You know the feeling when you drop the needle on Appetite for Destruction? Most people immediately wait for that siren-like wail at the start of "Welcome to the Jungle" or the stadium-sized riff of "Sweet Child O' Mine." But there is a gritty, frantic energy buried on side A that often gets overlooked by the casual listener. Honestly, Think About You is the bridge that connects the band’s punk-rock roots to the polished hard rock legends they eventually became.
It’s fast. It’s cluttered. It’s got a weirdly sentimental heart wrapped in a layer of Sunset Strip grime.
Izzy Stradlin wrote this one. Well, mostly. If you listen closely to the guitar interplay, you can hear the difference between Izzy’s Keef-inspired rhythm and Slash’s melodic soaring. It’s a love song, but it doesn’t sound like a "power ballad." It sounds like a guy screaming his head off in a garage while his world falls apart. That’s the magic of early Guns N’ Roses. They didn't do "pretty" very well, and thank god for that.
The Story Behind Think About You
A lot of fans assume every GNR love song is about Erin Everly or some high-profile Hollywood romance. Nope. Think About You actually predates the massive fame of the late eighties. Izzy Stradlin brought this to the table during the band's formative years. It was part of their live sets long before Mike Clink sat behind the soundboard to record Appetite.
The song is allegedly about a girl Izzy was seeing, but there's a certain ambiguity to the lyrics. Some fans have speculated over the years—given the band’s well-documented struggles in the mid-80s—that it could be a double entendre for a chemical romance. However, the raw yearning in Axl’s voice suggests a human subject.
"I've been directin' my attention to you," he snarls. It isn't a polite request. It’s an obsession.
Interestingly, this track features some of the most prominent acoustic guitar layering on the whole album. If you isolate the tracks, you'll hear those bright, percussive acoustic strums buried under Slash’s distorted Les Paul. It gives the song a "Rolling Stones on speed" vibe. Most bands in 1987 were trying to sound like Def Leppard—all digital and processed. GNR went the other way. They sounded like a basement.
Why It Often Gets Overlooked
It's sandwiched between "Anything Goes" and "Sweet Child O' Mine." That is a tough neighborhood to live in.
Appetite for Destruction is effectively a "Greatest Hits" album that just happened to be a debut. When you have "Paradise City" and "Mr. Brownstone" on the same disc, a two-minute-and-thirty-eight-second punk-inflected track like Think About You can sometimes feel like a transition piece. But that's a mistake.
- The Tempo: It’s one of the fastest tracks on the record.
- The Solo: Slash delivers a melodic, almost "singable" solo that foreshadows his work on Use Your Illusion.
- The Outro: The way the song breaks down into that shimmering, clean guitar finish is beautiful.
It’s also one of the few songs from that era that the band didn't play much during the Use Your Illusion tour. When a song disappears from the setlist, it often disappears from the public consciousness. It became a "fan-only" favorite. Something for the die-hards who bought the "It's So Easy" 12-inch singles.
The Izzy Stradlin Factor
You can’t talk about Think About You without talking about Izzy. He was the secret sauce. Axl was the fire, Slash was the soul, but Izzy was the cool.
He had this way of writing songs that felt effortless. While Axl was obsessed with grandiosity and 9-minute epics, Izzy just wanted to rock for three minutes and go find a cigarette. This song captures that perfectly. It’s concise. No fat. No ego. Just a driving beat provided by Steven Adler—whose "swing" style is honestly the reason this song works.
If Matt Sorum had played on this, it would have been too heavy. Too stiff. Adler’s "pop-punk" drumming keeps it light and dangerous.
Technical Brilliance in Simplicity
Music critics often dismiss hair metal—or what they perceive as hair metal—as being technically shallow. They're wrong. Especially here. The chord progression in the chorus uses a descending line that is classic power-pop. It’s almost something The Raspberries or Cheap Trick would do.
Then you have Axl Rose.
His vocal range on Think About You is insane. He moves from a low, gravelly baritone in the verses to that signature high-register rasp in the chorus without breaking a sweat. It sounds painful. It sounds like his vocal cords are being run through a cheese grater. And yet, there’s a melody there that you’ll be humming for three days.
The production by Mike Clink shouldn't be ignored either. He kept the guitars panned wide. Izzy on the left, Slash on the right. If you wear headphones, you can hear them talking to each other through their riffs. It’s a masterclass in how to mix a two-guitar rock band.
How to Truly Appreciate the Track Today
If you want to understand why this song matters in the 2020s, you have to stop listening to it as a "classic rock" staple. Listen to it as a document of a dying breed of rock star. There is no pitch correction here. There is no quantization. It’s five guys in a room who kind of hated each other but loved the noise they made together.
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The Best Way to Listen:
- Use High-Fidelity Headphones: You need to hear the acoustic guitar layers under the distortion.
- Focus on the Bass: Duff McKagan’s bass line is surprisingly melodic here; he’s not just hitting roots. He’s playing a counter-melody.
- Check Out the Live Versions: Look for 1986 "Live at the Roxy" bootlegs. The song is even faster and more chaotic live.
Actionable Steps for the GNR Fan
Don't just take my word for it. Go back and re-evaluate the deep cuts.
First, listen to the 2018 Locked N' Loaded remaster. The clarity on the percussion breathes new life into the track. You'll hear ghost notes on the snare that were lost in the original 1987 pressing.
Second, compare the studio version to the 1986 Sound City Session version. The early demo is raw, unhinged, and shows how much the song evolved once they got a real budget.
Third, learn the rhythm parts. If you're a guitar player, don't just learn the Slash solo. Learn Izzy's parts. The way he uses "open G" tuning influences on a standard tuned song is what gives it that "Keef" swagger. It’s a lesson in "vibe" over "shred."
The reality is that Think About You represents a version of Guns N' Roses that disappeared shortly after 1988. It was the last of their "innocent" songs—before the lawsuits, the stadium riots, and the synth-heavy production of the nineties. It’s a snapshot of a band that was hungry, broke, and incredibly talented. It’s the sound of five guys who had nothing to lose and a world to conquer.