APPETITE FOR DISCUSSION
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SoulMonster
APPETITE FOR DISCUSSION
Welcome to Appetite for Discussion -- a Guns N' Roses fan forum!

Please feel free to look around the forum as a guest, I hope you will find something of interest. If you want to join the discussions or contribute in other ways then you need to become a member. We especially welcome anyone who wants to share documents for our archive or would be interested in translating or transcribing articles and interviews.

Registering is free and easy.

Cheers!
SoulMonster

Sweet Child O'Mine

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Sweet Child O'Mine Empty Sweet Child O'Mine

Post by Soulmonster Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:54 pm

Sweet Child O'Mine Newbor11
SWEET CHILD O' MINE
Album:
Appetite for Destruction, 1987, track no. 9.



Written by:
Lyrics: Axl Rose.
Music: Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Slash.

Musicians:
Vocals: Axl Rose; lead guitar: Slash; rhythm guitar: Izzy Stradlin; bass: Duff McKagan; drums: Steven Adler.

Live performances:
The song was played live for the first time on August 23, 1986, at The Whisky, USA. All incarnations of Guns N' Roses have played this song live. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {SCOMSONGS} times.
Lyrics:

She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stared too long I'd probably break down and cry
     
Sweet child o' mine
Sweet love of mine
     
She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder and the rain
To quietly pass me by
     
Sweet child o' mine
Sweet love of mine
     
Where do we go
Where do we go now
Where do we go
Sweet child o' mine


Quotes regarding the song and its making:

Writing the song:

Axl, the lyrics came to him as we wrote the song. It was one of those things where the beginning intro thing that sounds like piano or whatever it sounds like – people say it sounds like keyboards or something –, I came up with that. Yeah, and then Izzy came in with the chord changes behind it or the chords that back it up, and then Axl started singing. It was just one of the songs – it’s really not that complicated when you listen to it as far as structure goes, but it just sort of evolved until it was finished. And then we went into rehearsals as a sort of pre-pre-production type of thing and just wrote the whole thing out, and I got the solo, you know - and, just like, that was the first solo I felt comfortable with, so I just did that – and it just evolved into something. It was real spontaneous, like most of the material on the record is real spontaneous.

In Indiana Lynyrd Skynyrd were considered God - to the point where you ended up saying, 'I hate this fucking band!' And yet, for Sweet Child I went out and got some old Skynyrd tapes to make sure we'd got that downhome, heartfelt feeling.
Told to Paul Elliott in March 1987, Classic Rock Magazine, July 2007

There was a lot of work put into that song. Because I'm from Indiana, where, like, Bob Seger, REO Speedwagon, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aerosmith was the rock band, they were considered the top four bands. So when we did Sweet Child it's like we went out and got a lot of the old tapes that we had learned to hate because you had heard them so many times. But we went back over to try to get some of that heartland feeling, and try to get some of the things that people were leaving out of the music. Try to bring some stuff back. So I think a lot of people when they hear the song, whether they place it with some of the stuff they have heard, now it brings back some roots and some memories rather than it being just a [?] song.
KJJO104, August 1988

We were sitting in the room at this house - it was me, Duff, Izzy and Axl – and I came up with that intro thing. Then Izzy put the chords that fit behind it and then Axl started singing it. So we had the first part of the song down and then we just started working on it from there.

I think the 'Sweet Child O' Mine' influence pops up because it's a single-note style of mine, especially when I do this octave thing around a melody. I have to give Axl credit, because if he hadn't recognized it as being great, I wouldn't have used it, I thought it was a joke. It was just me doing a lick with chord changes underneath to gave it some movement. Then Axl came in and started singing it. I hated that song until after '88 or '89. We were touring with Aerosmith, and it was such a huge hit you couldn't ignore it.
Velvet Revolver, Total Guitar #121 April 2004

We had this house that this management company had rented for us, they were courting us to be our managers. It was a really nice house in Laughlin Park, California. We had reduced the house to a mere shell of itself in only a few weeks.

One afternoon, when the smoke was still clearing from the night before, Duff, Izzy and I were sitting around on the floor --- we didn’t have any furniture anymore --- and I was dicking around with that riff. In all honestly, I don’t really know where the riff came from but, all of a sudden, it started to sound really cool. Izzy started playing acoustic behind it and the chord changes started coming together. Axl was upstairs in his bedroom and he overheard it. A couple of days after we had put together our simple riff/chord structure, Axl said, “Play that song you guys were playing the other day.” We were like, “What song?” He goes, “That one with that do do dodo do doo do do.” He had written a bunch of lyrics to it without us even knowing about it. It came together relatively quickly. We started rehearsing it and we wrote it from one end to the other that night.

After Guns N’ Roses got signed, we had a period where the record company didn’t want us performing live. They just wanted to get us in the studio. A lot of people were scared of the band at the time and didn’t want to work with us. So there was a lot of sitting around.

A management company that was courting us thought they would impress us by putting us up in this really big house in LA—which of course, we totaled! [laughs]. One day Izzy, Duff and I were all sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace in the living room. I had been working on that riff for a while and Izzy and Duff started to play along to it. What we didn’t know at the time was that Axl was upstairs and had apparently overheard us and started writing lyrics.

The next day, we went in to a pre-production session and Axl said, “Hey, play that thing you guys were playing yesterday.” So I started the riff and Izzy had the chord changes and started to play along with Duff and Steven and it all just suddenly materialized. It came together pretty quickly after that.

So, one morning or early afternoon like hungover kind of thing, Izzy and Duff and myself were sitting in the living room and Axl was sitting upstairs in the bedroom. And I had this riff and it was just a succession, it was sort of kind of a pattern that's very much in my style to do. And I was formulating this rotation thing of this sort of melody. And so I was playing that and then Izzy started playing chords underneath it, and it started to sort of turn into something that sounded like a song. And so we were rehearsing in the Valley in Burbank, in this warehouse kind of place, and we went in there and Axl says, “Hey guys, play that riff you guys were playing at the house the other night”. We didn't know Axl was even listening. We had no idea that he'd heard what we were doing. And so we started playing it and he had come up with lyrics on this whole thing. And so that was really sort of the beginnings of Sweet Child of Mine. And, you know, I remember we wrote the entire song in one - as we always did, we wrote it in that one rehearsal session. And from there we ended up working with this guy, Spencer Proffer, who wanted to produce our record. And so we did some demos with him, which actually ended up being the flip side of the Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP. The live stuff that is in there is actually studio recordings with a live track put on it. And in those sessions we did Sweet Child of Mine and at that point we had a middle section that we didn't necessarily know where it was going and that's where the “where do we go now” part came from (laughs). Anyway, so that was really the origins of Sweet Child of Mine.


Slash is a little disparaging about the intro riff, and didn't like playing ballads:

The thing about 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' it was written in five minutes. It was one of those songs, only three chords. You know that guitar lick Slash does at the beginning? It was kinda like a joke because we thought, 'What is this song? It's gonna be nothing, it'll be filler on the record.' And except that vocal-wise, it's very sweet and sincere, Slash was just messing around when he first wrote that lick.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987

(...) Slash came up with what we all thought was this awesome riff. He said he created it to limber up his fingers, get them loose before playing. He sort of made fun of it, saying that in his head it sounded like the notes you'd play for circus music, the kind you hear on one of those tinny pipe organs. (...) I told Slash he was overlooking the enormous potential of that lick: "That's a great fucking riff, dude. We have to figure out a way to get that into a song". (...) So Slash molded the riff, and today we know it as the intro for 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. What I loved was that Slash truly displayed his brilliance by not just using it as the intro but finding a way to thread that riff throughout, using it as the backbone for the entire song.
"My Appetite for Destruction", 2010

'Sweet Child O' Mine' was a joke. It was a fluke. I was sitting around making funny faces and acting like an idiot and played that riff. Izzy started playing the chords that I was playing, strumming them, and all of a sudden Axl really liked it. I hated that song because it was so stupid at first. I hated the guitar part. Now I really like it because I've gotten it to the point where it sounds really good when I play it live, and I'm so used to the song so I like it a lot more. But it definitely wasn't something I hummed out in my head. It was more like me fucking around with the guitar.
Stix (1992) Slash - Guitar From The Gut, Guitar For The Practicing Musician - Nov 1992

The funny this is, Slash’s guitar part started off as a joke. Izzy wrote this three-chord song, and we were like, Fuck this – we do not play ballads. Axl, of course, loved it. We were trying anything to not do the song, so Slash wrote that crazy guitar part, trying to make it prog-rock or something, and as a joke I played that bass part. Of course, it all came together and made sense.
Bulletproof - Duff interview, Guitar World’s Bass Guitar June/July 2004 Issue

[After the riff being voted by the Total Guitar readers the greatest riff of all times]: It's sort of a funny thing because that riff was...I was just noodling around and just stumbled over this little bit of an idea - it was sort of a fluke. To me it was just some silly thing that I wouldn't have taken much further if Izzy hadn't been there playing some chords.

