"Catcher in the Rye" and Censorship

[justynius]

Years before Catcher in the Rye even leaked, it was known that the song would be an elegy for John Lennon.  However, now it has been out for over 20 months and it seems we still haven't dug any deeper than that rudimentary understanding of its meaning.  Axl is an artist, he's not just going to write a song because he randomly misses someone who died decades ago.  What significance or meaning does the song illumine from a murder that happened so long ago?  How does it apply that significance to the present?  Why would the song be included on an album called Chinese Democracy?

The obvious first step is to go back even further than the murder and start with a close analysis of the novel.  The song is not called 'The Murder of John Lennon', it is 'The Catcher in the Rye'.  Chapman's associations with the novel would seem to be even more relevant than the murder itself.  I believe two passages are important, the first universally accepted as the theme statement of the novel while the second seems to be mostly overlooked:

I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye.

Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them what it meant, and how they'd all THINK about it and maybe even WORRY about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to KILL whoever'd written it... I kept picturing myself CATCHING him at it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddam dead and bloody.

Notice how similar the wording is.  I think the first is sort of the metaphor ideal, while the second would be the literal application of it in reality.  Holden, the narrator, wants to protect both the kids in the rye and the kids in the school.  While both seem like admirable intentions on the surface, the flaw is that they deny the reality of life.  Rather than allow the kids to think and grow on their own, it aspires to 'protect' them by trapping them in an illusion that will ultimately fail because it isn't real.  It creates a world of 40-year old virgins, who will end up not much unlike Holden himself.  Arguably the most defining moment of the novel occurs when Holden's sister challenges him to name one thing he likes about the world - and he can't.  Because he is following a 'false light', Holden fails to recognize any true good and instead lives in a world of darkness.  And the only way you can nourish the irreality of that false light is by wiping away anything (or more specifically, anyone) that is proof of what's really there.  Incase you're still not following, I'm proposing that Catcher in the Rye (the novel) is about censorship.  Don't believe for a minute that Salinger included a 'Fuck' on practically every page without realizing it would be one of the most censored novels of all time.

To digress for a second, this actually has a lot in common with Sweet Child O' Mine.  Many listeners think SCOM is simply a love ballad that turns into hardcore heavy metal for no apparent reason.  If you follow the language choices, however, you'll see that the song is less about love for a girl than it is the very, very broken mind of the guy.  The first verse reveals the girl is only important to the song in that her childlike physical features remind the guy of his own childhood, and the last line foreshadows something is up because remembering his childhood makes him want to cry.  In the second stanza, the girl's physical features that were earlier related to the speaker's childhood are now related to negative metaphors, such as rain, pain, and hiding from thunder and rain.  The song isn't so much about the speaker being the age of a child, than the mentality of a child.  As a child, he was 'protected' from the realities of cold and darkness in the world (in some ways, an understanding of evil and death), but an awareness of them kept creeping in and was something he had to hide from.  He created psychological barriers, which ultimately caused the chaos his mind is in as an adult.  This is why the simple riff of the first part (which I think is intended to be reminiscent of the music for a carousel or Ice Cream truck) develops into the chaotic heavy metal of the second half.  Also, you'll notice the rhyme scheme of the second stanza sounds normal, but completely breaks away from the first stanza if you write it out on paper.  That he would 'pray' for the thunder and rain to pass by perhaps implies religion was the cause of this.  Thus, we're left with nothing but the rhetorical 'Where do we go' repeated over and over again.  I know this is VERY similar to the end of the first part of the musical 'Hair' and I haven't seen that closely enough to really analyze it yet, but looking just within the context of SCOM as a stand alone song I'd say it could have two meanings.  The first would be how Avenged Sevenfold alludes to it in 'Seize the Day': where do we go when we die.  Since this is something you can never know in life but are fully aware of in adulthood, it drives the speaker mad.  But there's also a far darker understanding, which seems to be a better fit to the song.  The speaker was psychologically fucked up in his childhood, and the line is repeated over and over because there's NOWHERE you can go when you're mentally trapped in that state of consciousness.  Furthermore, since it is 'where do WE go', it foreshadows that the speaker's association of the girl with his own childhood means the mindfuck will cause him to be abusive until she is mentally trapped in the same way.  So the speaker in SCOM has been literally 'caught in the rye', trapped in the illusory world of childhood, and the consequence is the hell his mind has become.

