10 Legends That Guested On Hard Rock Songs
5. The Garden - Guns N Roses
The entire maturation process for Guns N Roses from Appetite for Destruction to use Your Illusion feels like night and day. Looking to bury what he had already created, Axl Rose was determined to make the most epic album he could deliver, eventually turning into a double record of all new material complete with piano solos and 11 minute long jams. They still had their dangerous side, and they took some of their cues from one of the most dangerous men in rock and roll.
As The Garden starts, it feels like you’ve hit rock bottom, as Axl ushers us through this landscape. The verses almost feel like you’re on a bit of a drug high, before getting snapped back to reality when Alice Cooper shows up, narrating about just how far you’ve fallen from grace. If this whole song was simulating a drug stupor, this is where you start to have a manic episode where everything is on fire and there’s danger around every corner.
Though Slash’s solo puts us on firmer ground, Alice’s second verse is where the sinister edge really starts to sink in, as he bids us goodbye and so long as we’re basically being thrust towards the underworld. We’re not in for an eternity in Hell though. We’re in for something a little bit more gritty: the dark side of Los Angeles.