It was always a joke to me until Axl came up with some words and made a song out of it. And because this was in the early days of Guns N' Roses - we were this fuckin' hard rock band - it was just a sappy ballad to us. I hated that song. I hated when it came up in the set. Sometimes I'd get too drunk and wouldn't be able to play it. I just never took it seriously until way later when the song became a hit, and all I'd have to do is go into the first notes of that song and everyone in the whole place would lose their fuckin' minds.

Now to see it being recognized as an influential rock lick...[Laughs in disbelief.] I'm a little bit overly flattered and humbled by it. I really don't know what else to say. I would never have predicted that in a million years. You don't sit down writing riffs so that they turn up later as being...I dunno...the shit, so to speak.
Total Guitar Magazine, December 2004

In passing, I did say that it was sort of a joke or something, but initially it was just a cool, neat riff that I'd come up with. It was an interesting pattern and it was really melodic, but I don't think I would have presented it to the band and said, "Hey I've got this idea!" because I just happened to come up with it while we were all hanging around together Izzy. [Stradlin, GN'R's second guitarist at the time] was the first one to start playing behind it, and once that happened Axl Rose, [the band's singer] started making up words, and it took off that way. [...] One of the things that always bugged me about Sweet Child... was that it was an uptempo ballad, which didn't fit what Guns N' Roses was about as far as I was concerned. So that song annoyed me every time it came up in the set. It really bugged me! [...] It really disturbed my drinking," he chuckles, "because whenever we did a show I'd have a fair amount of whisky beforehand. But when the song came up in the set, that riff was really hard to remember! [Laughs] So all in all it was a very aggravating song, although ironically it turned out to be the biggest song we ever did. [...] The saving grace for me was the solo section. That was a vey organic solo that came together simply. When we said, 'Here's the chord changes,' it occurred very spontaneously, and I always looked forward to that part of the song in the set. It was completely different to the rest of the song. [...] The only time that I didn't use a Marshall on Sweet Child... was on the clean bits, and believe it or not, those came through a Roland 120 Jazz Chorus amp, which was hanging around the studio.

That song were written after we were signed and there was nothing much to do. Another management team was courting us, and these people went so far as to lease us a house above Griffith Park. We pretty much demolished the place. But I remember Duff, Izzy and I were sitting in the living room next to the fireplace - we had no TV set - and I was playing the intro riff and they were playing chords behind it. And next thing you know, it was turning into something. I really just thought of it as a joke, but lo and behold, Axl was upstairs in his bedroom and he heard and and started writing the words.

The next day, we were rehearsing at Burbank Studios - doing a preproduction kind of thing - and Axl wanted us to play what we had been playing the night before. Pretty soon, it shaped itself into a song, and all of a sudden it took on this serious kind of tone. It was really hard for me to accept, but that song became Axl's favorite. I think a lot of it had to do with the lyrics. They had a serious, personal side to them. [...] I don't think anyone in the band had as much problem with [the ballad] as I did because I was just such the hard-rock guy. Some ballads I could deal with, as long as they were bluesy. But 'Sweet Child O' Mine' seemed completely sappy. Not so much from a lyrical point of view, but that whole intro riff. I like playing the solo section, but I would've written that song off as history if anyone else had complained about it. I had no idea it would become the biggest song the band ever did.
Back to the Jungle, Guitar Edge Magazine, March 2007


In 2010, Slash would explain why he hadn't been excited about the song in the beginning:

Well, I mean, OK, you have to understand, like, Guns N' Roses' sort of roots as a group was very sort of hardcore rock and roll kind of thing. Very up, sort of in-your-face kind of thing. And very brash and very hard rock, you know? And, if we did a ballad, it would be something very slow and bluesy, and druggie, and depressing, or whatever. But, "Sweet Child of Mine" was the first up-tempo ballad we'd ever done. And so, it was very poppy in that sense. And so, it took me a while to get past that. And I play it now, and it's a lot of fun to play and everybody loves it. But in those particular days, it just seemed sort of the antithesis of what the band really was about, you know?


In 2014, Slash would be asked if there is a Guns N' Roses or Velvet Revolver song he hates:

Wow! That's an interesting question. I don't think anybody has ever asked me that. I can't think of a song that I actually completely hate from either band. You know, I mean, maybe there's some songs that I like more than others. But I'll tell you one thing… I didn't hate it, but I wasn't fond of 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. And that gives you a good idea of how credible my opinion is… The actual riff itself I love, but the song itself… You know, Guns N' Roses was always a real hardcore, sort of, AC/DC kind of hard rock band with a lot of attitude. If we did any kind of ballads, it was bluesy. This was an uptempo ballad. That's one of the gayest things you can write. But at the same time, it's a great song — I'm not knocking it — but at the time, it just did not fit in with the rest of our, sot of, schtick. And, of course, it would be the biggest hit we ever had.


Talking about the lyrics:

'Sweet Child O' Mine' is a true song about my girlfriend at this time. (...) I had written this poem; reached a dead-end with it and put it on the shelf. Then Slash and Izzy got working together on songs and I came in. Izzy hit a rhythm and, and all of sudden this poem popped up in my head. It just all came together. A lot of rock bands are too fucking wimpy to have any sentiment or any emotion in any of their stuff unless they're in pain. It's the first positive love song I've ever written. I never had anyone to write anything that positive about.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987

That a real love song.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987

This is a hard song for me to do right now. I wrote this for someone that I care the world about. You know someone you used to love, but your lives change, and you wonder why and what happened, and when you reach that point in your relationship you didn't know where to go. When I wrote this song I didn't know it would be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and that it would actually happen. For everyone who knows me and knows my friend Erin, this is 'Sweet Child O' Mine'.
Perkin's Palace, December 30, 1987

The 'blue sky' line actually was one of my first childhood memories--looking at the blue sky and wishing I could disappear in it because it was so beautiful.
Los Angeles Times, July 1991


And the "Where do we go now?" part:

[...] the "where do we go now" coda of that song actually was just sort of tacked on, which is one of the reasons we didn't anticipate it being a hit - or even a single, for that matter.
Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 97

I have a way of sitting down with the guitar and coming up with these hard-to-play riffs; they're unorthodox fingerings of simple melodies. It's my way of getting into playing or finding something interesting to do as opposed to just practise scales. (...) That is what I was doing one night as Izzy sat down on the floor to join me. "Hey, what is that? he asked. "I don't know," I said. "Just fucking around." "Keep doing it." He came up with some chords and since Duff was there, he came up with a bass line, as Steven planned out his drum beat. Within an hour my little guitar exercise had become something else. Axl didn't leave his room that night, but he was just as much a part of the creative process as the rest of us: he sat up there and listened to everything we were doing and was inspired to write lyrics that were complete by the next afternoon. They became an ode to his girlfriend and future first wife, Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers. (...) At our next session, we worked our new song into a complete movement: we wrote a bridge, added a guitar solo, and so it became 'Sweet Child O' Mine.' (...) Spencer [Proffer, a producer] was a great guy; he was actually the one who suggested that the song needed a dramatic breakdown before its ultimate finale. He was right...but we had no idea what we wanted to do there. All of us sat around the control room, listening to it over and over, devoid of a clue. "Where do we go?" Axl said, more to himself than the rest of us. "Where do we go now?...Where do we go?" "Hey," Spencer said, turning the music down. "Why don't you just try singing that?" And so became that dramatic breakdown.
Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 155-156

And like, "Where do we go," at the end of Sweet Child was, "Okay, where are we going in this song now? Where do we go now?" So that was like a place setter lyric. "Where do we go?" In the song, "Where do we go now?" And like, that was that band at the time. Like, "Oh, actually, that works for the song." You know, for the previous lyric in the song, it works great.


