
Have your headbands, oversized top hats, and leather jackets at the ready. Guns N’ Roses are all set to rock Glastonbury’s Saturday headliner slot. It promises to be a clear high point for a band that has experienced its fair share of peaks and troughs over the years - as this 'best Guns N’ Roses songs' guide proves.
Ever since forming in 1985, LA’s Guns N’ Roses have courted controversy and polarised opinion. The band’s hedonistic repackaging of classic hard rock riffs took the charts by storm throughout the late 80s, while a turn towards more histrionic, MTV-friendly fare gave them a stake in the turbulent music scene of the early ’90s.
Throughout it all there have been several break ups and reformations, with countless line-up changes along the way. The one constant through all of these shifts has been controversial vocalist Axl Rose, whose distinctive rasp has come to define the band’s sound even as some of his unsavoury comments and lyrics have drawn criticism.
Also noteworthy is Stoke on Trent’s very own Slash, the original – if not ever-present – top-hatted guitar wizard responsible for all of the band’s most famous riffs. And boy, there are a lot of them.
Here, then, are the ten best songs released by Guns N’ Roses. Make sure to vote for your favourite GNR track if you want to see it scoring higher.
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10 best Guns N’ Roses songs
This nine-minute mid-tempo ballad effectively takes on the ‘November Rain’ role for Use Your Illusion II. Estranged throws in multiple parts, a couple of guitar solos, and quite possibly the kitchen sink in its bid to hit the rock melodrama jackpot. Suffice to say, it succeeds.
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Jon Mundy is a freelance writer with more than a dozen years of experience writing for leading tech websites such as TechRadar and Trusted Reviews.