Appetite for Destruction: "Think About You"

How is it that "Think About You" didn't hit? If Guns N' Roses didn't alrady have six other singles to push, "Think About You" could've landed on the charts. Instead, it's the crème de la deep cuts, a reminder that for a few years, Izzy Stradlin wrote better rock songs than all but maybe about six people in the world.



It's a sweet, catchy song with a danceable rhythm, which is probably why it wasn't a single. "Think About You" is the nicest song that GNR ever wrote, and when you're playing hard rock's Jerry Lee Lewis, you don't give us the nice songs. As John Lydon, one of GNR's heroes, tells us, "'Nice' is the worst insult you could pay anybody. It means you are utterly without threat, without values. Nice is a cup of tea."

But even at their nicest, GNR's music is no cup of tea. The hand claps, cowbell and declarations of love come with a few meaty solos and some awesome plugged vs. unplugged guitarmonies. Best of all is the finale, where Axl tops off some of his greatest melismas with an ominous "only you," set to a haunting Stradlin arpeggio that demolishes the song's pace in a matter of seconds. Only a few metal musicians have ever matched Stradlin's songbook, but one of them shared a band with him.

If Ozzy Osbourne or Judas Priest had written "Think About You," it'd be a staple of their tours and compilations. But on Appetite for Destruction, it's just track eight.