Paradise City" is a song written by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It is included on the 1987 album Appetite for Destruction and was released as a single in 1988. It is also the only song on the album to use a synthesizer. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, the third single of the band's to go Top 10.
Slash states that the song was written in the back of a rental van as they were on their way back from playing a gig in San Francisco with the band Rock N Riders. He states that the band was in the back of the van, drinking and playing acoustic guitars when he came up with the intro. Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin started playing along. Slash started humming a melody when Axl Rose sang, "Take me down to the Paradise City." Slash chimed in with "Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty." Axl sang the first line again, where Slash shouted out "Where the girls are fat and they've got big titties." Axl finished with "Take . . . me . . . home!" Slash preferred his second line but the rest of the band thought different. He was outvoted and they used the first line. The band then expanded upon the rest of the lyrics in rounds. Finally Slash wrapped up by coming up with heavy riff that drives the song.1

"Paradise City" is thought by some to be about San Francisco and its corruption at the time. Some believe the song to be written about Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin's hometown of Lafayette, Indiana and the nearby Purdue University campus.needed During a 1988 interview, Rose told Hit Parader Magazine that "the verses are more about being in the jungle; the chorus is like being back in the Midwest or somewhere". Matt Sorum, despite not being in the band when the song was written, has stated on occasion that the song is written about Ireland. Others believe it is about Lake Geneva, WI where the band spent their time during the production of Appetite for Destruction. They rented a mansion right on Lake Geneva.

This song was often used as the band's show-closing song during the Use Your Illusion Tour and Chinese Democracy Tour.

It was also ranked #21 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time,2 #3 in Total Guitar Magazine's list of the 100 greatest solos of all time, and has won various similar awards over the years. It ranked #453 on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Slash has stated that this is his favorite Guns N' Roses song.1

In the last two minutes of the song it changes to double-time and the chorus is repeated several times while Slash plays a guitar solo in the background.

Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy has said that the song is copy from a couple riffs of Hanoi Rocks. He said the chorus is just the same as riff in Lost in the City, just slowed down. Axl Rose has often cited Hanoi Rocks as Guns N' Roses' biggest influence. The style of the main riff of Paradise City (involving an ascending chromatic riff) has also been used by many former Guns N' Roses members in new projects. This can be seen in Izzy Stradlin's "Bomb" and Velvet Revolver's "Do It For the Kids".
edit Personnal