You Could Be Mine

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 L.A. Guns 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.

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. The end of first verse, "we've seen that movie too", is a reference to Elton John' song "I've Seen That Movie Too", from the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Slash states that the song's writing began at the first preproduction session for Appetite for Destruction.

The song has a 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 song is also appeared in another part of the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation. However, the original script for Terminator 2 instead called for The Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated", which years later would be featured in Terminator Genisys.

Lyrics

"You Could Be Mine" has little profanity, using only the word bitch, and only three times, in the chorus verse "With your bitch slap rapping and your cocaine tongue"/"You get nothin' done"/"You could be mine". The concert version has an added line "with your ass in the air".

Song Meaning

The song talks about band member Izzy Stradlin's failed relationship with his girlfriend.

Music video

The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan, Stan Winston and Jeffrey Abelson. Schwarzenegger appears in the video as the T-800 Terminator from the film who arrives at a Guns N' Roses concert, having mission orders to assassinate the band members. When the song is finished, the Terminator confronts the band and individually assesses each member except for Izzy Stradlin, as he was conspicuously absent in this section of the video. He gets to Axl and assesses that killing him would be "a waste of ammo." He then stares at Axl Rose for a while, gives a brief smirk and walks off.

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, although it was included with a special double tape edition of the film, released on VHS in 1993.

Live performances

Early live versions of "You Could Be Mine" featured Slash using 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 and has been a staple ever since. The live version features amended lyrics to the line "an I leave you lyin' on the bed 'with your ass in the air'".

Track listing

1. "You Could Be Mine" - 5:44
2. "Civil War" – 7:41

1. "You Could Be Mine" (LP version) - 5:44
2. "Civil War (LP Version)" – 7:38

Personnel