Recording the song:

If you listen to 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' the tempo on the very beginning is different from when the drums come in, which is a little faster. I had to play the beginning 50 times to get it right with the drums.
Guitar, September 1988

[The solos in] "Sweet Child" was basically off the cuff.
Guitar For The Practising Musician, September 1988

[Talking about recording 'Sweet Child' for Appetite which only required one take]: I'll never forget, I was on the phone with this girl that I was going out with, she hated me, I was bummed, she hung the phone up on me. Duff says, "Come, we got to play, we got to play," I'm all depressed and sad and we go in and we play it but I fuck up on it, you know. But it just had it, it just worked, the feel was there.
Interview with Steve Harris, December 1988

One thing was on “Sweet Child ‘O Mine” where it has that breakdown where it goes “Where do we go/where do we go.” If you listen, I’m doin’ these rimshots on the snare and if you listen to it, the first seven or eight rimshots that I do all sound different. ‘Cause I remember there sitting going, “Nope, nope, nope; that is not it, that is not it.”

My other issue [from recording Appetite for Destruction] was recording 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. Steven watched my foot to keep time; and for that song I'd count him in because my riff kicked off the proceedings. There was no high hat through the beginning and we hadn't recorded a click track for it, so when I went in to do the overdubs it was a guessing game: I'd be sitting there anticipating the start of the song, hoping that in my mind I'd times it right so that when I started playing, my timing was right. This was years before digital recording, so there was no signifier to guide me in my way. It took a while, it took many takes, but we got it in the end.
Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, pp 177

As far as the experience goes, the only nightmare that I can remember from Appetite was trying to count in that "Sweet Child O' Mine" riff (laughs).
Guitar For The Practising Musician, November 1992

It was probably the hardest song for me and Steve to record, just because you have to keep a steadiness and also keep the emotion in it.
Geffen Press Kit, 1987


Talking about the song:

To me, when we go out on stage, it is still the most dreaded song in the set, is to go out and play 'Sweet Child O'Mine'. Just to do the very first notes, is like...[hums the intro], is like "Noooo." I mean, it's a good song, though, you know, I mean, I enjoy the song when I listen to it. But it is not fun to play.
Interview with Slash and Duff, 1988

I hate the edit of "Sweet Child o' Mine." Radio stations said, "Well, your vocals aren't cut." My favorite part of the song is Slash's slow solo; it's the heaviest part for me. There's no reason for it to be missing except to create more space for commercials, so the radio-station owners can get more advertising dollars. When you get the chopped version of "Paradise City" or half of "Sweet Child" and "Patience" cut, you're getting screwed.
Rolling Stone, August 1989

I used to get wasted on stage. There were nights when I'd have to start "Sweet Child o' Mine" four or five times because I was so loaded I couldn't play it.
Los Angeles Times, August 1992

As far as the rest of whole rest of the catalog, tons of stuff — the obvious ones , 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. Why? Because that's the one that got some of the biggest cheers in the audience, and that's what it was about. That's why we're there; that's why we were playing. Whatever is going to make people the happiest and lift them the most, and that was one of the songs that did it.

I was brought up on the click, you know, schooled, practice through the drum click, and that kind of stuff. So [Matt Sorum's] songs were easier to play. But the intricacies of, like, you know, and in the way the beats were played on Appetite, way different. You know, especially, you know, like it was so hard for me to get the feels, like Sweet Child O' Mine, I don't even think I still have it right, you know. It seems like the easiest beat but, you know, it is an easy beat if you just want to play it and be generic but to give it the swing and the flavor that it has on the album's is hard shit, you know.


Slash being asked about his most lucrative song:

It was always about albums rather than singles but I’d guess Sweet Child O’Mine because it’s the most covered. There are some really good instrumental versions for the piano or violin but I’ve been horrified by some muzak versions. I’ve been sitting in a doctor’s office thinking ‘that sounds familiar’ and then realising it’s someone’s interpretation of what I’ve written – that can be a creepy feeling.


Sweet Child O'Mine Newbor11


Last edited by Soulmonster on Mon Feb 26, 2024 4:40 pm; edited 38 times in total
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Sweet Child O'Mine Empty MTV's 30th Anniversary and the Top Five Videos

Post by Soulmonster Sat Jul 30, 2011 4:37 pm

MTV's 30th Anniversary and the Top Five Videos
Jared Feldman

MTV is turning 30.

Remember back in the day when they actually played music videos? MTV launched on Aug. 1 at 12:01 a.m. in 1981. The first video ever aired was the Buggles "Video Killed the Radio Star." MTV plans to commemorate the moment by replaying the first hour in MTV history at 6 a.m.

MTV was a pioneering network for music videos. For me music videos are a nice addition but the music needs to be good. A good video simply enhances an already good song. A bad video finds a way to detract. Here are my top five videos, in no particular order, to air on MTV.

Sweet Child O'Mine, Guns n' Roses, 1988

I really appreciate the simplicity of the Sweet Child O'Mine video. It features a number of great shots of the band performing and I'm glad they focus just on Slash's guitar during the solo. Seeing the speed and precision that he has on the guitar is something you can't get just listening to the song. It's the perfect way to emphasize the level of talent the band has. The video gets a little unnecessarily manic towards the end but it in no way takes away from the song and video as a whole.

Closer, Nine Inch Nails, 1994

Trent Reznor is a crazy person, but he somehow makes it work. The shot of the heart beating the chair is somehow one of the more perfect images for a music video. Despite the video appearing to be something in a drug hallucination, it all fits with the music. If someone asked what the Closer music video should be, the chaos on screen is. It would be impossible to imagine and yet makes total sense.

Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana, 1990

It certainly helps that this my favorite song of the 90's, but the music video does the song justice. Performing in a busted down gym is grunge. The video wouldn't make sense if it resembled present day rap videos. Instead, performing in front of a small crowd on a basketball court is highly appropriate. The video addresses those addressed in the song too. Dejected youth are given a bit of relief in this video.

Walk This Way, Aerosmith with Run DMC, 1986

As this was one of the first Rap/Rock collaborations is perfect that the video begins as both groups complain to each other. Aerosmith and Run DMC found a way mash their two divergent styles together, and the video pairs them appropriately. Performing on opposite sides of the wall and then breaking through and performing together at the end underscores the magnitude of the song.

Thriller, Michael Jackson, 1983

I'd prefer to refer to this as a music film rather than video. The fact that it was released in theaters as an opportunity to garner Oscar support is further proof. It's also nearly fourteen minutes long and a takes a long time to actually get into the song. It's a ground breaking video and the song thriller is only a small piece of the video. The song is fantastic, and there would not be a music video without it. It is arguably the greatest music video of all time.

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8272385/mtvs_30th_anniversary_and_the_top_five_pg2.html?cat=2
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Sweet Child O'Mine Empty Re: Sweet Child O'Mine

Post by Soulmonster Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:29 am

Nice write-up:

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” marked a turning point for Guns N’ Roses

In We’re No. 1, The A.V. Club examines a song that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, we cover Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 10, 1988.

