Paradise City

"Paradise City" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their debut album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). Released as a single in January 1989, it is the only song on the album to feature a synthesizer. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100—becoming the band's third single to reach the Top 10—and number six on the UK Singles Chart. It also topped the Irish Singles Chart, their first of three singles to do so. Background Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist, Slash, states that the song was written in the back of a rental van as they were on their way back from playing a gig in San Francisco with the band Rock N Riders. He says that the band was drinking and playing acoustic guitars, when he came up with the intro. Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin started playing along. Slash started humming a melody when Axl Rose sang, "Take me down to the Paradise City." Slash chimed in with "Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty." Rose sang the first line again, where Slash shouted out "Where the girls are fat and they've got big titties." Rose finished with "Take ... me ... home!" Slash preferred his second line but the rest of the band felt differently. He was outvoted and they used the first line. The band then expanded upon the rest of the lyrics in rounds. Finally, Slash wrapped up by coming up with the heavy riff that drives the song. During a 1988 interview, Rose told Hit Parader magazine that "the verses are more about being in the jungle; the chorus is like being back in the Midwest or somewhere." This song was often used as the band's show-closing song during the Appetite for Destruction Tour, Use Your Illusion Tour and Chinese Democracy Tour.