In terms of contemporary guitar heroes, it doesn’t get much more iconic than Slash. Even those who are not fans of rock and metal are acutely aware of his exploits, a testament to the heights he has hit across his career. Given the power behind Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash’s back catalogue is brimming with legendary moments that all budding guitarists have spent time trying to emulate. Show
Stylistically, his work is placed somewhere between that of another hero of the Gibson Les Paul, Jimmy Page, and that of more visceral thrash players such as Kerry King of Slayer. There’s a swaggering blues current that runs through his work, but concurrently, there’s also high-octane energy and a penchant for electrifying shredding, as displayed on cuts such as ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ or ‘You Could Be Mine’. From his musical aptitude to the memory of him walking out of the church in the middle of a desert to perform the overblown solos for ‘November Rain’, Slash is a storied musician, and his reputation precedes him. Much of this mythos can be attributed to one track, 1988’s ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, one of rock’s greatest crossover hits. It has such a universal appeal that we’ve even seen numerous absurd renditions undertaken on Simon Cowell’s talent shows. Famously, Slash’s riff is what makes ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ so legendary, and luckily for us, during a radio interview made available by Raised On Radio back in 2018, the guitarist revealed how he wrote the riff. “All of us were living in this one house. It was completely a shell of a house. We parted this house on the ground,” Slash recalled. “We were sitting on the floor in the living room because we didn’t have any furniture. I was playing this riff and Izzy started playing some chord changes behind it and that’s were started. Then Axl was in the house and he was listening from upstair. So a couple days later we had a pre-production rehearsal and we’re playing”. He continued: “Between song at one point Axl said: ‘Hey, play that thing you guys were playing the other day. All of a sudden we realized he had written a whole thing of lyrics for that basic idea and off it went. Guns N’ Roses was a pretty harcord, gritty rock and roll band.” “That was an up tempo ballad and in the set. It just didn’t sit well with me, you know. It’s like, here we are doing ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, ‘Paradise City’, ‘It’s So Easy’ and then came this sort of ballad thing. When you know, it turned out to be the biggest song we ever did (laughs),” the guitarist concluded. Follow Far Out Magazine across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Most popular {{#.}}{{#articles}} {{#title}} {{/title}} {{/articles}} {{/.}}
"Sweet Child o' Mine" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses. It appears on their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. In the United States, the song was released in June 1988 as the album's third single, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming the band's only US number-one single. In the United Kingdom, the song was released in August 1988,[6] reaching number 24 on the UK Singles Chart the same month. Re-released there in May 1989,[7] it peaked at number six. Background and composition[edit]During a jam session at the band's house in the Sunset Strip,[8] drummer Steven Adler and Slash were warming up and Slash began to play a "circus" melody while making faces at Adler. Rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin asked Slash to play it again. Stradlin came up with some chords, Duff McKagan created a bassline and Adler planned a beat. In his autobiography, Slash said "within an hour my guitar exercise had become something else". Lead singer Axl Rose was listening to the musicians upstairs in his room and was inspired to write lyrics, which he completed by the following afternoon.[9] He based it on his girlfriend Erin Everly (daughter of Don Everly and Venetia Stevenson), and declared that Lynyrd Skynyrd served as an inspiration "to make sure that we'd got that heartfelt feeling".[8] On the next composing session in Burbank, the band added a bridge and a guitar solo.[9] When the band recorded demos with producer Spencer Proffer, he suggested adding a breakdown at the song's end. The musicians agreed, but were not sure what to do. Listening to the demo in a loop, Rose started saying to himself, "Where do we go? Where do we go now?" and Proffer suggested that he sing that.[9] An alternate version featuring half a live version, half a newly recorded 1999 version plays during the credits of the movie Big Daddy.[10] Music video[edit]The "Sweet Child o' Mine" video depicts the band rehearsing in Mendiola's Ballroom at Huntington Park, surrounded by crew members. All of the band members' girlfriends at the time were shown in the clip: Rose's girlfriend Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers; McKagan's girlfriend Mandy Brix, from the all-female rock band the Lame Flames; Stradlin's girlfriend Angela Nicoletti; Adler's girlfriend Cheryl Swiderski; and Slash's girlfriend Sally McLaughlin. Stradlin's dog was also shown. The video was successful on MTV, and helped launch the song to success on mainstream radio. To make "Sweet Child o' Mine" more marketable to MTV and radio stations, the song was edited down from 5:56 to 4:13, for the radio edit/remix, with much of Slash's guitar solo removed. This drew the ire of the band, including Rose, who commented on it in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone: "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."