One of my favorites of all time too. I’ve been known to vocalize (scream) in the car during the opening bars, especially if I’m heading to a presentation or court. And I do it even when someone else is braving it at karaoke. I held this band at a distance for so long because of the screaming and sexism… and misbehavior on tours… but this hit me straight in the heart. Stuck there. Remains. Classic.
You capture my feelings on “Sweet child of Mine”. It really is a rock masterpiece. When I hear that beginning, every single time , it does something inside. Thanks for your history of coming alive to rock.
My husband and I were starting our family during this time frame that you write of. Our son was born in 84 and later my hubby made a cassette tape of Van Halen, GNR, Aero Smith. We didn’t like the rap and grunge music. Kid later taught himself November Rain on piano! I was impressed. Lol Really enjoy your writing especially about music. Side note I read Connie Schultz’s Substack on her dad’s influence on her love of music. It was a beautiful piece of writing. Also the shows were great Arthur Snell is my next podcast to listen to. 🫶
Thanks, Christine! We still listened to all the 70s greats, of course: LZ, Floyd, etc. The kids still do, in fact. Glad you liked the shows! Thanks for watching/listening!
Interesting wade into the dredges of music history Greg! Love the writing and accompanying emotion that rides alongside the musical ride through the roughest patches in mainstream rock-pop culture.
Your Sunday post are always insightful to the path that created your brilliance!!
This was such a wonderful read. I hate to admit it but I didn’t listen or know sweet child of mine until my kids got into the video game rock band . You were quite the young artist! The five eight was fantastic, thanks for sharing the after hours. It was great seeing “Sandifa”!
You are quite the artist! Glad you mentioned Frankie Valli--the greatest falsetto singer of all time! Only he could get away with singing a song called "Walk Like a Man" in falsetto. He is oft imitated, but never equaled.
Thanks, McLain. And: ha! You're right, Valli singing that in falsetto. I love them. "December 63," the remix, was a big dance song when I was in college. Love love love it.
Another Sunday, another Great Greg column. I am beginning to believe there is a cosmic connection between us. One generation to another. You write about Ocean City, it stirs up memories. Today GnR, another memory.
When I was much younger and living in London my young daughter was a huge GnR fan. For me, Sinatra and Bennett were my go to preference with Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago making me less Old Man and more Young-ish man. Top of the list, may Doo Wop live forever!
Back to relevance. Dad drew the short straw and chaperoned daughter and friends to Wembley stadium for a GnR concert. An 11 year old's birthday present. This would be 31st August 1991, in the days of pre-Wembley refurbishment. Hard seats, uncomfortable to all but the most ardent footie fans. Warm up acts finished, the Axl Rose delay was up next. Two plus hours we waited until his majesty deigned to grace us with his presence. To validate my sobriquet, I tolerated the concert, happy daughter and friends were as fervent a fan as was in the stadium that day. When back home, sipping the single malt when sitting in the parlour, listening to "In the Wee Small Hours" was as cathartic as it gets.
You and I are of different generations, close I suspect yet different. All too often something you write stirs up a memory, almost always a pleasant one. I feel there is a cosmic constant that transcends all generations. That said, I have yet to experience the connection between a Gen X story and Baby Boomers yet believe it exists. My fervent wish, this cosmic connection truly exists and it will be a key to surviving MAGA madness. Hand jobs in the theatre must not define who we are. Something needs to shake up the true American-ism in all of us. Pleasant memories may just be the antidote, getting the focus off bad thinking prompts blasted over the airwaves.
As a long gone Old Man once said, keep those cards and letters coming. Thanks for helping get my Sunday off to a nice start.
Wishful thinking, I know but something must shake us and bring the country to real patriotism, not reverence to a deranged cult leader bent on destruction of the American dream.
Thanks so much for this. You're lucky that Axl showed at all. There was at least one occasion when he decided not to, and it was a near riot. As if it's a big imposition to play to a crowd like that. Ye gods.
What the Boomers and Gen X have in common is, we all have good music. When I was in high school, I drove a delivery van for a laundry place that only had AM radio. I listened to the oldies station. So I can deep dive on some of that doo-wop stuff. So good.
