Greatest Hits

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Written by Slash during a “heroin delirium,” the 10-minute epic mounts a circular chord progression that constantly shifts keys without ever reaching a proper chorus, alternating between dreamlike interludes and thunderous slabs of feedback.

Performed live for a few years before being recorded for the Days of Thunder soundtrack (it later appeared on Use Your Illusion II), GnR’s version has all the beauty of Bob Dylan’s original, although the crashing guitars, the scratchy singing and the crystal-clear production of Mike Clink – who staffed the dials for every album bar Chinese Democracy – makes it quintessentially them.Another carry over from their Hollywood Rose days, it surfaced as the third track on the self-released Live ? Once he played it in front of his bandmates, it was the first step towards the 80s’ biggest rock’n’roll banger.

Originally conceived as a finger warm-up for Slash, “Sweet Child” took on a life of its own when Rose penned his plainspoken ode to then-girlfriend Erin Everly. Which is a shame, because on its own merit Shackler’s Revenge is a fun ride, despite some weighty subject matter owing to the song’s lyrics tackling America’s school shooting epidemic. Meanwhile, Rose delivers a chilling narrative inspired by a pill overdose in 1986, unsure whether he’d rather live or die. Matt Sorum slams his skins with a metronomic precision that eluded predecessor Steven Adler, transitioning seamlessly from breakneck chorus to groovy bridge and back again. The first official Chinese Democracy release, owing to its inclusion in the videogame Rock Band 2, Shackler’s Revenge received a lukewarm reception upon arrival.Recorded in 1986 and released a year later, this speed metal gem was released as the B-side of the 12in version of It’s So Easy/Mr Brownstone before being lost to antiquity for 31 years. a mercurial mix of woe-is-me ruefulness and venomous defiance set to music that slips from stripped-down restraint to punk-metal howl – was reputedly inspired by the barrage of lawsuits Axl faced in the 90s, not least from former wife Erin Everly and ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour.

When you put it on, you don’t have to get warmed up to hit any of the good notes and you don’t have to know all the words – it’s a huge ‘fuck you’ to the chick that stormed out and ruined your life. Steven Adler worshipped at the altar of cowbell, and his impossibly cool drumbeats set the pace for this deceptively glamorous Appetite for Destruction number. The first original Guns song in eight years, it was a shock to the system at the time but it’s aged well, even if the presence of four (! Chinese Democracy could have been one of the best albums of all time and it still wouldn’t have lived up to the years of hype and delays that preceded it. The hard rock breakdowns obviously hit hard as well – even if they jar just slightly when cast against the folk-like melody that made this piece immortal.The Use Your Illusion duology was the sound of GnR trying to shed their anarchic hair metal origins and do as much experimenting as they could. Written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin during their Hollywood Rose days, along with Rose’s friend and Stradlin’s future sometime replacement in GN’R Paul Tobias, this is the fastest song in the GN’R canon.