What is your quintessential Guns N' Roses song?

[Sydney Fan]

Depends on the mood. After a 2 year relationship ending "estranged" and "so fine" because i just love the solo.

But if i had to pick one, would be you could be mine. It was a good time especially with T2 and the neverending confirmed release date of illusions. I was 16 back then.

 

[Tomek1985]

Jungle

[Lies They Tell]

Welcome to The Jungle is probably the most obvious answer, but you can't really say that it embraces everything that GNR is. There is no tenderness in that song. I mean the bands name is Guns N' Roses, so the band is not all about guns but about roses too. Is there a song that would properly capture both sides? Well November Rain has the ballady first part and the harder hitting second part. So maybe that one? But I don't know. No song really captures the whole essence of the band.

[Gold top 78]

The first 4 tracks on AFD to me sums up what GNR were all about 

[Duff80]

Jungle

[Edward Nygma]

1 hour ago, Creed said:

Have you ever heard Stairway to Heaven? And there are even a few other songs that are stunning with regard to their production. f.ex. try to create sth like 'Voodoo People' by The Prodigy. Axl tried and failed with CD. Its super complex.

Failed at what? CD has a loyal and growing fan base, overall don't think CD was that bad that it can be deemed a failure. 

[alfierose]

18 hours ago, downzy said:

Good question, tough to answer.

For me, there isn't just one.  GNR is a two sided coin, with Jungle on one side and November Rain or Estranged on another.  

Then again, maybe a song like Locomotive does a good job of including both sides.  

 

Yes. My two most listened to GNR songs over time (including live versions) are probably WTTJ and Estranged. Both very different yet both very GNR. OTGM is probably a close runner up with special mentions to Locomotive, Nightrain and Rocket Queen.

Just to add if I had to at gun point pick one it would probably be WTTJ.

Edited March 13, 2019 by alfierose

[Tom-Ass]

Enjoying all the "Out Ta Get me" love

[Team RamRod]

Coma and Catcher

[TheHelgo]

while not my favorite song (although easily top 5'ish), I have to go with WTTJ here, as it has always been the song that defined GNR for me.

[WAR41]

I'd have to say the best single song to summarize the band is Rocket Queen.  It has that mean, pissed off part 1 of the song and the sensitive and passionate part 2.  Sums up the band pretty perfectly in my opinion. 

[RussTCB]

Civil War

[Len Cnut]

It all depends on what you feel the essence of GnR is, to me its rock n roll so like...the rootsier stuff they do to me captures their essence so...I dunno, Used to Love her perhaps? 

[SoulMonster]

To me, Welcome to the Jungle.

Axl agrees: "I consider the song to be the most representative of what we're like" [Geffen Press Kit, 1987]

[adamsapple]

You Could Be Mine / Sweet Child O' Mine

Don't know why or how to explain but for me this is THE Guns N' Roses sound.

Their best songs for me though are Breakdown and Estranged.

 

 

[Homefuck]

It's got to be PC for me, the first time I heard it (in 2001, believe it or not) it blew me away. That song made me buy AFD and after that, I consumed everything GNR daily for years.

[Alejandro GNR]

6 hours ago, Creed said:

Have you ever heard Stairway to Heaven? And there are even a few other songs that are stunning with regard to their production. f.ex. try to create sth like 'Voodoo People' by The Prodigy. Axl tried and failed with CD. Its super complex.

Of course I checked it out. For me, Estranged is faaaaaaaaaaaaar better than STH and any other great song you can come up with.

But then again, its just my subjective point of view.

[Edward Nygma]

1 hour ago, Creed said:

Well, correct me if i'm wrong, but CD is the most expensive album ever made. In 2004 the production costs were 14.000.0000$. How much copies did they sold? 6 million? 

Correct. Fair enough. Maybe could buy some in bulk and sell them on a flee market?

[Tom-Ass]

24 minutes ago, Edward Nygma said:

Correct. Fair enough. Maybe could buy some in bulk and sell them on a flee market?

Right. There may have been 6 million "sold" to retailers but no way 6 million consumers bought it. Most ended up in the .99 cent bins. 

[soon]

Neighbour in the apartment downstairs is a jerk late until well after midnight. So this morning they got to enjoy waking up nice and early to our mygnr quintessential tracks list 

[UsedYourIllusion]

6 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Civil War

I was thinking about that, it shows the heaviness-but also the thoughtfulness of GN'R. The sincerity of the writing bleeds through songs like that; real rock-not watered down Glam

[Edward Nygma]

4 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

Right. There may have been 6 million "sold" to retailers but no way 6 million consumers bought it. Most ended up in the .99 cent bins. 

I dunno it sold like 2.6 million copies/units by February 2009 that's three months after release, I don't think 6 million is to far off. 

[Sydney Fan]

I love the bass rumble.

[GNRfan2008]

Rocket Queen. Perfect blend of the sleazy hard rock and the melodic more emotional stuff as well. They are great at both. 

[GNRfan2008]

On 3/12/2019 at 5:28 PM, El Guapo said:

Interesting that about nobody (me included) here thinks of SCOM, which most people would probably choose.

 

People don't wanna pick it cuz it's the cliche choice, but it would be a strong #2 in my book next to Rocket Queen. Both of them show how the band could kick ass in a gritty hard rock kind of way, but they could also nail the more emotional stuff as well as any rock band ever.