Thanks, Greg! Although I'm a little more than a decade older than you, my musical initiation didn't really happen until the late 70s, and throughout the 80s. Unfortunately, it seems, I didn't get into GnR because at the time, I was very much about judging a book by its cover, so I dismissed them, to my detriment. We had a crossover with Duran Duran, definitely Eurythmics, and the Police. I was also a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, and Electric Light Orchestra, which still, to this day, blows me away with their arrangements. I had the entirely unfortunate experience of going to an ELO concert, and it was SO LOUD, I couldn't hear much of the music and had ringing in my ears for days. It was literally what my dad used to call, "noise."
I still go back to some of that "dreaded" 80s music from time to time because I know it, and like scents or tastes, or for me, even certain weather conditions, it brings back memories of the past -- what I was doing, who I was seeing, who I pined after, where I was living -- it all comes back. That may be the best aspect of music: the recovery of usually lost memories as a comfort to these days of insanity.
Music, for me, is time travel. It takes me back to that place in my life when a certain song was played constantly on the radio. Although I do own a lot of music, Radio is a constant in my life (WXRT). I love the randomness of it.
Eh, you missed this song and not much else. The "80s music" was, and remains, better than any of the hair metal, even at its best. You're right about music dredging up memories. What's weird now is, people don't listen to the radio like they used to. Kids just never do. So the random song coming on isn't a thing like it used to be. Or the having to track down a song to hear it.
Now, I mostly listen to NPR or the local news station in the car. All the music now is, of course, NOISE to me! 🤣 We have a few "oldies" stations, but the number of commercials per hour are insufferable, same on the news station, so I'm mostly on NPR and hope I don't run into a half-hour on "The Endangered Tsi-Tsi Fly in the Congo."
That was the only album where the band didn’t drown out the lyrics entirely. Whoever was in charge of the mixing process allowed the treble and bass to almost obliterate the vocals. After your concise commentary I would have enjoyed listening to Sweet Child but it was next to impossible to hear anything. Maybe better luck next time?
A good writer talking about popular music—and I’m talking to you, Greg Olear—can get me feeling almost nostalgic for music I never listened to and have barely heard of. Hell, in 1983 I was in my 40s, in my second marriage, and trying to spend a little time with my 14-year-old son. The Everly Brothers were what I was listening to on the radio back in the height of my pop music days. But this evening while I’m listening to oldies on YouTube Music, my current venue, I just might find and listen to Sweet Child O’Mine! Just for old times sake.
Thank you, Earl! "Wake Up Little Suzie," by the way, one of the all-time great pop songs. Beautifully done, but also the subject of the song is so creative, I love it so.
Mmmmm Led Zep it's not. When I was 15 in 1975 we had real music, including also the decade before. In the 1980's onward? Well, Talking Heads had some credibility. Otherwise -- you know very well that ever since Socrates each youth cohort has degenerated while deprecating their parents. Now get off my lawn! ;-)
I’ve always liked Guns n Roses debut album. It’s not really my type of music but it definitely caught my ear. They performed a concert at Wrigley Field a few weeks ago and my husband was debating whether or not to go with some friends. I said, “When are you ever going to have another chance to see Guns n Roses at Wrigley?”
He did not end up going. But a group of our friends did go. They kept getting moved closer to the stage by the Ushers because it was not very crowded. It was a really hot night even with the occasional Lake Michigan breeze! Wrigley Field is a very cool, historic place but it's land locked. It's very difficult and time consuming to get to and leave from. I used to live down the street from it and it would take me 45 minutes to get a cup of coffee if I tried to drive.
One of my favorites of all time too. I’ve been known to vocalize (scream) in the car during the opening bars, especially if I’m heading to a presentation or court. And I do it even when someone else is braving it at karaoke. I held this band at a distance for so long because of the screaming and sexism… and misbehavior on tours… but this hit me straight in the heart. Stuck there. Remains. Classic.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the rest of the oeuvre or the macho posturing but this one slays.
You capture my feelings on “Sweet child of Mine”. It really is a rock masterpiece. When I hear that beginning, every single time , it does something inside. Thanks for your history of coming alive to rock.
Every. Single. Time.