Guns N’ Roses has reunited. It took singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash, and bassist Duff McKagan 23 years to set aside their differences and play together again, but thankfully, it happened now, when rock needs the band more than ever. As rock ’n’ roll sinks in favor of stadium-ready pop acts like Taylor Swift, GN’R is a reminder of when metal accounted for 40 percent of rock music sales, and when MTV had the cultural cachet to create rock stars. In 1991, GN’R guitarist Slash described the recording industry as a “big erect monster,” at a time when loveless sex, cocaine mirrors, and flashy guitar solos were rites of passage.

A few years earlier, at the beginning of 1988, Guns N’Roses was fighting for critical respect amid tons of controversy. U.K. rock magazine Kerrang! had recently labeled GN’R “the most dangerous band in the world.” Around the same time, the band had destroyed the set of MTV’s Headbangers Ball, while doped-up guitarist Slash had partied with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx the night he overdosed and was declared dead. In an era of MTV-friendly bad boys selling the gimmick, GN’R was no act: The band was the real deal, like a prizefighter with nothing to lose.

GN’R’s debut Appetite For Destruction eventually broke into the Billboard Top 10 that April. But GN’R’s dangerous appeal made the band hard to sell to the mainstream, where shiny pop stars like Michael Jackson and Prince were the flavor of the day. MTV refused to play the video for the single “Welcome To The Jungle,” which depicted Axl Rose in a straitjacket, shaking uncontrollably to footage of war and bikini-clad bombshells. After a phone call from label head David Geffen, MTV finally agreed to play the video. “Welcome To The Jungle” then lit up MTV’s call-in boards, making GN’R popular overnight. But the video’s violent imagery, along with Axl Rose’s eyeliner and blow-dried hair, didn’t have the crossover appeal necessary to transport GN’R from its hair-metal roots into the mainstream.

A different track off Appetite For Destruction had the romantic overtones to soften GN’R’s image, and expand its audience from metalheads to mainstream America. With GN’R on tour with Iron Maiden in the summer of ’88, Geffen released “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” a ballad that everyone in the band thought was too sappy, except for Rose. He orchestrated its evolution from Slash’s calliope-like intro—which the guitarist described as a “stupid little riff,” a way of loosening up his fingers—into GN’R’s magnum opus.

Geffen saw dollar signs in “Sweet Child.” It was the uptempo ballad the label needed to promote GN’R’s new image to MTV’s gun-shy executives, and secure heavy radio rotation. Rock bands through the decades have tapped into the mainstream with ballads, like Journey with “Open Arms,” and KISS with the orchestral “Beth.” GN’R was no different, except that “Sweet Child” was never written to bridge the gap, or to attract a female following like Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” Had it not been for a half-finished poem Axl was writing for then-girlfriend Erin Everly, and his own shaman-like sense of destiny, “Sweet Child” may never have developed into a hit. “I had written this poem, reached a dead end with it and put it on the shelf,” Axl stated in a press release at the time. “Then Slash and Izzy got working together on songs and I came in, Izzy hit a rhythm, and all of a sudden this poem popped into my head.”

Rose saw something in “Sweet Child,” so to give it that “heartfelt” feeling missing from so many rock ballads in those days, he went back to his collection of Lynyrd Skynyrd tapes and studied them for their Southern soul. Those roots would be the song’s secret weapon. To chords constructed by guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and bassist Duff McKagan’s hummable bassline on the intro, Slash added four guitar solos (including the intro) and the song’s most melancholic minute of tension. Slash’s final solo slithers into a coda where Rose says, “Where do we go? / Where do we go now?” a memorable section added during the recording process, when the singer asked producer Spencer Proffer: “Where do we go?”

The label cut the six-minute ballad down to four minutes and released it as a radio-friendly single in August 1988. Rose was infuriated when he heard the radio version, as was Slash, who saw his masterful guitar work edited down. Following a music video that showed the band practicing in a ballroom surrounded by their girlfriends, “Sweet Child” began to climb Billboard’s Hot 100. By August 6, Appetite For Destruction had made it to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after 50 weeks of working the charts.

“You should have seen the fucking difference [in crowd reaction] before, and after, that single came out” bassist Duff McKagan stated in Stephen Davis’ Watch You Bleed: The Saga Of Guns N’ Roses. “Before, only the people in front even knew who we were. They came to see us because they were our fans, all two dozen of them. Afterward, when [we played “Sweet Child”] everybody was on their feet with their cigarette lighters switched on. It was amazing, night and day. It happened that quickly.”

Because of its balance of sweet sentiment with hard rock, “Sweet Child” became GN’R’s most accessible song, the breakout single, whereas “Welcome To The Jungle” was its primal entrance song. On September 10, 1988, “Sweet Child” became No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, only days after the 1988 MTV VMAs and heavy rotation of the video on the network. At the VMAs that year, Rose ended the band’s performance of “Welcome To The Jungle” with his eyes closed, raising his arms to the sky like a pastor and staring into the lights as if he’d had a religious experience.

“Sweet Child” transformed Axl Rose into the hard-rock Frank Sinatra: A moody showman crooner driven by paranoia, a mafia-like need for control, and an unwillingness to comprise. It also made it clear that Rose wasn’t playing the part of a romantic, as it showcased his attempt to write what he described as his only “positive love song.” It hinted at childhood trauma Rose experienced growing up in Lafayette, Indiana. He references his mother in the duality of the song’s second verse: “Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I’d hide. And pray for the thunder and the rain, to quietly pass me by.” It made the rock monster in him seem more human and less Dionysus. Due to its poetry and touch of Southern boogie, “Sweet Child” attracted a following that kept it on the Hot 100 for 24 weeks, and spent two weeks at No. 1 looking down at the ridiculous bombast of Huey Lewis, George Michael, and Van Halen. It would be GN’R’s first (and last) time at No. 1.

In the years to come, Slash’s guitar intro would go on to become one of the most recognized riffs in rock. For the rest of the band, August 1988 was Guns N’ Roses’ apex. In 1989, “Sweet Child” garnered GN’R the VMA for “Best Rock Video,” and “Favorite Pop/Rock Single” at the AMAs. “The most important band of 1988 was Guns N’ Roses,” said Kurt Loder in an MTV News 1989 broadcast. “Their songs actually had something to say. Poetically in some cases.”

“Sweet Child” would reappear over the years in covers by Sheryl Crow and Carrie Underwood, movies like The Wrestler, and countless rock ’n’ roll wedding receptions. Its resonance stems from a period when metal and hard-rock ballads were often overly epic, slow-motion anthems that lacked the soul to connect with non-metalheads. But it’s a song that you’re not likely to find on a Monster Ballads comp, because it’s not the schlocky byproduct of a professional songwriting crew. So “Sweet Child” shows Axl Rose at the height of his songwriting powers, resulting in a song that changed the destiny of the band forever.
Source: http://www.avclub.com/article/sweet-child-o-mine-marked-turning-point-guns-n-ros-230920
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Post by Soulmonster Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:15 pm

It's wierd when you suddenly realize that a piece of lyrics you have known for very long falls into place or takes a new meaning. I have known the lyrics to SWOM since I was a kid of twelve, and I never realized that Axl was comparing Erin's to a safe place he would hide as a kid to escape abuse. I mean, I realized he was talking about escaping something bad (the "thunder and rain") but it just struck me today he was probably already then hinting at domestic abuse from his step father (or whoever it was). It made the lyrics more meaningful and heavy.
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Post by Soulmonster Mon Aug 01, 2016 2:38 pm

This week in 1988 (August 6) the Sweet Child single helped send AFD to the top of Billboard 200 after 50 weeks on the list.