Getting back on topic, why is censorship such a big deal and why would it be an issue on the Chinese Democracy album?  Everyone is obviously aware of the outrageous extents China will use to censor what its citizens read and hear, but this is relevant to ANY power that tries to dominate.  Censorship is the ultimate tool in tyrannizing over others, because controlling their language allows you to control their thoughts.  If people are conditioned to block out certain words or ideas, their minds are boxed into accepting anything that a dominating power presents them.  Literally, their reality is nothing more than what the tyrants allow.  This means that power can never be questioned or lost, because there is no one capable of challenging for it.

Holden's false ideals were not naturally developed out of personal experience.  His entire background is dominated by institutions, and they are what turned him into a machine with such violent responses to anything taboo.  Therefore, the novel is less about specifically Holden as a person, than it is about him as the product of the institutions that created him.  The same is true of Mark David Chapman freaking out because Lennon said he didn't believe in God.  As with the song lyrics, Holden (and subsequently, Chapman) is the 'instrument' of far greater social forces.

Which brings us to the song itself.  I originally thought this was just a track intended to piss people off - implying Slash is as evil as Mark David Chapman, and putting the breakup of 'old' GN'R on the same level of importance as the breakup of the Beatles.  But you're going to fail if you try and spin it into a direct analogy like that.  It doesn't matter if the song is about the breakup of old GN'R, Kurt Cobain's suicide, Stephanie's infidelity, or the sellout of popular music altogether.  Any of these work in their own way, and they all fail to catch the big picture.  As I've been leading with this entire message, the song is about censorship on a more universal level: trying to silence something BECAUSE it dares to step outside of the ordinary.  And that's what GN'R has been fighting against since the beginning.

There seems to be some indecision on whether to include Catcher on the album or not, which ironically would wipe the song out of existence.  Hopefully they come to understand the potential appeal of the song.  Although it's obviously not a cover song, if one were asked whether Catcher more closely resembled Appetite or Sgt. Pepper, it's not hard to imagine many people answering with the Beatles.  And that's where the beauty in it lies.  It's a simple, yet novel idea: Catcher is an elegy for John Lennon that brings his music back for one more song.  If you really think about it, popular music today is dominated more by the concept of a song than the actual quality of the music.  Your mainstream listener is going to be less concerned with Axl singing his heart out on The Blues than they are with 'OMG! Itz a song about l1p glozzz'.  Catcher, however, is the one new song that could gain that kind of acceptance (though I also think it'd work a lot better with acoustic guitars).  It has the novelty of a song style pulled out of the past, not just to sound cool but because it fits the idea of the song in a way that everyone can understand and relate to.  Instead of being just a song, it will be an EXPERIENCE that strikes directly at the heart of the die-hard nostalgia so deeply embedded in today's culture.  It's everything that made 'Candle in the Wind' one of the biggest singles ever, taken one step further.

In some ways, I think Catcher would be a great closing track to Chinese Democracy even if you don't consider the beautiful outro.  Whether or not this was the original intention, Chinese Democracy, to me, has become an ultimate testament to the freedom of expression.  Axl has persevered against every reason in the world to give up for over 14 years, both internal and external, and not let the album fall silent.  As a closing track, Catcher would bring us full circle to an unrealized moment in Axl's youth - he was a teenager when Lennon died - from which such a persistent will drew its roots.  And I'm not saying I believe Axl is a huge Lennon junkie or anything, but that the experience of what that murder meant illumined for him feelings of outrage and resistance that truly did 'set the wheels in motion' for who he's become today.  It would close out the album with an actual denouement, unraveling all the mystery as to what has motivated Axl to keep dragging on for so many years.

It seems a lot of people, including some of GN'R's biggest fans, just aren't able to recognize how much shit Axl's had to go through to keep this album alive.  Obviously, most significant is that every member of the old lineup quit except for Dizzy.  While this caused him to have to deal with the feelings of betrayal and the resistance of the fans, perhaps most difficult was that it challenged him to question if he was right to carry on without them.  Almost everyone goes through losing a boyfriend or girlfriend, but Axl believed Stephanie was his soul mate.  Deep down, how many of you have truly believed that your love for someone you found (and lost) was so strong that it must be a connection that has carried down the ages through many lifetimes before?  This would be enough to cause many to believe things could never be right and give up.  Then, you have the drug overdose of Shannon Hoon, who would seem to be a sort of protege to Axl.  While it is always tragic for someone to die so young, perhaps more discerning to Axl would be that it was a result of the rock star lifestyle that he had lived and perhaps contributed to.  Pretty much the entire black population is against Axl for One in a Million, and songs like Madagascar definitely show he's questioned whether that was right thing to do.  Even after he'd been out of the public eye for years, the press was still printing lies about GN'R and has developed into a complete monster with the internet.  Finally, you have the internal struggles.  I don't know Axl personally and never will, so it would be unfair to draw any definitive opinions on his sanity.  But if all of this shit about Yoda and Beta sniffing the air is true, he's definitely had to struggle with his grasp on reality.  At minimum, we know from the Rolling Stone interview that he's had to deal with psychological issues.

