Paradise City
| Paradise City | |
|---|---|
| Guns N 'Roses | |
| publication | November 30, 1988 |
| length | 6:46 |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock |
| Author (s) | Duff McKagan , Slash , Steven Adler , Izzy Stradlin , Axl Rose |
| album | Appetite for Destruction |
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Paradise City is a hard rock song and the fourth single by the American rock band Guns N 'Roses . It was released on November 30, 1988 by Geffen Records . The song is a release from the 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction , which is one of the best-selling albums of all time. On the B-side was the track Used to Love Her , which was included a little later on the album G N 'R Lies . The maxi CD released in 1989 contained these two tracks as well as Anything Goes and Sweet Child o 'Mine from the debut album.
Emergence
The song was created as a joint project of all band members. They wrote it in their van on the way back to Los Angeles from a concert in San Francisco . Slash describes how it came about in his autobiography: We drove in our rented van, drank and played on our acoustic guitars, and something developed that later became the picked intro to Paradise City. Duff and Izzy jumped in while I was still busy with the chord progression. Then Axl joined in too . "Take me down to the Paradise City ..." I kept playing, throwing in a few improvised lines. "Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty," I sang. It sounded pretty mundane in my opinion. "Take me down to the Paradise city", Axl sang again. "Where the girls are fat and they've got big titties!" (Where the women are fat and have big tits) I called. Axl sang "Take ... me ... home". It was decided that the row with the green grass was a better fit. Although I liked my alternative proposal better, I was outvoted. I worked out the basic structure a bit while the others around me improvised lines like we were sitting on a bus to rock 'n' roll summer camp - and I think when the LA skyline finally appeared, we even believed it was be. After we got the chorus together, I popped in the big, heavy riffs that form the basis of the song. And that was the moment when Paradise City became my favorite of all Guns N 'Roses songs.
When performing live, Paradise City is the only Guns N 'Roses track that also has Slash doing the background vocals in the chorus. Here you can often see how he sings the alternative suggestion shown above instead of the official version.
history
After the album Appetite for Destruction initially sold slowly after its release in 1987, the band made their breakthrough with the single Welcome to the Jungle . The album shot to number one on the charts and the single also made it into the top ten. The next single with a music video, Sweet Child o 'Mine was also a success. In 1988 Paradise City was released as a single. The song has since become an integral part of the band's live performances.
The computer game Burnout Paradise , released in 2008, is set in a fictional city called Paradise City . The song is played in the start menu and is also included on the soundtrack.
Music video
The video begins with sequences from the soundcheck at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, where all musicians (except Axl Rose) play smaller bars or look bored around the area. Later, when the singing starts, the scenes from the sound check and live concert fluctuate.
Later, the scenes mix with live sequences from the Monsters of Rock festival in Castle Donnington, where the audience freaked out and two people were trampled to death. There are also scenes from strolling around town and backstage.
Web links
- Paradise City at Allmusic (English)
- Paradise City in the list of the 500 greatest songs of all time (Rolling Stone Magazine) (English)
- Music video on YouTube