My husband and I were starting our family during this time frame that you write of. Our son was born in 84 and later my hubby made a cassette tape of Van Halen, GNR, Aero Smith. We didn’t like the rap and grunge music. Kid later taught himself November Rain on piano! I was impressed. Lol Really enjoy your writing especially about music. Side note I read Connie Schultz’s Substack on her dad’s influence on her love of music. It was a beautiful piece of writing. Also the shows were great Arthur Snell is my next podcast to listen to. 🫶
Thanks, Christine! We still listened to all the 70s greats, of course: LZ, Floyd, etc. The kids still do, in fact. Glad you liked the shows! Thanks for watching/listening!
Interesting wade into the dredges of music history Greg! Love the writing and accompanying emotion that rides alongside the musical ride through the roughest patches in mainstream rock-pop culture.
Your Sunday post are always insightful to the path that created your brilliance!!
Thanks so much, Patrick!
This was such a wonderful read. I hate to admit it but I didn’t listen or know sweet child of mine until my kids got into the video game rock band . You were quite the young artist! The five eight was fantastic, thanks for sharing the after hours. It was great seeing “Sandifa”!
Thanks, Sally. Glad you liked SANDIFA!
That drawing is fantastic!
Thanks. I found it last time I was home. Had forgotten all about it.
You are quite the artist! Glad you mentioned Frankie Valli--the greatest falsetto singer of all time! Only he could get away with singing a song called "Walk Like a Man" in falsetto. He is oft imitated, but never equaled.
Thanks, McLain. And: ha! You're right, Valli singing that in falsetto. I love them. "December 63," the remix, was a big dance song when I was in college. Love love love it.
And, of course, he's a JERSEY boy!
Another Sunday, another Great Greg column. I am beginning to believe there is a cosmic connection between us. One generation to another. You write about Ocean City, it stirs up memories. Today GnR, another memory.
When I was much younger and living in London my young daughter was a huge GnR fan. For me, Sinatra and Bennett were my go to preference with Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago making me less Old Man and more Young-ish man. Top of the list, may Doo Wop live forever!
Back to relevance. Dad drew the short straw and chaperoned daughter and friends to Wembley stadium for a GnR concert. An 11 year old's birthday present. This would be 31st August 1991, in the days of pre-Wembley refurbishment. Hard seats, uncomfortable to all but the most ardent footie fans. Warm up acts finished, the Axl Rose delay was up next. Two plus hours we waited until his majesty deigned to grace us with his presence. To validate my sobriquet, I tolerated the concert, happy daughter and friends were as fervent a fan as was in the stadium that day. When back home, sipping the single malt when sitting in the parlour, listening to "In the Wee Small Hours" was as cathartic as it gets.
You and I are of different generations, close I suspect yet different. All too often something you write stirs up a memory, almost always a pleasant one. I feel there is a cosmic constant that transcends all generations. That said, I have yet to experience the connection between a Gen X story and Baby Boomers yet believe it exists. My fervent wish, this cosmic connection truly exists and it will be a key to surviving MAGA madness. Hand jobs in the theatre must not define who we are. Something needs to shake up the true American-ism in all of us. Pleasant memories may just be the antidote, getting the focus off bad thinking prompts blasted over the airwaves.
As a long gone Old Man once said, keep those cards and letters coming. Thanks for helping get my Sunday off to a nice start.
A cosmic constant, may it be so
Wishful thinking, I know but something must shake us and bring the country to real patriotism, not reverence to a deranged cult leader bent on destruction of the American dream.
Old lady agrees
Thanks so much for this. You're lucky that Axl showed at all. There was at least one occasion when he decided not to, and it was a near riot. As if it's a big imposition to play to a crowd like that. Ye gods.
What the Boomers and Gen X have in common is, we all have good music. When I was in high school, I drove a delivery van for a laundry place that only had AM radio. I listened to the oldies station. So I can deep dive on some of that doo-wop stuff. So good.
Wonderful, Greg. I followed a similar path 20 years earlier or so! Hahahaaaahaaha !! ❤️
Thank you!
Thanks, Greg! Although I'm a little more than a decade older than you, my musical initiation didn't really happen until the late 70s, and throughout the 80s. Unfortunately, it seems, I didn't get into GnR because at the time, I was very much about judging a book by its cover, so I dismissed them, to my detriment. We had a crossover with Duran Duran, definitely Eurythmics, and the Police. I was also a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, and Electric Light Orchestra, which still, to this day, blows me away with their arrangements. I had the entirely unfortunate experience of going to an ELO concert, and it was SO LOUD, I couldn't hear much of the music and had ringing in my ears for days. It was literally what my dad used to call, "noise."
