‘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.
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." On 93.1 WIBC FM, a radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana, Jake Query, who is a friend of Axl Rose, explained that the part of the song where they sing, "Where the grass is green, and the girls are pretty" is about when Axl Rose and his family would go down to Bloomington, Indiana.
The song ranked number 21 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time. It ranked number 459 on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." In 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Guns N' Roses songs. The video game Burnout Paradise is set in a fictional location, known as Paradise City, which is named after the song, and the song itself serves as the game's introductory and closing credits music.
Label – Geffen
Songwriters – Slash, Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler
Producer – Mike Clink
SONG LYRICS
[Chorus]Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
(Take me home) Oh, won't you please take me home?
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
(Take me home) Oh, won't you please take me home?
[Verse 1]
Just an urchin living under the street, I'm a
Hard case that's tough to beat
I'm your charity case, so buy me something to eat
I'll pay you at another time
Take it to the end of the line
Rags to riches, or so they say, you gotta
Keep pushing for the fortune and fame
You know it's, it's all a gamble when it's just a game
You treat it like a capital crime
Everybody's doing the time
[Chorus]
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home? Yeah yeah
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home
[Verse 2]
Strapped in the chair of the city's gas chamber
Why I'm here, I can't quite remember
The Surgeon General says it's hazardous to breathe
I'd have another cigarette, but I can't see
Tell me who you're gonna believe
[Chorus]
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home? Yeah
[Guitar Solo]
[Bridge]
So far away
So far away
So far away
So far away
[Verse 3]
Captain America's been torn apart, now
He's a court jester with a broken heart
He said, "Turn me around and take me back to the start"
I must be losing my mind, are you blind?
I've seen it all a million times
[Chorus]
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home?
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah yeah
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home?
Home
[Outro]
I wanna go, I wanna know
Oh, won't you please take me home?
I wanna see how good it can be
Oh, won't you please take me home?
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
(Take me home)
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home?
Take me down (Oh yeah), spin me 'round
Oh, won't you please take me home?
I wanna see how good it can be
Oh, won't you please take me home?
I wanna see how good it can be
Oh oh, take me home
Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home?
I wanna go, I wanna know
Oh, won't you please take me home?
Baby