Everybody has a Michelle.
Maybe her dad isn't a pornographer, and maybe she isn't balancing schoolwork with cocaine and easy virtue, but everybody has someone that they think they can save. A friend, partner or relative who is loved not too wisely but too well. F. Scott Fitzgerald had Zelda and Johnny Rotten had Sid Vicious. Axl Rose had Michelle.
Michelle's story is immortalized by Axl's reaction to it. No matter what or who she does in the verses, Axl goes back to assuring her that things will work out. "Someday you'll find someone that'll fall in love with you," goes the bridge. "Honey, don't stop trying and you'll get what you deserve," ends the final stanza.
The contrast of her lifestyle and his outlook is reflected in the music. "My Michelle" pairs aggressive verses with a melodic chorus, inverting the more famous "quiet verses/loud chorus" structure defined by the Pixies and popularized by Nirvana. This paved the way for the sonic extremities of bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, who covered "My Michelle" for a tribute album.
Who knows what Axl saw in Michelle Young. I can't pretend to have an answer, but I wonder if it was anything like what Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour saw in him.
In memory of Lauren.
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2 comments:
Nice post! Got me thinking. I’ve never even considered this interpretation before. I am not sure why since the majority of the song supports it, but I just never saw Axl as Johnny Rotten. If anything, I imagine Axl in this song as Nancy, 10 years later in an alternate reality where Sid is clean. Nancy (minus the stab wound) is standing outside the nice restaurant where the Sex Pistols are discussing a record release party with some dudes in suits and she is throwing shit at the window screaming: “Now you're clean and so discreet, I won't say a word…Honey don’t stop trying and you’ll get what you DESERVE!”
Thank you! Interesting vision, though I think of Nancy Spungen as more of a Michelle than an Axl.
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