bout?

Erin Everly served as the inspiration for this song, who was Rose’s girlfriend at the time and Don Everly’s daughter of the Everly Brothers fame. It was also Rose’s attempt to write a sincere love song inspired by such southern rock bands as Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The conception of the lyrics was as spontaneous as it gets. So the story goes, the rest of the band was downstairs jamming on what would become “Sweet Child of Mine” while Axl listened and put pen to paper. It only took about a day to get them all written.

The Age of Innocence

“She’s got a smile that it seems, to me / Reminds me of childhood memories / Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky (Sky)”

These lyrics hearken back to a more innocent time, conjuring for the listener the purest form of love. He sings about how her smile brings him back to when things were simpler, which could shed some light on why he refers to her as a child in the chorus. The words overall are ambiguous enough so that they could be applied to anyone from a child to a spouse.

“Now and then, when I see her face / She takes me away to that special place / And if I stared too long, I’d probably break down and cry”

Just taking in the countenance of this person stirs up powerful emotions in the narrator. It is even so much as to transport him mentally and give him a sense of being somewhere else.

Stormy Weather

“She’s got eyes of the bluest skies / As if they thought of rain / I’d hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain / Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place / Where as a child I’d hide / And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by”

Axl uses rain as an analogy for conflict and pain. When he locks eyes with the woman he loves, it provides him with a sense of refuge.

Seriously though, where?

In the outro, the song ends with a question, introducing a new idea that leaves the listener guessing: “Where do we go now?”

These words came from the band struggling in the studio to work out a dramatic breakdown to end the song. Axl mused aloud repeatedly, “Where do we go? Where do we go now?” and thus, the lyrics were born.

On a deeper level, these lyrics could be a genuine question. Now that the narrator has found this safe refuge, where do they both go from there? It’s not always clear what the next step should be once you’ve found a perfect place to hide with someone who makes you feel like life is easy again.

Lyrics

She’s got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stare too long, I’d probably break down and cry

Whoa, oh, oh
Sweet child o’ mine
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine

She’s got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I’d hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I’d hide
And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by

Whoa, oh, oh
Sweet child o’ mine
Whoa whoa, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine

Whoa, yeah
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o’ mine
Whoa, oh, whoa, oh
Sweet love of mine
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o’ mine
Ooh, yeah
Ooh, sweet love of mine

Where do we go?
Where do we go now?
Where do we go?
Ooh, oh, where do we go?
Where do we go now?
Oh, where do we go now?
Where do we go? (Sweet child)
Where do we go now?
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay
Where do we go now?
Ah, ah

Where do we go?
Oh, where do we go now?
Oh, where do we go?
Oh, where do we go now?
Where do we go?
Oh, where do we go now?
Now, now, now, now, now, now, now
Sweet child
Sweet child of mine

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Duff Rose McKagan / Izzy Stradlin / Saul Hudson / Steven Adler / W. Axl Rose

Sweet Child O’ Mine lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group