Welcome to the Jungle
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| "Welcome to the Jungle" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Guns N' Roses | ||
| from the album Appetite for Destruction | ||
| Released | 1987 | |
| Format | Vinyl LP, Cassette, CD | |
| Recorded | 1987 | |
| Genre | Hard Rock | |
| Length | 04:33 | |
| Label | Geffen | |
| Producer(s) | Mike Clink | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Guns N' Roses singles chronology | ||
| "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987) |
"Sweet Child O' Mine" (1987) |
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| Appetite for Destruction track listing | ||
| "Welcome to the Jungle" (1) |
"It's So Easy" (2) |
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"Welcome to the Jungle" is the first track and the first single released from Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction. It was re-released in 2004 as the first track on Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits album. Perhaps one of the most well-known rock anthems of the late 1980s to early 1990s, the song is still recognized and regularly played at sporting events worldwide.
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[edit] Origins
"Welcome to the Jungle" was written by Axl Rose (lyrics; music) and Slash. According to Rose, the inspiration for the lyrics came from an encounter he and a friend had with a homeless man while they were hitchhiking through New York. [1] Trying to put a scare into the young runaways, the man yelled at them, "You know where you are? You're in the jungle baby, you're gonna die!". The incident made such an impact, Axl turned it into one of the greatest hard rock hits of all time. The eponymous line was also featured in the song "Underwater World" by the Finnish glam-rock band Hanoi Rocks, whom Rose has acknowledged as inspirators.
While the Los Angeles incident inspired the lyrics, the song was written in Seattle, and described Los Angeles. In a 1988 interview with Hit Parader magazine, Rose stated, "I wrote the words in Seattle. It's a big city, but at the same time it's still a small city compared to L.A. and the things that you're gonna learn. It seemed a lot more rural up there. I just wrote how it looked to me. If someone comes to town and they want to find something, they can find whatever they want." [2]
Another line, "I wanna watch you bleed" was originally written as an allusion to AC/DC's "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)", and that song's lyric "I want you to bleed for me," but Axl changed the lyrics about a week before recording because the timing of the revised lyric was better.
[edit] Video
"Welcome to the Jungle" was Guns N' Roses' first music video, directed by Nigel Dick and filmed on August 1 and 2, 1987 at the Park Plaza Hotel and 450 S. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood.
The video begins with Axl Rose stepping off a bus with a suitcase, dressed as a naive newcomer to the city, as the opening riff plays. He notices a man in a straitjacket (Rose, in another role) on television screens in a store window and he stops to look. The video then delves into deeper depictions of things such as shock therapy, military abuse and other poisons of the big city, showing the metropolis as the true jungle. At the end of the video, Rose is still standing in front of the television screens, but now has the attitude and attire of a rocker.
Other members of the band appear in various roles in the clip: Izzy Stradlin' portrays a drug dealer who approaches Rose when he steps off the bus (ironically enough, in the Use Your Illusion II song 14 Years Stradlin says "I've been the dealer/Hangin' on your street"). In the beginning of the video, Slash can be seen sitting on the ground in front of the TV store window, drinking from a paper bag. He has vanished at the end of the clip.
"Welcome to the Jungle" was not immediately successful. Initially, MTV refused to play the video. They only agreed to air the clip in the middle of the night as a special personal favor to David Geffen, the head of Guns N' Roses' record label; and then, only after they had censored parts of it, including some of the news footage and part of the sequence with drummer Steven Adler and his girlfriend in bed.
In spite of the early morning airtime, the clip caught viewers' attention and quickly became MTV's most requested video. The video and single received another boost of publicity when "Welcome to the Jungle" was featured in The Dead Pool in the summer of 1988.
[edit] "Welcome to the Jungle" and Noriega
The song was famously used during the Operation Just Cause invasion of Panama in 1989. When Manuel Noriega fled to the Vatican Embassy in Panama, U.S. troops surrounded the embassy and played loud music. Noriega enjoyed opera and detested rock music in general. The Washington Post News Service reported, "With U.S. troops at the Vatican embassy continuing to wage psychological warfare against Noriega by blaring rock music over loudspeakers and greeting him with a hearty 'Gooood Morning Panama'." And so, to irritate and intimidate him (and to enjoy themselves in the process), the troops set up their loudspeakers and blasted the Vatican embassy with some "good ol' kickass American rock 'n' roll" -- Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" was the first song to come roaring through the speakers. These were eventually stopped upon request by the Vatican. A few days later, Noriega surrendered due to international pressure. However, despite the popular conception that the music was a form of psychological torture aimed at Noriega, it has since been revealed that the entire operation was merely meant to prevent press organizations equipped with parabolic microphones from listening in on delicate negotiations occurring within the embassy. Reference.
