Guns N’ Roses “Civil War” charted

Civil War Guns N’ Roses

Writer(s): Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan (see lyrics here) Released: June 21, 1991 First Charted: August 4, 1990 Peak: 4 AR, 11 UK, 45 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 67.6 video, 116.09 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After Guns N’ Roses exploded with 1987’s Appetite for Destruction, it would be four years before they released a proper full-fledged album, and then it was a double whammy with Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. It wasn’t that they didn’t release any new music in the interim. 1988’s G N’ R Lies featured four new songs alongside the group’s 1986 EP Live Like a Suicide. A live cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” also became a radio airplay hit. In 1990, GNR released the song “Civil War” on the charity album Nobody’s Child. The project, compiled by George Harrison, raised money for Romanian orphans through the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation. Fans eager for new material from Axl Rose and the boys sent the song to #4 on Billboard’s album rock chart. It was released worldwide as a single in 1993 and charted in several countries, most notably at #1 in Poland. The protest song denounced war because it “feeds the rich while it buries the war.” It also referred to all war as “civil war.” At one point, Axl Rose declares, “What’s so civil about war, anyway?” Duff McKagan said the line, “Did you wear the black arm band / When they shot the man / Who said ‘Peace could last forever?” was inspired by attending a peace march for Martin Luther King Jr. with his mom when he was a kid. WK Slash said the song grew out of an instrumental he wrote right before the band left for the Japanese leg of its Appetite for Destruction world tour. WK The speech at the beginning of the song (“What we have here is failure to communicate”) is from the movie Cool Hand Luke. The American Civil War song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is also used when Axl Rose whistles it at the beginning and end. SF This was the last single recorded with drummer Steven Adler, who left several months after the song was recorded and was replaced by Matt Sorum, formerly of the Cult, before “Civil War” saw release as a single. Adler played the song for the one and only time at Farm Aid WK on April 7, 1990. SF The song would become part of the Use Your Illusion collection in 1991, as did their cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/6/2022.