WCSX Classic Cuts : Welcome to the Jungle
WCSX Classic Cuts
Guns N’ Roses: “Welcome to the Jungle”
Hook: Los Angeles didn’t seem like fun and games when Axl Rose first sang about it.
Released: 1987
Album: Appetite for Destruction
Writers: Axl Rose and Slash
Stats: The song reached number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. It was initially released before “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” then was re-issued after that song hit number-one.
Background: Though Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” describes Los Angeles, one of the song’s key lines was something Axl heard in New York. He and a friend had had an encounter with a homeless man on the streets of the Big Apple who yelled at them, “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby — you’re gonna die!” Nor was the song written in Los Angeles — Rose finished all the lyrics in Duff McKagan’s hometown of Seattle.
Odd Trivia: “Welcome to the Jungle” was used in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 “Dirty Harry” film The Dead Pool. The song was sung by a Rose-like rock star — played by Jim Carrey.
Slash looks back on Guns n’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction. OC:…lives, you know. :29
“It was such an honest statement made by a band at a particular time. And then I guess it just hit this nerve and became this ultimately huge record. And it’s really cool because when I was kid different people I hung out with, everybody had record collections. And there were certain staples in everybody’s record collections. And the Appetite record became that. You know, something I’m so proud of is we made this record that did that and it became a staple and it was almost a soundtrack to some kids’ lives, you know.”
