Sweet Child o' Mine

"Sweet Child O' Mine" is a power ballad by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and the third single from their 1987 debut studio album,Appetite for Destruction. Released on August 17, 1988, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart,^[1] becoming the band's first and only number-one single in the U.S. It reached number six on the UK Singles Chart, when re-released in 1989

Background and composition

Lead guitarist Slash has been quoted as having a disdain for the song due to its roots as simply a "string skipping" exercise and a joke at the time.^[3]In a VH1 special, it was stated that Slash played the riff in a jam session as a joke.^[3] Drummer Steven Adler and Slash were warming up and Slash began to play a "circus" melody while making faces at Steven. Rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin asked Slash to play it again. Meanwhile lead singer Axl Rose was upstairs in his room and heard the 'jam session' going on downstairs and couldn't help but write lyrics. He based it on his girlfriend Erin Everly. With Steven's added drum part, Izzy's chords and Duff McKagan's bassline the harmony became the core of the song. Originally, there was a third verse to the song. However, this verse was later cut from recording as the band's producer, Mike Clink, felt the song would carry on for too long. The final dramatic breakdown was not added until Clink suggested the band add one. They agreed, but weren't sure what to do. Axl started saying to himself, "Where do we go? Where do we go now?" Clink suggested that he sing that, and "Sweet Child o' Mine" was born. In an interview with Hit Parader magazine in 1988, Duff McKagan noted:

“

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 fuckin' around when he first wrote that lick.[3]

”

The song is composed in the key of D♭ (D-Flat)/C♯ (C-sharp) mixolydian, which is a mode of G♭/F♯ major. At the start of the guitar solo it changes to the relative minor key or aeolian mode of G♭/F♯ major, or E♭/D♯ minor.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] GUNS N' ROSES (Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Music video

The "Sweet Child O' Mine" video depicts the band rehearsing in the Huntington Ballroom at Huntington Beach, surrounded by crew members. All of the band members' girlfriends at the time were shown in the clip. Rose was dating Erin Everly at the time, whose father was Don Everly of The Everly Brothers fame. Duff's girlfriend Mandy from the all-female rock band "The Lame Flames" was there, as was Steven Adler's girlfriend Cheryl. Izzy Stradlin's dog was also featured. The video was extremely successful on MTV, and helped launch the song to success on mainstream radio.

In an effort to make "Sweet Child O' Mine" more marketable to MTV and radio stations, the song was cut from 5:56 to 4:12, with much of Slash's guitar solo removed. This move drew the ire of the band members, including Axl 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."

The edit was released on the 7-inch vinyl format of the single as a 'Remix' while the 12" vinyl format contained the longer LP version.

On an interview on Eddie Trunk's New York radio show in May 2006, Axl 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.

There is also an alternative video for "Sweet Child O' Mine" with different shots, all in black and white

Source

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License