Icon #35 Sweet Child O' Mine

First of all let me thank @WH1SKS for another great topic this week. The challenge was to come up with the most iconic song intro ever and bloody hell it has been hard to choose. Close to winning were 'Under Pressure' by Queen, 'Where the Streets Have no Name' by U2, 'Gimme Shelter' by the Rolling Stone and 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' by The Verve. Thanks to all today for your excellent suggestions. But in the end one tune had to win for it's intro alone. And for that there could only be one.

Guns n' Roses came out of nowhere in 1987 and they blew my brain out at the time. I was fourteen and they were the first band I got into that I knew my mother would hate.

'Appetite for Destruction' is a great rock album but buried down the running order at track nine is one of the greatest starts to a song ever. If not the greatest. Why is it so brilliant?

It's a guitar lick to die for. So simple and yet for 45 seconds it holds your wrapped attention, it is utterly unmistakable. The band didn't think much of the song, yet it was there only number one in the states and it's all about that lick, which carries the rest of the song from start to finish. As a track 'Sweet Child O' Mine' has this lovely innocence to it that creates this great counter weight to the rest of the album. It meant a lot to me as a kid and I have regularly danced to it at horrible '80's nights at various different locations ever since.

It's also rather apt as my employers are using a cover of it for their Christmas ad. You can make your own mind up about the cover version. (I couldn't possibly comment.)

I don't have much else to say about it other than I bloody love this song and I love Slash's intro. So here for once, instead of a quote, is the song. Enjoy.

Tonight's post is dedicated to @Sundaeg1rl and @domcoke.

So that's it for 2009's Icon posts. I'll start them up again on the first Thursday of 2010 (07.01.10). Has been a complete blast this year, thanks to everyone for taking part. For the next three Thursdays, on the run up to Christmas, I'll be doing my 'Top Threes of the Year' although a slight revision on my previous post. I won't be doing my top three TV shows as, thanks largely to twitter, I've barely watched any. Yes really. I'll be doing my Top Three Games, Albums, and Films instead. So still writing just giving myself a little breathing space in terms of when I can get my head down and type for December.