"What's So Civil About War, Anyway?"

Guns n' Roses performing "Civil War" at Farm Aid IV. Last performance by the original GNR lineup. Most GNR attention goes to Axl Rose and Slash, but Steven Adler played better funk/disco beats than the guy who replaced him and Izzy Stradlin was easily their best songwriter. Anyway, great song and cool to hear a metal band performing an anti-war song in the Midwest halfway through Bush I's first term. My research indicates that this edition of Farm Aid occurred in April of 1990, but I swear being dragged away from this performance at my parents' cabin that summer to go to the bar. It must have been a repeat on Fargo PBS or something. Yeah, that is probably it - pre-Internet days and I had read about GNR playing this song at Farm Aid and was trying to watch the repeat when bar time came.

Also from same show: GNR covering the UK Subs "Down on the Farm." (Any punk rockers sniffing over a metal band covering a punk song should consider how GNR's Appetite album out-punks just about all comers plus it swings also, care to say the same about the Ramones?) Rose introduces the song by saying something about being from the Midwest and that it's the only "farm song" they know. Farm Aid IV was held in Indianapolis and Axl and Izzy Stradlin were both from Indiana - wonder what kind of homecoming this was for them?