Let me get this outta the way right off the bat: Im an 80s baby (born in 1979). So you better believe I blasted my dual cassette player to Guns N’ Roses like I had long bleached blond hair. I’ve heard several impressive covers of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” before. Those power ballads of the 80s just hit you right in the feels and the gut… they had you crying one second and ready to run through a wall the next!
Then again I also am a child of the 90s. This is when I really came into my “musical own.” I expanded my horizons and enjoyed me some gangster rap… some good old East Coast VS West Coast beef. There was nothing like the “PIONEER SPEAKERS BUMPING” in my 1987 Plymouth Reliant.
Most people don’t consider Guns N’ Roses your traditional love song band. Guys named Slash and Axl don’t sing about love. But I’ll have you know that “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is one of the most romantic songs ever written, I mean Axl wrote it for his fiancé and soon to be wife of, well ok, the marriage lasted like half a year. But still, she’s the one with a smile that seems to me reminds me of childhood memories where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky. You know, the one who’s got eyes of the bluest skies as if they thought of rain. So yes, Axl and Slash love to sing about love and I love listening to them singing about love.
Everybody knows Mr. Warren G and the greatest hook man in the history of music: Nate Dogg (RIP homie🙏🏼). Their storybook rap song, “Regulate”, tells a story with vivid pictures of a life so many of us youngins experienced. You know, just ridin’ around looking for some nice ladies to take out on a date, but having to Regulate on some fools first. It’s the anthem of my youth.
But I’m not here blogging this today to tell you why i love these songs. I’m blogging this today, though, because I need to share with the world the two most amazing versions of these two classic songs these ears have ever heard. Recommended to me by my six year old and Amazon Alexa. I can’t stop listen to them. I listened to them in bed, in the shower and on my way to the office this morning and found them to be equal parts mind-blowing and relaxing.
Click below and take a listen:
2. REGULATE
As you can here, they’re lullabies. Literally a heavy metal power ballad and a gangster rap song by Dr Dre’s little brother helps to put my son to sleep every night. This little dude is in bed snooring away to the glockenspiel belting out the notes to two of history’s greatest songs.
So there you have it… music… connecting generations, fathers to sons, fender guitars and the G-Funk Era to glockenspiels. God bless music (and God bless the fact that my son fell asleep before 10:30pm).
PS: if you have a few moments watch this amazing version of “Regulate”. Kenny and Warren. Straight up G’s.
Sorry Son: Chronicles of a New Dad 