Fact or Hoax: Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City" Based on Seattle?

Seattlest confidant/subliterate henchman "Pete the Polak" told us a long stupid story this weekend about how a friend of a friend of his once knew Duff and this credible source claimed that it was he and not Axl who wrote the lyrics for the timeless classic "Paradise City" and that said song was based on Seattle. We immediately called horse shit on this obvious lie, but upon activating a computer we could find no evidence to the contrary.

The proof may lie in the pudding, as these excerpts clearly demonstrate no connection to Seattle whatsoever:

Just an urchin livin' under the street
I'm a hard case that's tough to beat
I'm your charity case
So buy me somethin' to eat
I'll pay you at another time
Take it to the end of the line

While this sounds like any number of daily encounters with "The Broadway Kids(TM)," this could still be any city in the country.

But what about this stanza?

Rags to riches
Or so they say
You gotta
Keep pushin' 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 capitol crime
Everybody' doin' their time

Nope, still nothing. However this next excerpt reveals a little precognition on the part of the author:

Capitain 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 mllion times

The character Captain America was famously killed off by Seattle comics writer Ed Brubaker... but this happened more than 15 years after Paradise City was first written. Unless Duff (or Axl) owns a time traveling DeLorean, this little theory is just SOL, bro.

Can somebody with access to facts and historic records or Guns N' Roses recording session surveillance tapes support or suppress this theory? Seattlest beseeches you...

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Matt Silvie in Arts & Events on August 6, 2007 3:49 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

I saw them live with Metallica on the use your illusion/black album tour. When they played Paradise City, Axl introduced it as "We'd like to play a song about death..."

guest

I consider my self the number one guns fan and it is true duff did write the chorus to that song. Exactly as the one guy said, duff wrote it in seatle about going to l.a.....

guest

I consider my self the number one guns fan and it is true duff did write the chorus to that song. Exactly as the one guy said, duff wrote it in seatle about going to l.a.....

iron_d_006

I'm pretty sure Duff did write Paradise City or at least most of it. I read about that a couple of years ago. I think the chorus "Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty" was Duff saying he wanted out of Seattle and into LA!! I know Axl isn't from LA either, but I did read a while ago that Duff wrote the song! Plus, Axl was from Indiana and Indiana isn't north of California... So it would only make sense for the "Take me down..." part to come from Duff!

I have lots of info on GNR, but I don't know where I found this particular info out, and I don't have time to search for it, but I think it might be true.

guest

Well If Duff wrote Paradise City I will be Cornelius' uncle. He is a great player and riffer but I can't see how he could write a song like this and then produce a solo album like Believe in Me. I think its more likely that Duff may have come up with the 'Grass is green and the girls are pretty' part but the lyrics cited above are so Axl it's like he signed them. The outro soloing is Slash and Izzy at their best, and I love Stevens drumming on this track, his best performance I think. So I believe it to be a group effort but maybe 60% Axl and 40% the others. Does it really matter though? Been listening to this track for 20 years and it kicks butt every damn time.

Robert.Parkinson@lands.nsw.gov.au

Thank you for reading.