Mr. Brownstone
"Mr. Brownstone" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Guns N' Roses | ||||
from the album Appetite for Destruction | ||||
Released | June 15, 1987 (1987-06-15) (UK) | |||
Recorded | 1987 | |||
Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 3:46 | |||
Label | Geffen | |||
Songwriter(s) | Izzy Stradlin · Slash | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Clink | |||
Guns N' Roses singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Mr. Brownstone" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). Group guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin wrote the tune while they were sitting around Stradlin's apartment complaining about their addictions to heroin, for which "Brownstone" is a slang term.
Composition
The lyrics make a clear reference to the tolerance that the drug causes: "I used to do a little, but a little wouldn't do it, so the little got more and more." They wrote the lyrics on the back of a grocery bag and brought it to Axl Rose. Slash said the lyrics describe a typical day in the life of Slash and Stradlin. He also states that it was the first song the band wrote after being signed by Geffen Records.[1]
Single release
"Mr. Brownstone" was the first Guns N' Roses single released outside of the United States and appeared as the A-side of "It's So Easy" in the United Kingdom. In the US, it was used as the B-side of "Welcome to the Jungle".
Controversy
Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shooting, wrote a play titled "Mr. Brownstone" that took inspiration from the song's lyrics.[2] The song "Shackler's Revenge" from the band's 2008 album Chinese Democracy was written in reaction to "the insanity of senseless school shootings and also the media trying desperately to make more out of one shooter's preference for the Guns song Brownstone to no avail."[3]
References
- ^ Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. pp. 142
- ^ "Virginia Tech Killer Named Play After GUNS N' ROSES Song 'Mr. Brownstone'". Blabbermouth.net. April 18, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
- ^ Rose, W. Axl (December 14, 2008). "Axl answers fans' questions on GN'R fan sites (transcripts) [updated Dec 14th]". Retrieved January 19, 2024.
- v
- t
- e
- Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide
- Guns N' Roses
- The "Civil War" EP
- Hard Skool
- Use Your Illusion
- Greatest Hits
- "It's So Easy"
- "Welcome to the Jungle"
- "Sweet Child o' Mine"
- "Paradise City"
- "Patience"
- "Nightrain"
- "You Could Be Mine"
- "Don't Cry"
- "Live and Let Die"
- "November Rain"
- "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
- "Yesterdays"
- "Civil War"
- "Ain't It Fun"
- "Estranged"
- "Since I Don't Have You"
- "Sympathy for the Devil"
- "Chinese Democracy"
- "Shadow of Your Love"
- "Absurd"
- "Hard Skool"
- "Perhaps"
- "The General"
- "Mr. Brownstone"
- "My Michelle"
- "14 Years"
- "Pretty Tied Up"
- "So Fine"
- "Dead Horse"
- "Garden of Eden"
- "Hair of the Dog"
- "New Rose"
- "Oh My God"
- "Better"
- "Street of Dreams"
- "Think About You"
- "Rocket Queen"
- "Used to Love Her"
- "One in a Million"
- "Coma"
- "Get in the Ring"
- "The Garden"
- "Locomotive (Complicity)"
- "Shackler's Revenge"
- "There Was a Time"
- "Madagascar"
- "Prostitute"
- Appetite for Destruction Tour
- Use Your Illusion Tour
- Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour
- Chinese Democracy Tour
- Up Close and Personal Tour
- Appetite for Democracy
- Not in This Lifetime... Tour
- We're F'N' Back! Tour
- 2023 Tour
Articles |
|
---|---|
Bands |
|
- Category
This 1980s rock song–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e