| "Rocket Queen" | |
|---|---|
| Song byGuns N' Roses | |
| from the albumAppetite for Destruction | |
| Released | July 21, 1987 |
| Recorded | 1987 |
| Genre | Hard rock |
| Length | 6:13 |
| Label | Geffen |
| Songwriter(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Mike Clink |
"Rocket Queen" is a song by American rock bandGuns N' Roses, featured on their debut studio album,Appetite for Destruction (1987). The song incorporates moans from a woman, Adriana Smith, who was recorded having sexual intercourse with the band's singer,Axl Rose.
Slash stated inhis autobiography that he andDuff McKagan wrote the main riff to "Rocket Queen" when they first got together in the short-lived bandRoad Crew withSteven Adler, prior to Slash and Adler joiningHollywood Rose.[1]
According to frontman Axl Rose:
I wrote this song for this girl who was gonna have a band and she was gonna call it Rocket Queen. She kinda kept me alive for a while. The last part of the song is my message to this person, or anybody else who can get something out of it. It's like there's hope and a friendship note at the end of the song. For that song there was also something I tried to work out with various people—a recorded sex act. It was somewhat spontaneous but premeditated; something I wanted to put on the record.[2]
A credit in the booklet forAppetite for Destruction reads "Barbi (Rocket Queen) Von Greif", implying that she was "this girl" Rose mentions in the quote. Slash states that, while Von Grief was only 18 at the time, she had a notorious reputation and was "a queen of the underground scene back then. She'd eventually become a madam, but Axl was infatuated with her at the time."[3] She was also mentioned in the acknowledgments section ofL.A. Guns'self-titled debut album.[4]
In an October 1991 interview inGuitar Player magazine,John Frusciante of theRed Hot Chili Peppers said Axl Rose told the Chili Peppers that Guns N' Roses had the Chili Peppers in mind when they recorded "Rocket Queen".[5]
A woman named Adriana Smith, Guns N' Roses groupie and stripper at the time, had been with drummerSteven Adler for around a year.[6] Smith later claimed in a TV interview that, after Adler insisted that she was not his girlfriend, she went to the mixing sessions atMediasound Studios in New York City. Rose and Slash were there. Rose propositioned Smith that they have sex in a vocal booth so that the sounds that Smith made could be recorded and put over the bridge of the song. Smith replied that she would do it, "For the band, and a bottle ofJack Daniel's".[7]
Steve Thompson, an engineer of the album, said:
Axl wanted some pornographic sounds on "Rocket Queen", so he brought a girl in and they had sex in the studio. We wound up recording about 30 minutes of sex noises. If you listen to the break on "Rocket Queen" it's in there.[8]
Another engineer,Michael Barbiero, did not want to record the sex session, so he set up the microphones and left the task to his assistant, Vic Deyglio.[8] Deyglio said the studio was "like aRon Jeremy set", and he even had to enter the booth to adjust a microphone which Rose and Smith had crashed into.[9] TheAppetite for Destruction liner notes jokingly acknowledge Deyglio's contribution by crediting him as "Victor 'the fucking engineer' Deglio".[8]
It was later stated in the music magazineClassic Rock, as well asRolling Stone, that the person who had been recorded performing sex noises on the song was indeed Adriana Smith, an on-off girlfriend of Adler. She also allegedly had an intimate relationship with frontman Rose.[9][10] Smith revealed in an interview that Adler "freaked out" when he found out about the recorded sex session, and she spent some years using alcohol and drugs "because I had this extreme shame and guilt and stuff."[9]
Smith also later said inThe Girls Behind Guns N' Roses:
Somehow I became the Rocket Queen. And I have never, I have never, said, "I'm the Rocket Queen." It's just not me. The real Rocket Queen is Barbi.[11]
However, further revelations could indicate that Smith and Rose have not been the only people recorded for the song.Mike Clink, longtime producer of the band, said: "The guys were taking turns fucking this girl in the studio. Those are actual sounds of sex, captured live on tape." Furthermore, a formerGeffen employee claimed that Rose had sex several times with two or three girls on tape, unhappy with the results.[12]
The song contains two separate, distinct phases joined by abridge. The first of these is in a format of verse, chorus, verse, chorus and is accompanied by lyrical bravado.[clarification needed] There is also an instrumental section in the latter part of the first phase during which the sexual recording is also played.[citation needed]
The second phase of the song has no chorus and contains lyrics of affection and love in contrast to the bravado of the lyrics in the first phase of the song.[13] The lyrics continue into thecoda before the climax of the song (the conclusion of the song is not afade out).
In 2017,Paste ranked the song number four on their list of the 15 greatest Guns N' Roses songs,[14] and in 2020,Kerrang ranked the song number three on their list of the 20 greatest Guns N' Roses songs.[15]
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