Guns N' Roses » Tracks » Civil War

Guns N' Roses – Civil War (7:42)

On 21 albums see all

Buy at Amazon MP3 ($0.99) | Send Ringtones to Cell
Buy
Save

Popular tags: , , , ,  See more

Shouts: 474 shouts

Share this track:
Preview this track (0:30)
About this video More videos (9)
Flag video

About This Track

“Civil War” is a song by the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, which originally appeared on the 1990 album Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, a fund raising compilation for Romanian orphans. It is a protest song about war, that amongst other things says that a civil war only “feeds the rich while it buries the poor.” Notably, the United States was involved in no major military operations at the time of its recording, so it is mostly thought of as a tribute of sorts to 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest songs. It was written by Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan.

Slash states that the song was an instrumental he had written right before the band left for the Japanese leg of its Appetite for Destruction world tour. Axl wrote lyrics and it was worked into a proper song at a sound check in Melbourne, Australia.

Guns N’ Roses performed the song at Farm Aid IV on April 7, 1990. This performance was televised.

It is the first track on Use Your Illusion II, appears on the compilation Use Your Illusion, and on Guns N’ Roses Greatest Hits.

The song also mentions John F. Kennedy’s assassination with the lyrics: “and in my first memories they shot Kennedy,” as well as the battle for civil rights and the Vietnam War.

On September 27, 1993, Duff McKagan explains where the song came from in an interview on Rockline: “Basically it was a riff that we would do at sound-checks. Axl came up with a couple of lines at the beginning. And… I went in a peace march, when I was a little kid, with my mom. I was like four years old. For Martin Luther King. And that’s when: “Did you wear the black arm band when they shot the man who said: ‘Peace could last forever’?. It’s just true-life experiences, really.”
Read more… Edit wiki
Send Ringtones to Cell

Albums featuring this track

  • Use Your Illusion II
    Guns N' Roses Play
    Buy
  • Greatest Hits
    Guns N' Roses Play
    Buy
  • Best Ballads
    Guns N' Roses Play
    Buy
  • Platinum Collection 2000
    Guns N' Roses Play
    Buy
See all 21 albums

Shouts

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).

  • pjb808

    So cool...... :-)

    22 hours ago

  • illusionvalley

    An absolutely massive opener and a classic track in its own right. When I first discovered it when I was 12 or 13 I'd lie in the dark and listen to it on repeat, completely stunned by its power and emotion. Despite - or rather, on top of - everything else in this which is so immense, Duff's backing vocals really struck me, and still do. Ahh, what a band!

    Thursday morning

  • huboo77

    Love this song.

    last week

  • man0fbronze

    pure. class.

    last week

  • Lainey26000

    One of their best tracks

    last week

  • abunono

    And then rolled beneath his chair,and dawn was in the air.

    16 days ago

  • peftiev

    There are some epic things our life, and G'N'R is one of them!

    17 days ago

  • AlperenSenbas

    Very good song !

    19 days ago

  • DavCnuk

    close to the masterpiece

    last month

  • ClaudiiaCobain

    PERFECT!

    last month

  • doctorjmo

    ...well, he gets it!!!

    last month

  • Wrongdecade13

    masterpiece

    last month

  • needle8

    My favorite.

    last month

  • Miixmaniac

    soooooo good.

    last month

  • patrycja2468

    ♫♬♩ Slash's SOLOs ❤

    last month

  • Dale_0607

    Look at the hate we're breeding..

    last month

  • Rockinfreddy

    Klasse.rockige Nr.

    March 2012

  • MartinCQuet

    It feeds the rich while it buries the poor...

    March 2012

  • maxlharris

    Pointless discussing who is the real genius. The creative tension that existed in the original band produced better work than Axl working alone in his basement... I like Chinese Democracy, I don't like what the rest of GNR have done since the breakup of the band, but Slash, Izzy, and Duff added something (most likely disagreement) that forced better artistic decision making, regardless of whether Slash can shred as hard as Buckethead/Bumblefoot. That's really irrelevant, Slash wrote the better guitar solos, the better riffs. His play brings a level of emotion that fast shred and technical precision just fails to convey... That's something a lot of folks don't get. Nearly any professional guitarist can shred. Not every guitarist can take it down a notch and work with the negative space as much. And that's where the real art is.

    March 2012

  • maxlharris

    Some men, you just can't reach...

    March 2012
See all 474 shouts

Track Stats

2,039,598 Scrobbles 373,435 Listeners

Recent Listening Trend

Listening Now

Top Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more