While you may find lots of things you can fault Axl for over the past 14 years, the one thing that you cannot deny is that he's fought through a lot for this album.  In the face of greater adversity than many will see in an entire lifetime, Axl has carried on: And hopefully I've proven it's not just to make an album but to assert his belief in an ideal.  If he were to give up, it would prove all the naysayers were right about GN'R and that you're going to lose if you speak the unpopular line.  GN'R has stood for the freedom of expression from day one, and Chinese Democracy will achieve a victory for that belief.  When you can see beyond all the Fuck Offs, bloody-nosed security guards, concert riots, personal feuds, pissed off fashion designers, and psychotic rants, deep down you'll find there's nothing less than a hero who has fought through endless resistance for a cause that benefits us all.

To close out this message, I thought it'd be appropriate to quote one last passage from the novel.  In my opinion, this shows us the true protagonist of the novel even though he only appears on a few pages:

There was this one boy at Elkton Hills, named James Castle, that wouldn't take back something he said about this very conceited boy, Phil Stabile.  James Castle called him a very conceited guy, and one of Stabile's lousy friends went and squealed on him to Stabile.  So Stabile, with about six other dirty bastards, went down to James Castle's room and went in and locked the goddam door and tried to make him take back what he said, but he wouldn't do it.  So they started in on him.  I won't even tell you what they did to him-it's too repulsive-but he still wouldn't take it back, old James Castle.  And you should've seen him.  He was a skinny little weak-looking guy, with wrists about as big as pencils.  Finally, what he did, instead of taking back what he said, he jumped out the window.  I was in the shower and all, and even I could hear him land outside.  But I just thought something fell out the window, a radio or a desk or something, not a boy or anything.  Then I heard everybody running through the corridor and down the stairs, so I put on my bathrobe and I ran downstairs too, and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all.  He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him.  He had on this turtleneck sweater I'd lent him.

[Coma_Rose]

That was a remarkably interesting read.
Thank you.

[jimb0]

Fuck.

I read "Catcher in the Rye" and thought we were gonna get a twofer.  I'll read it later, it seems rather long

[misterbrownstone]

i fucking love that book.

[the_relic]

Hell of a post, pretty cool, I agree with you, about the stuff about riots and ect. Axl has been fighting for the album, Proof, leeds "Axls this axls that, I just wanna play" Back then wasnt he touring while he wasnt "ready"? I thought I read that somewhere, did you guys even read the whole thing? and please, dont read it just now and say "yeah I did read it" :P I never really decided to buy the book. Although I was interested in what catcher i nthe rye meant (The song) You've helped me look at the song differently, and yes the outro would be greatness as the last song in chinese democracy, the outro is so epic! I shall add another thanks to you mr.

[Madagascar07]

Love both the book and the song

[chezequerz]

good post bit long though, and thats possibly the only time ive heard sweet child of mine described as "hardcore heavy metal"

i am interested though if u find sweet child of mine is that then whats you could be mine

what genre would you class a band like chimaira or sepultura if this is hardcore heavy metal

(not being a dick but i am curious)

and yeah axl probably thought along the same lines as you when he wrote it he's a very smart guy and very well versed in litterature film and to a degree philosophy

[tamatt27]

Wow, what a breath of fresh air to the recent forum topics!  Thanks

[Hurrican3]

That was very interesting to read, thanks mate.

[GNR_06]

A very well thought out and constructed post. Absolutely fantastic, it has to be one of the best posts I've ever read on here!!   

Now if only we could hear 'Atlas Shrugged' 

[Lucky]

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

"Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

"That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose."

"...It had this one story about a traffic cop that falls in love with this very cute girl that's always speeding. Only, he's married, the cop, so he can't marry her or anything. Then this girl gets killed, because she's always speeding."



Ackley: "That's a deer shooting hat."

"Like hell it is." I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. "This is a people shooting hat," I said. "I shoot people in this hat."

[Faxl]

Now if only we could hear 'Atlas Shrugged' 

V. good point, funny how it has more than one tie-in with CITR, the May guitar parts and the book titles...

[Faridbak]

one of the best posts in this forums of late, thanks

[MrBrownstone1475]

Certainly interesting and clever to read but I think thats kinda stretching it a bit. Seems like it was a little over thought.  Your explanations make sense are pretty tight, but who knows but Axl. Anyway, glad to read a post that isn't "Reason for Chinese Democracy Delays"