Source: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7446698/this-week-in-billboard-chart-history-in-1988-guns-n-roses-scored
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Post by Soulmonster Tue Aug 01, 2017 7:36 pm

The director of the music video, Nigel Dick, reminisces:

Dick also remembers that Axl's Sunset Strip-style bling nearly encumbered an otherwise classic performance. "[Rose] did this thing halfway through the song where he took his leather jacket off. He said, 'Is this cool?' and I said, 'Yeah, as long as you try and remember and do it the same way every time.' Well, we never got beyond halfway through the song for the first five, six takes, because he had so much metalwork around his wrists that the jacket kept getting caught on the metal stuff, and I remember this one shot of him like a windmill, just flailing his arm, and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, he's going to get pissed off, he's going to leave the set,' which he didn't, thank God."
Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/guns-n-roses-video-history-behind-the-scenes-of-the-appetite-clips-20070803
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Post by Soulmonster Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:17 am

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Post by Soulmonster Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:29 pm

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Post by Soulmonster Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:36 pm

Since I do play a bit of guitar myself, I really enjoyed that video.
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Post by Blackstar Sun Dec 16, 2018 6:58 pm

Q, December 2005:

The Story Behind The Song - Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"

ROCK'N'ROLL HAS sucked a big fucking dick since the Sex Pistols," sneered Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin in March 1987. Luckily, his band were there to save it. Touted as rock's next big thing, their snotty debut EP 1986's Live ?! *@ Like A Suicide, had served notice of their antagonistic intent. But it would be the following year's riotous debut album, Appetite For Destruction, that turned them into superstars. At the heart of it was their secret weapon: an unexpectedly touching ballad called Sweet Child O' Mine that revealed a sensitive side to the band's volatile singer, Axl Rose, and gave Guns N' Roses their first-and only US Number 1 single.

WRITING

In early 1986, Guns N' Roses were the most notorious upstarts on Los Angeles' rock scene, based around the city's notoriously sleazy Sunset Strip. Their lives revolved around drink, hard drugs and bedding as many groupies as possible. The centre of operations: a crumbling two-storey Hollywood condo nicknamed "The Hellhouse".

'A lot of crabs were transferred in that place," recalls guitarist Slash. "It was a place where the whole sleaziness of the band could fester."

Impressed by their explosive live shows, Geffen signed GN'R in March 1986. The first thing the band's new paymasters did was move them out at The Hellhouse and into an unfurnished house in the upmarket Griffith Park neighbourhood to focus on writing and rehearsing songs for their debut album. It was here, in the summer of 1986, that the seeds of Sweet Child O' Mine were planted.

"I was fucking around with this stupid little riff," says Slash. 'Axl said, Hold the fucking phones! That's amazing!"

Within five minutes, the band had worked Slash's cyclical riff into the bare bones of a song. Fleshing it out wasn't so easy.

"Writing and rehearsing it to make it a complete song was like pulling teeth," says Slash. "For me, at the time, it was a very sappy ballad."

Axl Rose felt differently. He supplied uncharacteristically intimate lyrics based on a poem he had written for his then girlfriend, Erin Everly, daughter of '60s pop icon Don Everly. To get the right sound, he went back to an unlikely source: unfashionable '70s longhairs Lynyrd Skynyrd, the hard-drinking Southern redneck rockers decimated by a plane crash in 1977 that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant and two other band members.

"I'm from Indiana, where Lynyrd Skynyrd are considered God to the point that you ended up saying, I hate this fucking band!" said Rose in 1987. "And yet for Sweet Child... I went out and got some old Skynyrd tapes to make sure that we'd got that heartfelt feeling."

While Rose was adamant about the song's potential, his bandmates were less convinced.

"It was like a joke," says bassist Duff McKagan. "We thought, What is this song? Its gonna be nothing."

RECORDING

Guns N' Roses entered Rumbo Studios in Los Angeles in August 1986 to begin work on Appetite For Destruction. The man picked to produce the album was Mike Clink, a veteran studio hand whose most famous credit was Survivor's 1982 soft-rock classic Eye Of The Tiger. Clink was undaunted by the band's reputation for debauchery.

"I went to their house," he recalls. "It looked like somebody had decided to do some remodelling and had knocked down the walls."

A firm taskmaster, Clink introduced a rule: no drugs in the studio.

"He kept us at arm's length," confirms Slash. "We partied really hard, but when we were in the studio, we were pretty much together. There was no doping and all that stuff."

Fuelled by nothing stronger than cigarettes and Jack Daniel's, the band knuckled down to work on the album. With Clink determined to "capture the band's essence, not beat it into the ground", most tracks were recorded in just a few takes.

"Sweet Child O' Mine was easy to record, apart from the guitar intro," says Slash. "It took me all afternoon to time it out and be at the right place when the drums came in."

When the track was finished, Mike Clink was certain they had something special.

"That song made the hairs on my arms stand up," he says. "It was magical."

A few weeks later, the album was mixed by pop producers Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero, who had previously worked with Whitney Houston and Simply Red.

"Sweet Child O' Mine sounded like a hit to all of us," recalls Barbiero. "So much so that I remember Axl asking me when we were finished if I thought the album would actually sell. I told him that, despite the fact that it was nothing like what was on the radio, I thought it would go gold. I was only off by 20 million records."

EPILOGUE

Sweet Child O' Mine was released as a single in August 1988. It reached Number 1 in the US Billboard charts the following month, sparking interest in Appetite For Destruction. By the end of the year, the album had sold three million copies worldwide, transforming Guns N' Roses from a cult rock band to a mainstream phenomenon. It has sold more than 20 million copies to date.

Axl Rose married Erin Everly in April 1990 at Cupid's Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The volatile marriage was annulled less than a year later, though the song Rose wrote for Everly was built to last. Even Slash came round to liking t in the end.

"I hated it for years," he says. "But it would cause such a reaction - just playing the first stupid notes used to evoke this hysteria - so I've finally gotten to appreciate it."

SLEEVE NOTES

Written by: Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler
Performers: Rose (vocals), Slash (guitar), Stradlin (guitar), McKagan (bass), Adler (drums)
Recorded at: Rumbo Studios, Los Angeles, August 1986
Producer: Mike Clink
Released: August 1988 and June 1989
Highest UK chart placing: 6 (in 1989)
Available on: Appetite For Destruction (Geffen, 1987)
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Post by Blackstar Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:31 am

Total Guitar, August 1999. Article about the song and guitar tabs.

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GUNS N' ROSES
SWEET CHILD O' MINE


Everyone has their favourite Guns N' Roses story. How about the time the band's manager ordered Izzy to get rid of all his drugs before going through customs? He did, and spent 36 hours in a coma. How about when the band broke down in the desert and had to hitchhike all the way to Seattle to play a gig in front of ten people? Remember the St Louis riot sparked by Axl assaulting a guy in the audience? Or the countless yarns of drug excess and reckless behaviour? If the Gunners are short of something it's not tales of rock ’n’ roll abandon.

Years later and the dust that GN’R so belligerently kicked up still hasn't seemed to have settled. For many critics it remains easier to knock the band for their Spinal Tap-esque calamity prone nature than praise them for their musical achievements. It's unfair, but pop culture is notoriously matricidal; it builds up and creates its heroes then joins in as they’re shot down in flames. But whatever the pundits have to say, Guns N’ Roses’ lasting appeal has seen the album Appetite For Destruction rise above the headlines to become considered a classic rock record, as relevant as Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic, Metallica’s ‘Black’ album or The Cult’s Electric.

FATAL ATTRACTION

Formed from a background of broken LA bands in 1985, GN’R rapidly became a premier attraction on the Southern California club scene, where they were known as a fiercely uncompromising and aggressive rock band. A contagious concoction of’70s hard rock, punk attitude and ’60s debauchery, they drew their musical influences from Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, the Stones and the Pistols and their visual identity and verve from the New York Dolls. They were way beyond the likes of Poison, Ratt and Warrant - a return to the real wayward style of rock ’n’ roll.

Guns N’ Roses were always larger than life. There was the manic ginger singer, the Keef-fixated rhythm guitar player, the permanently dazed drummer, a lead guitarist who looked like Cousin It and a bass player who openly acknowledged he was Duff.

