Paradise City

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"Paradise City"

Single by Guns N' Roses
from the album Appetite for Destruction
Released	1987
Format	Vinyl LP, Cassette, CD
Recorded	1987
Genre	Hard Rock
Length	06:46
Label	Geffen
Producer(s)	Mike Clink
Chart positions
#4 (Billboard top 100)
Guns N' Roses singles chronology
"Nightrain" (1988)	"Paradise City" (1989)
Appetite for Destruction track listing
"Mr. Brownstone" (5)	"Paradise City" (6)	"My Michelle" (7)

"Paradise City" is one of the most famous songs written by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It is included on the 1987 album Appetite for Destruction. The song's riff is credited to Slash, while he was in another band with Duff McKagan, and the tune just came to him. Along with "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine", it is one of Guns N' Roses' most enduring influences on the world of music. The famed chorus, "Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty", is thought to be a reference to heroin, "Paradise City" is (probably coincidentally) also an anagram of 'easy acid trip'.

"Paradise City" is thought by some to be about Los Angeles and its corruption at the time. Some believe the song to be written about Louisville, Kentucky which is 4 hours south of where Axl grew up in Indiana.

Half of the music video was filmed at Giants Stadium in New Jersey while Guns N' Roses were on tour with Aerosmith, midway through the video, they are seen boarding the Concorde jet so they could make an appearance in England, and return as quickly as possible back to the USA to continue touring with one of their major influences. The concert in England is the Monsters of Rock event at Donington Park. The reason for this is because of some deaths that took place while Guns N' Roses were performing. As a result, they thought the footage taken at the concert would be good music video footage and a proper show of respect to those who died at the concert.

Axl said "The verses are more about being in the jungle; the chorus is like being back in the Midwest or somewhere".^{[citation needed]}

This song was often used as the band's show-closing song during the Appetite, Illusion and Chinese Democracy tours.

This song was also ranked #21 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time,^[1] #3 in Total Guitar Magazine's list of the 100 greatest solos of all time, and has won various similar awards over the years. It ranked #453 on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Post-Hardcore band Eighteen Visions made a cover of the song which appeared on the Guns N' Roses tribute compilation Bring You To Your Knees: A Tribute to Guns & Roses.

[edit] Notes

^ "VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs", 1-4 May 2006, although Guns N' Roses were never a metal band. VH1 Channel, reported by VH1.com; last accessed September 10, 2006.

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