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This song is about Los Angeles. It exposes the dark side of the city many people encounter when they go there to pursue fame. Guns N' Roses knew this side of the city well: in 1985, they lived in a place on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles that they called "Hell House." The house was often filled with drugs, alcohol and groupies.
Axl Rose wrote the lyrics when he was in Seattle, which gave him some perspective on the size of Los Angeles.
Slash (from the notes to Guns N' Roses: The Hits): "I was at my house and I had that riff happening and Axl came over and he got those lyrics together, and then the band sort of arranged it. We got an arrangement for the whole band, 'cause that's how we work. Someone comes in with an idea and someone else has input and in that way everyone's happy. That came together really quickly too, that was arranged in one day."
In 2007 Rolling Stone magazine ran a feature on the 20th anniversary of Appetite For Destruction. They explained that a famous lyrics from this song originated when Axl Rose spent a night in a Queens schoolyard before joining the band. Said Rose: "This black guy said, 'You're in the jungle! You gonna die.'"
On 93.1 WIBC FM, a radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana, Jake Query a friend of Axle Rose, gave a different account, saying: "when Axl Rose hitchhiked to Los Angeles, California, on the last leg, a truck driver drove him to Los Angeles, and when Rose got out of the truck, the truck driver said 'Welcome to the Jungle." (thanks, Andrew - Indianapolis, IN)
When this was released as a single in 1987, it charted in England but flopped in America. It finally became a hit in the US when they re-released it in October 1988 after "
Sweet Child O' Mine" hit #1.
This was used in the 1988 Clint Eastwood movie The Dead Pool - the band made a cameo in the film. It also appears in Lean On Me, The Program and Selena.
This was the second UK single and third US single from Appetite For Destruction. The first single, "It's So Easy," was a flop.
Numerous college and pro sports teams use this to intimidate their opponents at home games. The Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL were probably the first. The Norwegian Soccer team Lillestrom SK uses this song before every home game. (thanks, Christer - Jessheim, Norway)
This was the first track on Appetite For Destruction, which caused controversy due to it's cover, a drawing of a robot apparently raping a woman.
Slash re-recorded his guitar parts as he was dissatisfied with his first attempts. To produce the vicious yet pure tone, the Guns 'N' Roses gunslinger used a Les Paul '59 replica plugged into a Marshall JCM aided most probably by some Jack Daniels.
The video was shot at Park Plaza and 450 South La Brea in Hollywood. The band's first video, it was very successful, winning at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards for Best New Artist Video. Guns N' Roses performed the song on the show.
This plays in the opening sequence of the movie Lean On Me, about an inner-city high school reformed by principal Joe Clark.
When Axl says "My Serpentine," he's describing his famous dance, which he copied from Richard Black, lead singer of the band Shark Island. (thanks, Anthony - Mesquite, TX)
This song caused further tension between Axl Rose and Slash in 2001 when Slash wanted to let the producers of Black Hawk Down use it in their movie, but Axl refused unless he could re-record it with the new members of Guns N' Roses (the old members would have lost out on royalties). After Axl formed a new version of the band in 2001, things got testy between him and the previous members, and Axl has blocked use of their songs in movies.
Guns N' Roses made a surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards where they performed this. Axl Rose was the only original member left, but there was great anticipation for their album Chinese Democracy, which was expected soon. The album still hasn't been released.
This song is used in the soundtrack to the Playstation 2 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Axl lends his voice to one of the radio stations. (thanks, Mayank - Birmingham, England)
In 2007, three teens at Booth Free School in Roxbury, Connecticut (one of them a janitor), were messing around with the public address system when one of them sang some lyrics to this song, including "You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die." This freaked out one teacher, who thought it was a threat, barricaded herself in a classroom and called the police, who came in and detained the 3 teens until they could clear up the misunderstanding.
A line from this song became a bit of a catch phrase for Axl Rose, who began screaming at crowds when performing it at shows, "Do you know where the f--k you are!?" Axl said it in 2006 when he introduced The Killers at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Comments (85):
Kerry Livgren of Kansas
In this talk from the '80s, the Kansas frontman talks turning to God and writing "Dust In The Wind."
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Mike Watt of the Minutemen tells the story of the song that became an Indie Rock touchstone. It's also the story of what Mike calls "The Movement."
Chris Knight
This Kentucky singer/songwriter's hits include "She Couldn't Change Me" (recorded by Montgomery Gentry) and "It Ain't Easy Being Me."
Billy Gould of Faith No More
Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.
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If you don't believe me then go ask your 6th grade english teacher.
Serpentine: characteristic of, or resembling a serpent, as in form. It's HELL! "In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle - Watch it bring you to your
It's gonna bring you down-HA!" Sounds like Satan to me.
Slash rules
World greatest guitarist behind the legendary jimi hendrix
Axl is the King, I love him, he is in my whole life.
And to answer everyone's questions on the guy yelling to Axl he was in the "jungle"? It was in the BRONX, not LA. Wrong city, but the same meaning.
The band 'The Donnas' stole the main riff for a song.
No, the part axl got from the bum was the 'you know where you are, your in the jungle baby, your gonna die".
He recants this on the '88 live at the ritz for the song intro (he has also mentioned this in interviews).
"Welcome the jungle/deep inside of me"
"When you're high, you never ever wanna come down"
Jungle probably refers to the Black Market....
Whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey
We got your disease
Watch it bring you to your
knees, knees
We take it day by day
If you want it you're gonna bleed
But it's the price you pay
You can taste the bright lights
But you won't get them for free
Welcome to the jungle
It gets worse here everyday
seems like its about drugs to me!
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your
knees, knees
I wanna watch you bleed, thats pretty much tells you and this,Whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey
We got your disease
come on ppl