You Could Be Mine

"You Could Be Mine"
Single by Guns N' Roses
from the album Use Your Illusion II
B-side	"Civil War"
Released	June 1991 (1991-06)
Format	7" vinyl, cassette, CD, 12" picture disc
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Label	Geffen, UZI Suicide
Writer(s)	Stradlin, Rose
Producer	Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses singles chronology
"Civil War" (1990) "You Could Be Mine" (1991) "Don't Cry" (1991)

"You Could Be Mine" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their 1991 fourth studio album Use Your Illusion II. It was released as the band's seventh single, and the first from the Use Your Illusion albums, in June 1991. Backed with "Civil War" from Use Your Illusion II, the single reached number twenty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart^[1] and number three on the UK Singles Chart.^[2]

History

Contrary to popular belief, "You Could Be Mine" was not originally going to be the official theme of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, the references to Guns N' Roses that were made in the film (from John Connor's friend's Guns N' Roses t-shirt to the T-800 taking out his shotgun from a box of roses, thus playing a pun on the band's name) were so clear and obvious that it was a wise business decision to make when director James Cameron decided to recruit the band to perform a song. As it would turn out, "You Could Be Mine" was selected to be included in the film. Arnold Schwarzenegger had the band members over for dinner at his own home to negotiate the deal.^{[citation needed]}

The lyric "With your bitch slap rappin' and your cocaine tongue you get nothin' done" from the chorus appeared on the inner sleeve of Guns N' Roses' debut album Appetite for Destruction, released in 1987 (the song had already been written by then). This "tradition" was followed by the line "Ain't It Fun" on the Use Your Illusion albums released in 1991 - two years later GN'R cover of the song "Ain't It Fun" appeared on "The Spaghetti Incident?" album. Slash states that the song's writing began at the first preproduction session for Appetite for Destruction.^[3]

The song is remembered for its minute-long drum and guitar intro. It was played during the ending credits of Terminator 2 and was heard in the film itself in early scenes with John Connor. The original script called for The Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated" to be played instead.^[4] The song also featured in another part of the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation.

Music video

Schwarzenegger appears in the music-video as the T-800 Terminator from the film who arrives at a Guns N' Roses concert, having mission orders to assassinate Axl.^[5] However, when the song is finished, the Terminator confronts the band and individually assesses each member. He gets to Axl and assesses that killing him would be "a waste of ammo." He then stares at Axl Rose for a while and walks off. Izzy Stradlin was conspicuously absent from the end section of the video. Edited by Jeffrey Abelson, it was one of the most requested music videos during that period, and contributed to the hype surrounding Terminator 2. At the end of 1991, MTV placed it at #1 on their top 100 videos for that year.

As the video features clips from the movie, it could not be put on the DVD Welcome to the Videos due to licensing issues. The video was also not included on any of the DVD releases of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Live performances

Live versions included some twin-guitar parts by Izzy and Slash, where Slash would use a B.C. Rich Mockingbird (as in the video) instead of his usual Gibson Les Paul, due to his use of a tremolo during the solo. It was first played live at Rock in Rio II on January 20, 1991.

Personnel

• Axl Rose – lead vocals, production
• Slash – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, production
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, production
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, production
• Matt Sorum – drums, production

References

1. ^ "Artist Chart History - Guns N' Roses". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.chartFormatGroupName=Singles&model.vnuArtistId=4761&model.vnuAlbumId=1197907. Retrieved 2008-12-19. 
2. ^ "Guns N' Roses". Chart Stats. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=269. Retrieved 2008-12-19. 
3. ^ Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. pp. 166
4. ^ Cameron and Wisher, Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The Book of the Film: An Illustrated Screenplay, Applause Books, 1991, p. 24, ISBN 1-55783-097-5
5. ^ Music video with footage from Terminator 2: Judgment Day[1]