's clearly searching for an answer. For example: "Please understand me/I'm climbing through the wreckage/Of all my twisted dreams/But this cheap investigation just can't stifle all my screams/And I'm waiting at the crossroads/Waiting for you..." More than anything, this is a song of self-discovery.

    Where I'm going with this is that in the last part, Axl gets what he was asking for. Someone else finally steps in and gives him an answer to his questions of why nobody cared about him. And the answer this other person gives him is complicated. First of all, the person says, we have been worrying about you. We may not have reacted in a way that was comforting to you, but we've been there, bailing your ass out when you get into situations like that. You, Axl, just haven't wanted to see it. Ultimately, it's up to you to figure things out ("No you don't need a doctor, no one else can heal your soul").

    When I realized this about this song, there was one part that was especially chilling for me, and that's right at the end:

    And I wish that I could help you With what you hope to find But I'm still out here waiting Watching reruns of my life When you reach the point of breaking Know it's gonna take some time To heal the broken memories That another man would need Just to survive

    This is the answer that Axl has been needing. He needs to know why other people haven't been able to truly help him deal with his problems on his own terms. And the reason is because other people have their own shit to deal with. People have to keep their distance from Axl because what he's dealing with is too close to what others have been dealing for them to allow themselves to get to close. It will impact them as well. This is what I think is meant by the person talking about "reruns of [his] life." That leaves only one thing he can tell Axl: it's going to be complete hell. Axl will "reach the point of breaking." The only comfort is that Axl will be able to pull through it, because he is even stronger than people who've been through similar angst before him. After all, he's gone a long time trying "to heal the broken memories that another man would need just to survive." And yes, Axl has survived. With that epiphany in mind, Axl finally allows himself to come back to the real world and out of his coma, where he has found the stillness he sought.

    SquireOfSaskatoonon August 21, 2010   Link

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