With their first full-length release, GN’R painted LA life as they saw it; violent, drug-addled, sick, decaying and full of meaningless, empty relationships. That such a tender ballad should have a place on an album of outright paranoia (Out To Get Me), foreboding tales of addiction (Mr Brownstone) and teenage delinquency (My Michelle) in itself seems remarkable. But Sweet Child O’ Mine is a killer track that hinted at Guns N’ Roses potential as radio hit-makers without compromising their hard-rock credentials. An overdriven love-letter to those we left behind, Sweet Child O’ Mine is the brooding calm in the balls-to-the-wall extravaganza that is Appetite For Destruction.

DAZE IN THE GARDEN

The song was written in the early days of GN’ R in the so-called ‘Garden’, a tiny room where the band played, wrote, slept and played some more. “It was this little studio that the whole band kind of moved into,” rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin recalled. “We would sit in there for endless nights playing whatever guitar was around.” And that’s pretty much how Sweet Child... came about, stories that have since now mutated into pop folklore recount how Slash was picking out the intro riff, Izzy clanged out some chords and Axl started singing off the top of his head. It was an obvious choice for the album, though ironically Slash was initially concerned at its inclusion. He needn’t have been.

Sweet Child O’ Mine is epic guitar rock, boasting not one, but two memorable guitar hooks, killer rhythm chops and a lead break that stands alongside Eddie Van Halen’s monumental Beat It outing as contender for best rock solo of the ’80s. Building from the clear, belllike pedal-tone intro, Slash and Izzy turn in a command performance of rock guitar culminating in that awesome lead.

Slash adapts his gutsy, driving style into some astonishingly fine melodic and pentatonic soloing, the ripe of playing he later galvanised on the ‘other’ GN'R classic ballad, November Rain.

With his Peter Baranet Les Paul flametop and a vintage Marshall 100W head, Slash’s licks evoke his heroes: Joe Perry, Jimmy Page, Michael Schenker and Jimi Hendrix. “My style is a bit old-fashioned,” he explained. “The only thing I like about my guitar playing is that even though it’s sort of old-fashioned and not complicated, it does have emotion to it.”

And maybe that was why Slash’s back-to-basics approach was so refreshing. While he could blow with the best of them (check out the outro on Paradise City!), he consciously avoided joining the guitar battles of speed and technique being fought out by long-forgotten wonders like Ratt’s Warren DeMartini and White Lion’s Vito Bratta. “I’m not a technical musician at all,” he asserted sometime after Appetite’s release. “I can sit on one note forever. I'm just trying to express myself as well as I can within the context of the song.”

Regardless of his self-effacing comments, Slash’s playing on Sweet Child... has come to epitomise his approach of tone, melody and blazing chops when they’re needed.

And despite the guitarists initial concerns, Sweet Child O' Mine became the song that really made his band, after initial sales of Appetite... had failed to push the record into the Billboard Top 100. When it was finally released as a single (in radio-friendly edited form) in June ’88 it shot straight to Number One in the US, and helped Appetite For Destruction reach the same lofty heights and remain in the charts for three years. To date Appetite... has shifted over 15 million copies and remains one of the biggest selling debuts ever.

So if you can see past the hype and the headlines, then you’ll probably see why Guns N’ Roses were once heralded as ‘The Most Dangerous Rock ’N’ Roll Band In The World’. Because when they were at their best, no-one else even came close.

***

Sweet Child O’ Mine
GUNS N’ ROSES


Guns N' Roses's debut, Appetite For Destruction, moulded '80s rock. Armed with a Les Paul, RICHARD BARRETT tabs their hit, Sweet Child O' Mine, while JASON SID WELL talks tech...

Sweet Child Of Mine was originally played in the tuning of Eb. Basically this is standard E tuning (low to high: E A D G B E) dropped a semitone (low to high: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). Favoured by many rock guitarists, it creates a looser string tension which makes vibrato and string bending easier. It also lowers the high notes for singers! However to make life easier, we’ve opted to use the more conventional (and reader friendly) standard E tuning.

THE INTRO

The intros high single note idea is a popular music shop lick - especially when trying out a Les Paul into a Marshall set up. Although it may look quite tricky (and it did take Slash many attempts before getting the best take in the studio), it’s actually based around the common D major chord shape found in the open position (ie using an open string and several fretted notes).

Using string skips to create large intervals and adding notes around this shape to fit the accompanying chords results in a novice version (as shown in figure 1). The chords in brackets below the notation represent the shapes used -basically they are all D chords with short forays into a G chord (beats ‘2 &’ and ‘3’). Take this up the octave to fret 12 and with a slight re-fingering of the fretting hand you have what Slash plays as shown in the main transcription. Alternatively, a capo fitted on fret 12 will enable you to keep the same fingering as you had for the open position.

Although this famous bit doesn't occur in its 8-bar entirety' again, the choruses do use its first two bars. Elsewhere, the intro’s use of chord arpeggios and wide interval skips forms the essence of the electric guitar accompaniment throughout the verses and first guitar solo. This helps create a smoother transition between chord changes and is a great trick to make an overdriven guitar part sound ‘clean’.

THE TWO SOLOS

Slash is well known for his hard rock approach to blues pentatonic soloing. Using a distorted Marshall amp and his Les Paul’s bridge pickup, his approach switches between lyrical, note sustaining phrases and ‘hell for leather’ playing with loads of string bending, note flurries and attitude! Check out the guitar solo’s opening with its sustained note string bends and smooth vibrato before the scalic wah ascent into familiar blues box pentatonic territory.

Even when he’s blistering, there is a method in Slash’s note choice. For example, the sequential note ascent in bars 12-13 of the second solo suggests modern influences amongst his more traditional blues licks like the pull-off and bend triplet flurries that follow in bars 14-17.

WHAMMY WONDERS

Likewise, the outro features speedy pull-off pentatonics (bars 6-7 of the section) and stinging vibrato bends. The band’s triplet unison rhythm later is a great device to emphasise a section.

If you are wondering how Slash got the low ‘dip’ bend on the the sixth string without a whammy bar, just grab the headstock and push it forward while the picking hand keeps the guitar tight to your chest. This will result in the neck bending forward and lowering the strings pitch. Gibson SG guitars are among the best for this as they have a weaker neck (and have been known to break with extreme bends, so be careful!) but a Les Paul also produces good results. Of course, if yoti have a whammy bar use that instead.
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Post by Soulmonster Fri Jan 08, 2021 1:53 pm

New "old" quote from Slash:

We were sitting in the room at this house - it was me, Duff, Izzy and Axl – and I came up with that intro thing. Then Izzy put the chords that fit behind it and then Axl started singing it. So we had the first part of the song down and then we just started working on it from there.
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Post by Soulmonster Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:16 am

The intro riff was voted as the greatest riff of all time by Total Guitar in 2004, and Slash commented to the magazine:

It’s sort of a funny thing because that riff was... I was just noodling around and just stumbled over this little bit of an idea - it was sort of a fluke. To me it was just some silly thing that I wouldn’t have taken much further if Izzy [Stradlin] hadn’t been there playing some chords.

It was always a joke to me until Axl came up with some words and made a song out of it. And because this was in the early days of Guns N’ Roses - we were this fuckin' hard rock band - it was just a sappy ballad to us. I hated that song. I hated when it came up in the set. Sometimes I’d get too drunk and wouldn’t be able to play it. I just never took it seriously until way later when the song became a hit, and all I’d have to do is go into the first notes of that song and everyone in the whole place would lose their fuckin’ minds.

Now to see it being recognised as an influential rock lick... [Laughs, in disbelief.] I’m a little bit overly flattered and humbled by it. I really don’t know what else to say. I would never have predicted that in a million years. You don’t sit down writing riffs so that they turn up later as being... I dunno... the shit, so to speak.”
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Post by Blackstar Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:17 pm

Article and guitar tablatures in Guitar Techniques magazine, September 2006:

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Slash And Axl’s Party Piece Par Excellence...

Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine

With guitarists Slash, Buckethead and Bumblefoot, let’s check out this GN’R anthem before John Wheatcroft thinks of a one-word moniker and dashes off to secure the gig with Axl for himself!

AN EGOTISTICAL MANIAC for a singer, numerous supermodel girlfriends, drug and alcohol induced bust-ups, numerous line-up changes, an album that's taken ten years and as many million dollars and has yet to be completed, the guitarist and bass player's new band selecting a frontman who has to wait for day release from prison to record the vocals for their debut album. Nice boys, those Guns N' Roses lot!

It seems like trouble follows Guns N' Roses around, and the press is never far behind. For all this talk of hell-raising, drugs and debauchery, the one thing that is often overlooked is, in fact, the music. Damn fine it is too.

For a period during the late '80s and early '90s, GN'R gave rock music a much needed kick in the pants, with a stripped down, raw and dirty blues-based style that revitalised classic rock and provided many a fledgling guitarist with a new hero to idolise - Saul Hudson, better know to the world simply as Slash.

This month's transcription comes from the band's stunning debut album Appetite For Destruction when they were on peak form. I saw them at the Monsters Of Rock Festival at Donington just as this album broke in the UK, and even though at that tender age my world surely revolved around Yngwie Malmsteen,

I can clearly remember being mightily impressed by the dude in the top-hat with the very out-of-fashion Gibson Les Paul.

Okay, so everyone can play the intro. But trust me, there's a whole lot more to this song than just the first dozen or so bars. Slash's guitar part has beauty, complexity, sophistication, soul, emotion, excitement and drama, is technically challenging and it's also one of the most popular tunes any covers band could consider to include in their set. What are you waiting for? GT

*

Appetite For Destruction, the band's major label debut release in 1987 for Geffen records, rightly rocketed Slash and the boys to worldwide fame and fortune. Every aspiring rocker should have a copy. Velvet Revolver's Contraband (2004) brings us up to date with what Slash is up to these days. As for Axl, now that GT favourite Ron Thal is on board, the guitar world waits with baited breath for the next GN'R release, Chinese Democracy.

*

TECHNIQUE FOCUS
WHAT’S A SEMITONE BETWEEN FRIENDS?

You've spent hours mastering this month's transcription, perfected the intro and even got all the solos down, everything sounds great when you play along with the backing track so you decide that you're going to have a go at playing along with the original, purely for educational purposes and not to prance around like a rock star in front of the mirror. We understand.

You're in for a shock when the music comes in, however, and not because your beloved has come home early and caught you in just a top hat and leather trousers, rockin' out like a maniac.

No, it's because GN'R, like numerous other rock artists, such as Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Yngwie Malmsteen, Thin Lizzy and even The Beatles when they performed live, tune each string down the equivalent of one fret, the sixth string now tuned to E flat, and that makes you a semitone sharp! "Why do they do that?" I hear you ask. Well, it's easier on the singer for one; many touring bands adopt this method as it makes the high notes just that bit easier to reach. It also thickens the guitar sound up a treat too. The reduced tension now makes string bending easier and the whole guitar feel a bit looser and more vibrant; think of it like going down a gauge in strings, essential if you're going to use Slash's heroic 11s or Stevie Ray's Herculean 13s and still make the bends.

The downside to this is that unless you dedicate a guitar solely for E-flat tuning you'll have to retune every time you want to play along with any of these artists - not always easy on a guitar with a floating or locking vibrato system, as the set-up needs to be altered so, with this in mind, the GT version this month is in standard tuning. Shame though, because it sounds fantastic that one semitone lower!

GET THE TONE

Right from the beginning, Slash's main recording guitar has been a, you've guessed it, Kris Derrig! This custom built replica was commission by GN'R's manager just before Appetite, and is handmade to 1958 specs. Any guitar with a pair of humbuckers should get you in the right ball park however; just make sure you follow the pickup selection indications in the transcription.
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Post by Soulmonster Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:51 am

[Being asked about standout moments while recording Appetite]: One thing was on “Sweet Child ‘O Mine” where it has that breakdown where it goes “Where do we go/where do we go.” If you listen, I’m doin’ these rimshots on the snare and if you listen to it, the first seven or eight rimshots that I do all sound different. ‘Cause I remember there sitting going, “Nope, nope, nope; that is not it, that is not it.”
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Post by Soulmonster Tue Nov 02, 2021 8:01 am

I always assumed they wrote this song while in the Gardner studio, and that Axl was lying on the loft when he heard the guy piece together the music, but it turns out it took place in the DeMille house:

We had this house that this management company had rented for us, they were courting us to be our managers. It was a really nice house in Laughlin Park, California. We had reduced the house to a mere shell of itself in only a few weeks.

One afternoon, when the smoke was still clearing from the night before, Duff, Izzy and I were sitting around on the floor --- we didn’t have any furniture anymore --- and I was dicking around with that riff. In all honestly, I don’t really know where the riff came from but, all of a sudden, it started to sound really cool. Izzy started playing acoustic behind it and the chord changes started coming together. Axl was upstairs in his bedroom and he overheard it. A couple of days after we had put together our simple riff/chord structure, Axl said, “Play that song you guys were playing the other day.” We were like, “What song?” He goes, “That one with that do do dodo do doo do do.” He had written a bunch of lyrics to it without us even knowing about it. It came together relatively quickly. We started rehearsing it and we wrote it from one end to the other that night.
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Post by Soulmonster Tue Jan 11, 2022 12:31 pm

From Total Guitar, January 2012:

EVERY decade has its rock anthem. While the 1970s had Stairway To Heaven and the 90s had Smells Like Teen Spirit, the most memorable riffathon of the 80s has to be the mighty Sweet Child O' Mine. Despite not being your typical Guns N' Roses song, Sweet Child... was released in August 1988, and has since gone on to sell a number of records not that far removed from several hundred gazillion. It continues to evoke bittersweet nostalgia for a generation (or two) of music lovers to this day.

Even people who haven't heard of Guns N' Roses know and love the track all these years later, judging by its near-constant presence on radio and music. Oh, and there's the small matter of its primary composer, Saul 'Slash' Hudson, playing it at half, time during last year's Superbowl in front of a TV audience of millions of beer-slurping American football fans. This a song that will outlive us all.

Its been rumoured for years that Slash regarded the ultra-iconic opening riff as a bit of a laugh, but that's not the whole story, he tells TG. "In passing, I did say that it was sort of a joke or something," he explains, "but initially it was just a cool, neat riff that I'd come up with. It was an interesting pattern and it was really melodic, but I don't think I would have presented it to the band and said, "Hey I've got this idea!" because I just happened to come up with it while we were all hanging around together Izzy. [Stradlin, GN'R's second guitarist at the time] was the first one to start playing behind it, and once that happened Axl Rose, [the band's singer] started making up words, and it took off that way."

At the time, none of GN'R had the slightest inkling that Sweet Child O' Mine would go on to be a planet-busting hit. In fact, Slash found the song irritating. As he explains: "One of the things that always bugged me about Sweet Child... was that it was an uptempo ballad, which didn't fit what Guns N' Roses was about as far as I was concerned. So that song annoyed me every time it came up in the set. It really bugged me!"

Nowadays, Slash is on the wagon, but back in the GN'R era he was an alcoholic (see his 2007 autobiography, Slash, for his account of the grisly details) and that twisty little riff— which is horribly easy to screw up after a few shots of Jack— interfered with his booze consumption. That only made him even more impatient with the song. "It really disturbed my drinking," he chuckles, "because whenever we did a show I'd have a fair amount of whisky beforehand. But when the song came up in the set, that riff was really hard to remember! [Laughs] So all in all it was a very aggravating song, although ironically it turned out to be the biggest song we ever did. Apparently, the Superbowl last year was the biggest audience for a TV show ever."

