mustaine Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) Wouldn't say that it started as a joke but what the hell... I'll share this anyway.Cracked.com - 6 Songs That Were Supposed to Be Jokes#1. "Sweet Child O' Mine" -- Guns N' Roses"Sweet Child O' Mine" boasts one of the most recognizable guitar riffs of all time (the "greatest guitar riff ever," as voted by readers of Total Guitar magazine). Hard to argue with this shit:Thanks to that riff, a generation of rock fans can identify that song within three notes. So how does Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash feel about that?Not great, considering the riff was just a string skipping exercise he was doing for practice. It was never meant to be an actual song. It'd like if Beethoven got a standing ovation for performing chopsticks.You see, "Sweet Child O' Mine" was written in a total of five minutes. Slash and Izzy Stradlin were just having a jam session, tooling around on their respective instruments while singer Axl Rose was upstairs playing with his action figures or something. Slash started doing his string skipping exercise and thought it sounded kind of like circus music, so he kept playing it and making goofy faces at his bandmate. Rose, on the other hand, heard the riff and came downstairs to tell Slash that it was going to be their next song. It went something like this:"Dude! That shit is awesome. It's going to be our next hit!""What? No man, I was just ... I was joking around. That can't be a song. It's just nonsense.""No no, it's perfect! I wrote this poem about my girlfriend a little while ago. We can use it for lyrics!""I don't think you understand ..."It took a while for Slash to begrudgingly get the unusual riff to match with a drum beat, but they eventually started recording. Their producer listened to what they'd put together so far and told them that they should add a dramatic breakdown in place of the last verse, with Slash busting out a killer solo and Rose singing something. After thinking for a moment about what that something could be, Axl asked "Where do we go now?" As in, "Where do we go with this song?"Nobody had any better suggestions, so for a solid chunk of the song, Rose just keeps shouting, "Where do we go now?""Anywhere but here, you crazy bastard."It could have just as easily been any other sentence someone decided to say at that particular moment, like "Where are my cigarettes?" or "Why does Slash's hat smell so bad?""Sweet Child" went on to hit number one on the charts, helping Guns N' Roses' album Appetite for Destruction secure its spot as the top-selling debut album of any band in the U.S. So let this be a lesson to every creative person reading this: What you like, and what your audience likes, are probably going to be very different. It's probably best to just go with it. Edited October 24, 2011 by mustaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhazUp Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I wouldn't neccesarily call it a "joke" personally, as the lyrics were genuine and the riff was a just practice thing Slash was doing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelinrocksnexttognr Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 How was it their "next hit" when they didn't have one before... hmmm. But seriously. It doesn't matter now. The song is a staple, joke or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iftheworld Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 SCOM isn't a joke. Stop trying to spread propaganda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ88 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 umm, actually, the riff did start off as a joke from what Slash said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustaine Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) SCOM isn't a joke. Stop trying to spread propaganda.Hopefully you don't take stuff like this seriously... was just sharing a link to a site that doesn't really take things too seriously and is full of useless information and bullshit. Take it for what it is, it sure isn't evil propaganda. Edited October 24, 2011 by mustaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bards Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 There should be a word filter for "propaganda". I've noticed that some users on this forum use it without knowing what the word means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axlsalinger Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) Yeah, these Cracked lists are generally awesome. This one is fine, some people around here are such sensitive little babies. Slash has said that the riff for Sweet Child (one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in music history) did start out as a joke, he was fooling around and couldn't believe anybody else was taking it seriously. Same thing goes for all the songs on the list, they started out as a joke and ended up being massive hits to the surprise of their creators.""Sweet Child O' Mine" was a joke. It was a fluke. I was sitting around making funny faces and acting like an idiot and played that riff. Izzy started playing the chords that I was playing, strumming them, and all of a sudden Axl really liked it. I hated that song because it was so stupid at first. I hated the guitar part. Now I really like it because I've gotten it to the point where it sounds really good when I play it live, and I'm so used to the song so I like it a lot more. But it definitely wasn't something I hummed out in my head. It was more like me fucking around with the guitar."[stix (1992) Slash - Guitar From The Gut, Guitar For The Practicing Musician - Nov 1992]Reality is pretty cool, some people on this board should look into it.And another thing: STOP MOVING EVERY GODDAMN THREAD.This is a new article, about a band called Guns n' Roses, and a song some people may have heard before called 'Sweet Child o' Mine'. There is nothing wrong with discussing new articles and information about Guns n' Roses in the "Guns n' Roses - News and Discussion" section. Edited October 25, 2011 by axlsalinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustaine Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) There should be a word filter for "propaganda". I've noticed that some users on this forum use it without knowing what the word means.Spot on. Some people take things way to seriously on these boards.Yeah, these Cracked lists are generally awesome. This one is fine, some people around here are such sensitive little babies. Slash has said that the riff for Sweet Child (one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in music history) did start out as a joke, he was fooling around and couldn't believe anybody else was taking it seriously. Same thing goes for all the songs on the list, they started out as a joke and ended up being massive hits to the surprise of their creators.""Sweet Child O' Mine" was a joke. It was a fluke. I was sitting around making funny faces and acting like an idiot and played that riff. Izzy started playing the chords that I was playing, strumming them, and all of a sudden Axl really liked it. I hated that song because it was so stupid at first. I hated the guitar part. Now I really like it because I've gotten it to the point where it sounds really good when I play it live, and I'm so used to the song so I like it a lot more. But it definitely wasn't something I hummed out in my head. It was more like me fucking around with the guitar."[stix (1992) Slash - Guitar From The Gut, Guitar For The Practicing Musician - Nov 1992]Reality is pretty cool, some people on this board should look into it.And another thing: STOP MOVING EVERY GODDAMN THREAD.This is a new article, about a band called Guns n' Roses, and a song some people may have heard before called 'Sweet Child o' Mine'. There is nothing wrong with discussing new articles and information about Guns n' Roses in the "Guns n' Roses - News and Discussion" section.I agree completely. Edited October 25, 2011 by mustaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BumbleBoob Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 And another thing: STOP MOVING EVERY GODDAMN THREAD.This is a new article, about a band called Guns n' Roses, and a song some people may have heard before called 'Sweet Child o' Mine'. There is nothing wrong with discussing new articles and information about Guns n' Roses in the "Guns n' Roses - News and Discussion" section.I agree completely.^ This.Most, if not all, of the moderators on here are trigger-happy little saddo's who's only goal in life is to end their whiney post in *LOCKED...Get your heads out of Axl's ASS! Jarmo is getting scared that you may overshadow his Gayness.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Even though he said it was a joke, the story that went around was that it was "practice", which he denied. It's a melody he had in his head. It's like Eddie Van Halen talking about his solo in "Beat It". They consider them "throwaway" solos. Or "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Point is that sometimes the throwaways become the biggest songs. Wikipedia mentioned there's a 3rd verse that Mike Clink cut? Any bootlegs of it? That would be cool if Axl did a "missing verse" version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kill Devil Hill Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Even though he said it was a joke, the story that went around was that it was "practice", which he denied. It's a melody he had in his head. In his book, Slash says it was a finger exercise.Yeah, there was a third verse apparently. Mike told them to replace it with a breakdown, and Axl said, "Huh? Where do we go now?" and Mike said, "That's it!" I'd love to hear that third verse, though, even though "Where do we go now" is my favorite part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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