[edit] Use in film and other media
"Welcome to the Jungle" has been featured in several motion pictures. In Clint Eastwood's 1988 film The Dead Pool, it was the song sung by Jim Carrey's rock star character; it was also featured on the movie's soundtrack. It has also appeared in Lean on Me and in Selena during the scene in which a barber is cutting a person's hair and several people are trashing a hotel room.
In the 2004 PlayStation 2 (2005 PC and Xbox) video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the song is included on the playlist of alternative-metal station Radio X. Ironically, Axl Rose voices the DJ of its rival station K-DST, which plays classic rock, where he routinely bashes Radio X as "whining teenagers who should just go away." "Jungle" also was used in commercials for the game.
In Celebrity Deathmatch, Axl and Slash's comments while fighting is taken from the lyrics of "Jungle".
The song serves as the opening for the syndicated sports program The Jim Rome Show and can also be heard at the bottom of each hour of the show.
A parody, "Welcome to the Summer", was used as the theme song of Australian radio station Triple M during the late 1990s.
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this as a Lounge version on the 2005 album Aperitif for Destruction. The band Big Daddy recorded a doo-wop version to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on their 1991 album Cutting Their Own Groove.
Industrial metal band Pigface has also covered "Welcome to the Jungle."
Grindcore band Hewhocorrupts has also covered this song on their discography called "The Discographer".
In the video game Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, the character Axel makes a reference to the song where he states, "Welcome to the Colosseuem; we've got fun and games!"
[edit] Accolades
The song is considered to be one of the greatest hard rock hits of all time. It was ranked #2 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs [1]. In addition, "Welcome to the Jungle" ranked #467 on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Also, it was #764 on Q Magazine's 1001 Best Songs Ever [3] and #26 on VH1's 100 Greatest 80s Songs Most recently, the song was named the "greatest song about Los Angeles" by a poll in Blender magazine. [4]
[edit] Use in sporting events
Over the past decade, "Welcome to the Jungle" has become a popular theme and entrance song for many sports teams.
- Cincinnati Bengals (NFL): The song is also played at all home games in Paul Brown Stadium, or as it is known to Bengals fans, "the Jungle".
- Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL): The song is played frequently after plays, mainly touchdowns. The reason for this song is belived to be because of the teams logo and theme (Jaquars live in the jungle.).
- New York Yankees (MLB): Played before games at the stadium.
- New York Jets (NFL): The song is often played before Jets games, most likely because New York City is known as the "Concrete Jungle".
- Minnesota Vikings (NFL): The song commonly precedes every Vikings kickoff at the Metrodome, regardless of the quarter.
- Fort Wayne Komets (United Hockey League): Team theme song. The Memorial Coliseum, where the Komets play, has been known as 'the jungle' since the early 1990s when it was considered one of the hardest places to win a game on the road at.
- Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB): The opening chords of "Welcome to the Jungle" signified the entrance of Cy Young Award-winning closer, Éric Gagné into the game.
- Manchester Monarchs (American Hockey League): Entrance music for home games at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
- Orlando Predators (Arena Football League): Entrance music for home games at the TD Waterhouse Centre (or "The Jungle" as it is called for Preds games).
- Drexel University basketball: The song is played just before the opening tip-off at all home games.
- Princeton University basketball team: The Princeton University Band also plays the song at the start of each home basketball game, as Jadwin Gymnasium (the Princeton stadium) has been unofficially nicknamed "Jadwin Jungle" after the DoD Member, Makkoli.
- Howard Finkel (Former WWE ring announcer): Entered the arena to this song.
- New Jersey Devils (NHL): Entrance music
- Indoor lacrosse champions The Philadelphia Wings routinely play the song during the last 1 - 2 minutes of the fourth quarter at their home games.
- Florida Gators basketball: Played before the beginning of the second half.
- Pittsburg State University football: Played at every pregame and Gorilla Village Tailgate.
- Curt Schilling (MLB): Played when Schilling came in for his first appearance of the year after being injured in a game at Fenway Park with the Boston Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees.
- Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) : The song is often played at Cavaliers home games at "The Q: Quicken Loans Arena" before the Cavaliers player introductions.
- Boston Red Sox (MLB) : This Song is often played before Red Sox games at Fenway Park
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Herbert A. Friedman. U.S. Psyop in Panama (Operation Just Cause).
- Danny Sugarman. Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses. St. Martin's Press, 1991. ISBN 0-312-07634-7
- "20 questions with Steven Adler" [5]
