“Civil War” by Guns ‘n’ Roses

• Genre: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
• Single Release Date: May 1993
• Album: “Use Your Illusion II“

First released on a 1990 compilation album (Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal) released to raise funds for Romanian orphans and then on the 1993 album Use Your Illusion II. It was also released in the US as a single in 1990 but didn’t get a worldwide release until 1993.

Civil War is written as an anti-war song with many aspects of the song reflecting this. The beginning samples Strother Martin’s speech in the 1967 movie, Cool Hand Luke, quotes a speech by a Peruvian Shining Path guerrilla officer and includes the American Civil War song, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home“, whistled by Axl Rose in the intro and outro. It is these unusual aspects of the song as much as the actual musical elements that make me like it so much.

Lyrics

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before

Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D’you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said “peace could last forever”
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom
When it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’
For their promised land
And

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no

Look at the shoes you’re filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
‘Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don’t need one more war

I don’t need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
Whaz so civil ’bout war anyway?

Header image from 8Tracks.com

“Paradise City” by Guns ‘n’ Roses

• Genre: Glam Metal/Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
• Single Release Date: January 1989
• Album: “Appetite for Destruction”

It’s almost impossible for me to write about “Welcome to the Jungle” and not think about this track. It’s the 3rd single for Guns ‘n’ Roses and came hot on the heels of “Sweet Child o’ Mine“. I absolutely love the guitar and drum solos, especially the section between the first and second verses. The sheer power and energy as the track switches into the second verse is vividly seen in the live section of the video below.

Without a doubt this is one of my favourite songs of all time. Whenever I hear it after a long break it’s great to turn it up to full volume and blast it out. I was lucky to be among the 80,000 to watch Guns ‘n’ Roses live in Slane 1992 and this track was the encore. That followed by Queen’s “The Show Must Go On” as we walked up the hill away from the river and stage is one of my favourite memories…

Lyrics

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home (oh, won’t you please take me home)
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home (oh, won’t you please take me home)

Just a urchin livin’ under the street
I’m a hard case that’s tough to beat
I’m your charity case so buy me something to eat
I’ll pay you at another time
Take it to the end of the line

Rags to riches or so they say
Ya gotta keep pushin’ for the fortune and fame
You know it’s all a gamble when it’s just a game
Ya treat it like a capital crime
Everybody’s doin’ the time

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home

Strapped in the chair of the city’s gas chamber
Why I’m here I can’t quite remember
The surgeon general says it’s hazardous to breathe
I’d have another cigarette but I can’t see
Tell me who you’re gonna believe

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home, yeah yeah

So far away
So far away
So far away
So far away

Captain America’s been torn apart
Now he’s a court jester with a broken heart
He said “turn me around and take me back to the start”
I must be losing my mind “are you blind?”
I’ve seen it all a million times

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home

I wanna go, I wanna go
Oh, won’t you please take me home
I wanna see how good it can be
Oh, won’t you please take me home
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home
Take me down, lead me ’round
Oh, won’t you please take me home

I wanna see, what a woman can be
I want to take you home
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home
I wanna go, I wanna know
Oh, won’t you please take me home, yeah baby

Header image from 8Tracks.com

“Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n’ Roses

• Genre: Glam Metal/Hard Rock
• Single Release Date: September 1987
• Album: “Appetite for Destruction”

This was the first song written by the band as a collective, their second released single and featured on their debut album. It was named the greatest hard rock song of all time in 2009 by VHI and has received many high accolades since its release. To me it is Guns ‘n’ Roses at their purest.

As a hard rock song of the 80s though it hasn’t aged well. The original album cover art featured a robot attempting to rape a woman and the lyrics are highly suggestive of the same.

The video contains footage of violent riots mixed in with a live performance of the song. Some of this footage is taken from riots and disturbances in Northern Ireland including some from Bloody Sunday in Derry, 1972.

Lyrics

Oh my god

Jump

Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games
We got everything you want honey, we know the names
We are the people that can find whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey, we got your disease

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n knees, knees
Mwah, I, I wanna watch you bleed

Welcome to the jungle, we take it day by day
If you want it you’re gonna bleed but it’s the price to pay
And you’re a very sexy girl who’s very hard to please
You can taste the bright lights but you won’t get there for free
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my, my serpentine
Ooh, ah, I want to hear you scream

Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day
You learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play
If you got hunger for what you see you’ll take it eventually
You can have anything you want but you better not take it from me

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n knees, knees
Mwah, I’m gonna watch you bleed

And when you’re high, you never ever wanna come down
So down, so down, so down, yeah

You know where you are?
You’re in the jungle, baby, you’re gonna die
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-knees, knees
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my my, serpentine
Jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-knees, knees
Down In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to you
It’s gonna bring you down, huh

Header image from 8Tracks.com