SCOM #63 on RS' 100 Greatest Guitar Songs

[Ines_rocks!]

63   "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Guns n' Roses (1987)

Slash was sitting on the floor in Guns n' Roses' squalid East Hollywood house sometime in 1986 when he started fooling around with a chiming, circular melody. "It was an interesting sort of pattern," Slash says. "But Jesus Christ, I never thought it was going to become a song." As he kept playing, fellow G n' R guitarist Izzy Stradlin joined in, playing a simple chord progression. They didn't realize that Axl Rose was listening in from upstairs ? and writing lyrics. At rehearsal the next day, the band hashed out what would become "Sweet Child" ? over the objections of Slash, who was convinced that the music was too lightweight for what he saw as a "thrash band." But he relented, and soon came up with the lyrical, multisectioned solo that ended up on the finished song. "It's a combination of influences," Slash says. "From Jeff Beck, Cream and Zeppelin to stuff you'd be surprised at: the solos in Manfred Mann's version of 'Blinded by the Light' and Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street.'" Despite the solo's complexity, it was the song's precise intro that proved challenging onstage. "It's easy now, but it was very daunting in the early days," Slash says. "Especially because I drank exorbitant amounts of alcohol and had other chemical things going on. I hated playing that song for years." BRIAN HIATT


1. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
2. Purple Haze - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
3. Crossroads - Cream
4. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
5. Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones
6. Eruption - Van Halen
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles
8. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
9. Statesboro Blues - The Allman Brothers Band
10. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
11. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
12. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
13. Layla - Derek and the Dominos
14. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
15. My Generation - The Who
16. Cowgirl in the Sand - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
17. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
18. Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones
19. Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution
20. People Get Ready - The Impressions
21. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
22. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles
23. Over Under Sideways Down - The Yardbirds
24. Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
25. Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
26. How Blue Can You Get - B.B. King
27. Look Over Yonders Wall - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
28. Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
29. Back in Black - AC/DC
30. (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley and His Comets
31. Keep Yourself Alive - Queen
32. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
33. Master of Puppets - Metallica
34. Walk This Way - Aerosmith
35. 1969 - The Stooges
36. Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd
37. That's All Right - Elvis Presley
38. Stay With Me - The Faces
39. Black Magic Woman - Santana
40. I Can See for Miles - The Who
41. Marquee Moon - Television
42. Hideaway - John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers
43. Holidays in the Sun - Sex Pistols
44. Dig Me Out - Sleater-Kinney
45. I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles
46. Miserlou - Dick Dale and the Del-Tones
47. Panama - Van Halen
48. London Calling - The Clash
49. Machine Gun - Jimi Hendrix
50. Debaser - Pixies
51. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
52. My Iron Lung - Radiohead
53. Born on the Bayou - Creedence Clearwater Revival
54. Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughan
55. White Room - Cream
56. Eight Miles High - The Byrds
57. Dark Star - Grateful Dead
58. Rumble - Link Wray
59. Freeway Jam - Jeff Beck
60. Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
61. Soul Man - Sam and Dave
62. Born Under a Bad Sign - Albert King
63. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n' Roses
64. Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
65. Message in a Bottle - The Police
66. Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
67. Adam Raised a Cain - Bruce Springsteen
68. The Thrill is Gone - B.B. King
69. Money - Pink Floyd
70. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
71. Take it or Leave it - The Strokes
72. Say It Ain't So - Weezer
73. Summertime Blues - Blue Cheer
74. La Grange - ZZ Top
75. Willie the Pimp - Frank Zappa
76. American Girl - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
77. Even Flow - Pearl Jam
78. Stone Crazy - Buddy Guy
79. Silver Rocket - Sonic Youth
80. Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan
81. Beat It - Michael Jackson
82. Walk ? Don't Run - The Ventures
83. What I Got - Sublime
84. Gravity - John Mayer
85. You Enjoy Myself - Phish
86. I Ain't Superstitious - Jeff Beck
87. Red - King Crimson
88. Mona - Quicksilver Messenger Service
89. I Love Rock N Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
90. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
91. Drunkship of Lanterns - The Mars Volta
92. Memo from Turner - Mick Jagger
93. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
94. Money for Nothing - Dire Straits
95. Omaha - Moby Grape
96. New Day Rising - H? sker D?
97. No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
98. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
99. Run Thru - My Morning Jacket
100. Vicarious - Tool


http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20947527/page/27

[Atillla]

One of the very few GnR songs I can't stand 

And the best guitar songs ever written weren't in that list anywhere...where is Gates of Babylon by Rainbow? Or Achilles Last Stand by Zep?

This list, like any other list, is just a popularity contest among drones 

[Thorned Rose]

ha...

SCOM should be about 10 spots higher at least, and Eruption should be higher and Smells like teen spirit should be lower...

catchy song but SLTP should not be that high

[alejoyp]

WTTJ n' Paradise City should be in this list too though... n' btw where's the fuck're deep purple's Smoke on the water n' highway star or sabbath Iron man or war pigs... too bad man

[Thorned Rose]

Yeah the list is opinion obviously and RS isn't exactly accurate on a lot of those.

[Alpachiris]

Fuck this list!!

gnr in 63 and nirvana on 10, nooooo!!!

[Ines_rocks!]

Fuck this list!!

gnr in 63 and nirvana on 10, nooooo!!!

lol nirvana is the most overrated band ever... what can we do? 

[GnR-NOW]

There Was A Time would be #1 if it had an official release

[Genesis]

Fuckin Nirvana...

[LunsJail]

Thanks for that Ines_rocks!  I can't wait to get this RS in the mail

[LIGuns]

Shocked SCOM is so low....Many of the songs ahead of that are not in it's league..

[Ines_rocks!]

Thanks for that Ines_rocks!  I can't wait to get this RS in the mail

no problem 

[doooodickiebr]

i hate to say it - but stairway to heaven - i know it's far too overplayed, but most guitarists that were influenced by zeppelin will tell you that stairway was one of the first songs they learned how to play.

also, what about la bamba from ritchie valens?

would have liked to see paradise city somewhere in there too!

[Irish rose]

way too low on that list i think!

lets be honest...id say sweet child was the initial attraction for the majority of GNR fans in the first place..i know it was for me...great guitar song

Theres some other great tunes there too but you can never keep everyone happy with these lists!!!

[GNR4L]

I agree it should be in the top 10 on the list.

[King Axl]

I'm surprised there weren't more Van Halen songs on that list, quite frankly.....

Where's "Mean Street" and "Atomic Punk"?

Regarding "Sweet Child O' Mine", I never really thought the solo on the song was all that cohesive or memorable. It's the opening chords that make it a classic.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I'm surprised there weren't more Van Halen songs on that list, quite frankly.....

Where's "Mean Street" and "Atomic Punk"?

Regarding "Sweet Child O' Mine", I never really thought the solo on the song was all that cohesive or memorable. It's the opening chords that make it a classic.

Atomic Punk doesn't really have a riff.  It's just some guy running his hand up and down the strings through a flanger.

Mean Street is a bass driven song, so....no.

The chords?  What's memorable about a D?