Welcome to the Jungle | Through the Shattered Lens

Supposedly, this is a video that MTV initially rejected, feeling that it would be too intense and sordid to appeal to its audience. In the end, the only reason MTV relented was due to the intervention of David Geffen, who convinced the channel to play the song once at five in the morning. No sooner had the video aired than the station started to get calls from viewers who wanted to see it again. Just as the song would become one of Guns N’ Roses’s signature songs, the video became one of MTV’s signature videos.

This is yet another video that was directed by Nigel Dick. The video follows a young Axl Rose, as he gets off the bus in Los Angeles and finds himself in the jungle. Interestingly, the members of the band appear as an assortment of drug dealers and other lowlifes, all of whom are trying to corrupt Axl. It’s been said that the video actually follows the real life dynamic of the group as Axl, despite his reputation, stayed away from the heavy drug use that the rest of the band happily indulged in,

The video has been called a combination of Midnight Cowboy, The Man Who Fell To Earth, and A Clockwork Orange. That sounds right to me.

Enjoy!

“Welcome to the jungle. We’ve got fun n’ games.”

Quite the extreme reversal from #4 to #5 but then my taste in music between junior high and high school was pretty much all over the place. I could be listening to the latest teeny bopper, LAtin-freestyle dance track one month then I’m picking up that hard rock or metal song that I knew my parents would never approve of (especially my mom).

Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” was one such song though I was surprised that my Dad actually liked it as much as I did. My first memory of ever hearing “Welcome to the Jungle” was watching the latest and last Dirty Harry film with my dad. It was The Dead Pool and this song was used as a sort of soundtrack in the fake horror film in the film. I’m not sure if my dad liked the song because it was in a Dirty Harry flick or he just liked it because he grew up in the 60’s and 70’s listening to hard rock.

I don’t think my dad was too keen on the Guns N’ Roses look though. Even then he knew the hair metal, glam look was no bueno.

So, “Welcome to the Jungle” was my initial introduction to Guns N’ Roses and pretty much opened up my ears to a whole new spectrum of music. I never abandoned the R&B, dance pop and freestyle songs from junior high and even years later, but hard rock and metal soon joined the LP (and later CD) rotation.