[11] A 7-inch vinyl format and cassette single were released. The album version of the song was included on the US single release, while the UK single was the "edit/remix" version. The 12-inch vinyl format also contained the longer LP version. The B-side to the single is a non-album, live version of "It's So Easy". On an interview on Eddie Trunk's New York radio show in May 2006, Rose stated that his original concept for the video focused on the theme of drug trafficking. According to Rose, the video was to depict an Asian woman carrying a baby into a foreign land, only to discover at the end that the child was dead and filled with heroin. This concept was rejected by Geffen Records. This song was used for a teaser trailer premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder, which released on April 18, 2022, and the film itself.[12] Reception[edit]"Sweet Child o' Mine" placed number 37 on Guitar World's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos." It also came in at number three on Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, and at number 198 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[13] In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number six in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. On a 2004 Total Guitar magazine poll, the introduction's famous riff was voted the number one riff of all-time by the readers of the magazine.[14] It was also in Rolling Stone's 40 Greatest Songs that Changed the World. It places number seven in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s", and placed number 210 on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Songs of the Century list. As of June 2019, the song is ranked as the 76th greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1987, by Acclaimed Music.[15] The song has sold 2,609,000 digital copies in the United States as of March 2012.[16] In 2017, Paste ranked the song number 10 on their list of the 15 greatest Guns N' Roses songs,[17] and in 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number eight on their list of the 20 greatest Guns N' Roses songs.[18] Guitarist Slash said in 1990, "[The song] turned into a huge hit and now it makes me sick. I mean, I like it, but I hate what it represents."[19] Australian Crawl controversy[edit]In 2015, the web page of the Australian music TV channel MAX published an article by music writer Nathan Jolly that noted similarities between "Sweet Child o' Mine" and the song "Unpublished Critics" by the Australian band Australian Crawl, from 1981.[20] The article included both songs, inviting readers to compare the two. It also cited a reader's comment on an earlier article[21] that had originally drawn attention to the similarities between the songs. As of May 2015, this comment no longer appeared on the earlier article. The story went viral[22] quickly, encouraging several comments on both the MAX article and the suggestion that "Unpublished Critics" had influenced "Sweet Child o' Mine",[23][24][25][26] including one from Duff McKagan, bass player with Guns N' Roses when "Sweet Child o' Mine" was written and recorded.[27] McKagan found the similarities between the songs "stunning," but said he had not previously heard "Unpublished Critics."[28] Uses in TV and Film[edit]This track has been used in numerous films, most recently in the 2022 film Thor: Love and Thunder.[29][30] Other films include:
Slash performs his guitar solo as a guitarist auditioning for a band in a Capital One commercial in which the theme is "easiest decision in the history of decisions".[33] Formats and track listings[edit]All tracks are written by Guns N' Roses except where noted. US 7-inch vinyl (27963-7)
UK 1988 7-inch vinyl (GEF 43)
UK 1988 10-inch and 12-inch vinyl (GEF 43TE; GEF 43T)
UK 1989 7-inch vinyl (GEF 55)
Personnel[edit]
Charts[edit]Certifications[edit]Sheryl Crow version[edit]
The song was covered by Sheryl Crow on the soundtrack to Big Daddy, and released as a bonus track on her third studio album, The Globe Sessions. The recording was produced by Rick Rubin and Crow. A music video for Crow's version was also released, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui.[66] Crow performed the song live at Woodstock '99.[67] Ultimate Classic Rock profiled the song as part of a series on "Terrible Classic Rock Covers",[68] and Rolling Stone readers named it the fourth worst cover song of all-time.[69] Despite its negative reception, it became a moderate hit in Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it earned Crow a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.[70] Charts[edit]Taken by Trees version[edit]
In 2009, Taken by Trees, the solo project of Swedish singer Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer of the Concretes covered the song for the 2009 John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert, a UK advertising tradition since 2007. It was later announced that the version would be released as their next UK single.[81] It was also used in the promotional trailers for the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left. The song was also used in the final scene for the 2010 film Life as We Know It. Bergsman's version reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart on November 28, 2009, and remained at the spot for six weeks.[82] See also[edit]
References[edit]
Who did the guitar solo in Sweet Child of Mine?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 explained.
Is Sweet Child O Mine a riff?From a riff that was nearly cast aside to the top of the charts.
What is the guitar tuning for Sweet Child O Mine?To play Sweet Child O Mine, tune your guitar to E flat tuning, which means tuning each string of your guitar down one semitone. 💡 Not sure about about guitar tuning? Learn to tune your guitar to Eb Tuning.
|
Who wrote the guitar riff for Sweet Child of Mine?
Related Posts
Copyright © 2024 ShotOnMac Inc.