But while Slash thought Sweet Child... was a bit wussy for, 'the most dangerous band in the world' (@ A. Rose 1985), and despite the fact that it got in the way of his pre-show tipple, he does admit that parts of it floated his boat. "The saving grace for me was the solo section," he says. "That was a vey organic solo that came together simply. When we said, 'Here's the chord changes,' it occurred very spontaneously, and I always looked forward to that part of the song in the set. It was completely different to the rest of the song."

The super-warm tone that Slash wrung out of his Les Paul for the solo came from a Marshall amp, although he went elsewhere for the clean chords in the verses. "The only time that I didn't use a Marshall on Sweet Child... was on the clean bits, and believe it or not, those came through a Roland 120 Jazz Chorus amp, which was hanging around the studio," he says.

As for the guitar Slash played, it could only ever have been a Les Paul — but perhaps not the Les Paul that you'd expect. "I was lucky even to have a guitar for the Appetite album," he explains. "Originally, when I got to the studio, I had somehow in a fit of desperation, pawned most of my guitars, so all I had was a BC Rich Warlock and two Jacksons. I'd been playing those guitars live, and they sounded OK in a room full of people, but when I actually went and heard them in the cans they sounded fucking horrible."

Fortunately, fate intervened in the form of GN'R manager Alan Niven, Slash recalls. "Right before we went in to do guitar overdubs, Alan gave m e a handmade copy of a 1959 Les Paul made by a guy called Kris Derris. He built a run of between 50 and 100 immaculate '59 reissues, and that was the guitar that I used for the whole record. You could never tell that they weren't Gibsons." [Slash has continued to record with this Derrig guitar and acquired another in 1996.]

The irresistible riff is infamous for annoying guitar shop workers the world over. So turn the page and you can learn to irritate the staff at your local Guitars R Us. Go on — it's what Slash would want... (JMe)
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Post by ludurigan Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:08 pm

Soulmonster wrote:I always assumed they wrote this song while in the Gardner studio, and that Axl was lying on the loft when he heard the guy piece together the music, but it turns out it took place in the DeMille house:

We had this house that this management company had rented for us, they were courting us to be our managers. It was a really nice house in Laughlin Park, California. We had reduced the house to a mere shell of itself in only a few weeks.

One afternoon, when the smoke was still clearing from the night before, Duff, Izzy and I were sitting around on the floor --- we didn’t have any furniture anymore --- and I was dicking around with that riff. In all honestly, I don’t really know where the riff came from but, all of a sudden, it started to sound really cool. Izzy started playing acoustic behind it and the chord changes started coming together. Axl was upstairs in his bedroom and he overheard it. A couple of days after we had put together our simple riff/chord structure, Axl said, “Play that song you guys were playing the other day.” We were like, “What song?” He goes, “That one with that do do dodo do doo do do.” He had written a bunch of lyrics to it without us even knowing about it. It came together relatively quickly. We started rehearsing it and we wrote it from one end to the other that night.

I would take any info on dates and places with a grain of salt, specially dates, specially from slash quotes. he really confuses dates a lot

Having said that, he seems very specific and sure about this "place" quote, so he might be right about it! Very Happy
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Post by Soulmonster Thu Aug 18, 2022 4:17 pm

Slash being asked about his most lucrative song:

It was always about albums rather than singles but I’d guess Sweet Child O’Mine because it’s the most covered. There are some really good instrumental versions for the piano or violin but I’ve been horrified by some muzak versions. I’ve been sitting in a doctor’s office thinking ‘that sounds familiar’ and then realising it’s someone’s interpretation of what I’ve written – that can be a creepy feeling.
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Post by Soulmonster Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:26 am

And being asked if there is a GN'R or VR song he hates:

Wow! That's an interesting question. I don't think anybody has ever asked me that. I can't think of a song that I actually completely hate from either band. You know, I mean, maybe there's some songs that I like more than others. But I'll tell you one thing… I didn't hate it, but I wasn't fond of 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. And that gives you a good idea of how credible my opinion is… The actual riff itself I love, but the song itself… You know, Guns N' Roses was always a real hardcore, sort of, AC/DC kind of hard rock band with a lot of attitude. If we did any kind of ballads, it was bluesy. This was an uptempo ballad. That's one of the gayest things you can write. But at the same time, it's a great song — I'm not knocking it — but at the time, it just did not fit in with the rest of our, sot of, schtick. And, of course, it would be the biggest hit we ever had.
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Post by Blackstar Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:16 pm

Excellent live version by Manic Street Preachers. Sweet Child O' Mine has been part of their current tour set:





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Post by Soulmonster Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:21 pm

Yeah, I like that version, too. Great band.
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Post by ludurigan Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:24 pm

that was a good one indeed!

smart singer, huh?

"izzy" could use some improvement though Very Happy

funny fact how someone screams "it's so easy" at the end, the manic used to play "easy" in their sets

now...

how GOOD is that song?
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Post by Soulmonster Mon Feb 27, 2023 2:22 pm

Slash talking about the song in 2010:

Well, I mean, OK, you have to understand, like, Guns N' Roses' sort of roots as a group was very sort of hardcore rock and roll kind of thing. Very up, sort of in-your-face kind of thing. And very brash and very hard rock, you know? And, if we did a ballad, it would be something very slow and bluesy, and druggie, and depressing, or whatever. But, "Sweet Child of Mine" was the first up-tempo ballad we'd ever done. And so, it was very poppy in that sense. And so, it took me a while to get past that. And I play it now, and it's a lot of fun to play and everybody loves it. But in those particular days, it just seemed sort of the antithesis of what the band really was about, you know?
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Post by Soulmonster Thu Aug 17, 2023 3:42 pm

And like, "Where do we go," at the end of Sweet Child was, "Okay, where are we going in this song now? Where do we go now?" So that was like a place setter lyric. "Where do we go?" In the song, "Where do we go now?" And like, that was that band at the time. Like, "Oh, actually, that works for the song." You know, for the previous lyric in the song, it works great.
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Post by Soulmonster Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:11 am

Brain talking about learning the GN'R songs:

I was brought up on the click, you know, schooled, practice through the drum click, and that kind of stuff. So [Matt Sorum's] songs were easier to play. But the intricacies of, like, you know, and in the way the beats were played on Appetite, way different. You know, especially, you know, like it was so hard for me to get the feels, like Sweet Child O' Mine, I don't even think I still have it right, you know. It seems like the easiest beat but, you know, it is an easy beat if you just want to play it and be generic but to give it the swing and the flavor that it has on the album's is hard shit, you know.
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Post by Soulmonster Mon Feb 26, 2024 4:39 pm

So, one morning or early afternoon like hungover kind of thing, Izzy and Duff and myself were sitting in the living room and Axl was sitting upstairs in the bedroom. And I had this riff and it was just a succession, it was sort of kind of a pattern that's very much in my style to do. And I was formulating this rotation thing of this sort of melody. And so I was playing that and then Izzy started playing chords underneath it, and it started to sort of turn into something that sounded like a song. And so we were rehearsing in the Valley in Burbank, in this warehouse kind of place, and we went in there and Axl says, “Hey guys, play that riff you guys were playing at the house the other night”. We didn't know Axl was even listening. We had no idea that he'd heard what we were doing. And so we started playing it and he had come up with lyrics on this whole thing. And so that was really sort of the beginnings of Sweet Child of Mine. And, you know, I remember we wrote the entire song in one - as we always did, we wrote it in that one rehearsal session. And from there we ended up working with this guy, Spencer Proffer, who wanted to produce our record. And so we did some demos with him, which actually ended up being the flip side of the Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP. The live stuff that is in there is actually studio recordings with a live track put on it. And in those sessions we did Sweet Child of Mine and at that point we had a middle section that we didn't necessarily know where it was going and that's where the “where do we go now” part came from (laughs). Anyway, so that was really the origins of Sweet Child of Mine.
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