I still go back to some of that "dreaded" 80s music from time to time because I know it, and like scents or tastes, or for me, even certain weather conditions, it brings back memories of the past -- what I was doing, who I was seeing, who I pined after, where I was living -- it all comes back. That may be the best aspect of music: the recovery of usually lost memories as a comfort to these days of insanity.
Music, for me, is time travel. It takes me back to that place in my life when a certain song was played constantly on the radio. Although I do own a lot of music, Radio is a constant in my life (WXRT). I love the randomness of it.
There is nothing better than when an unexpected song you love comes on the radio.
Yep, it's the BEST! Such a simple, little thing.
Eh, you missed this song and not much else. The "80s music" was, and remains, better than any of the hair metal, even at its best. You're right about music dredging up memories. What's weird now is, people don't listen to the radio like they used to. Kids just never do. So the random song coming on isn't a thing like it used to be. Or the having to track down a song to hear it.
Now, I mostly listen to NPR or the local news station in the car. All the music now is, of course, NOISE to me! 🤣 We have a few "oldies" stations, but the number of commercials per hour are insufferable, same on the news station, so I'm mostly on NPR and hope I don't run into a half-hour on "The Endangered Tsi-Tsi Fly in the Congo."
Greg,
I’ll admit I’m an oldie, as in ‘60s and some ‘70s favorites but I did give your GAR selection a chance to hit my ears. Had it not been for the lyrics you published in your post, I’m not sure I would have known there were lyrics attached to the music. It took me several tries on I Tunes to find a cut where I could even discern lyrics. https://music.apple.com/us/album/sweet-child-o-mine-live-in-new-york-ritz-theatre-may-16-1991/1642621842?i=1642622642
That was the only album where the band didn’t drown out the lyrics entirely. Whoever was in charge of the mixing process allowed the treble and bass to almost obliterate the vocals. After your concise commentary I would have enjoyed listening to Sweet Child but it was next to impossible to hear anything. Maybe better luck next time?
Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7OgIMMRc4
You can generally hear him pretty well in the mix, unlike a lot of singers of this kind of music.
Thanks. Will do.
You were so right. This YT is sooo much better than any I listened to previously. Thanks for the link. I still like and appreciate good lyrics.
A good writer talking about popular music—and I’m talking to you, Greg Olear—can get me feeling almost nostalgic for music I never listened to and have barely heard of. Hell, in 1983 I was in my 40s, in my second marriage, and trying to spend a little time with my 14-year-old son. The Everly Brothers were what I was listening to on the radio back in the height of my pop music days. But this evening while I’m listening to oldies on YouTube Music, my current venue, I just might find and listen to Sweet Child O’Mine! Just for old times sake.
Thank you, Earl! "Wake Up Little Suzie," by the way, one of the all-time great pop songs. Beautifully done, but also the subject of the song is so creative, I love it so.
I was pretty sure on the 5/8 you were going to have an aneurysm when you were talking about Kamala Harris...
Good! That means the performance was effective. ; )
Yes, but pace yourself. It'd be a damned shame to lose you!
Guns and Roses?
Wasn't up on this.
A musical group?
Here in the desert we have Knives and Cacti.
But only music is the Coyotes.
N' not and. Don't ask me why.
Mmmmm Led Zep it's not. When I was 15 in 1975 we had real music, including also the decade before. In the 1980's onward? Well, Talking Heads had some credibility. Otherwise -- you know very well that ever since Socrates each youth cohort has degenerated while deprecating their parents. Now get off my lawn! ;-)
Nothing is Led Zep.
I’ve always liked Guns n Roses debut album. It’s not really my type of music but it definitely caught my ear. They performed a concert at Wrigley Field a few weeks ago and my husband was debating whether or not to go with some friends. I said, “When are you ever going to have another chance to see Guns n Roses at Wrigley?”
Did he go? How was it?
He did not end up going. But a group of our friends did go. They kept getting moved closer to the stage by the Ushers because it was not very crowded. It was a really hot night even with the occasional Lake Michigan breeze! Wrigley Field is a very cool, historic place but it's land locked. It's very difficult and time consuming to get to and leave from. I used to live down the street from it and it would take me 45 minutes to get a cup of coffee if I tried to drive.