Sweet Child O' Mine Lyrics - Wendlo Courtesy of Wendlo

Song Facts:

• Original Artist: Guns N' Roses


• Cover Artist: Wendlo (Courtesy of Wendlo)


• Original Album: Appetite for Destruction


• Genre: Hard Rock


• Release Year: 1987 for the original track

Annotations and Meaning:

"Sweet Child O' Mine" proves to be that love anthem and anthem of reminiscence, reminding listeners just how powerful music really can be in drifting people back toward their personal emotions and memories. The tune threads romantic adoration together with a sense of wistful reminiscence, combining both elements into one lovely whole and making them one and the same.
The opening lines softly establish both reminiscing upon the clean, joyous days of childhood through the smile of one's beloved: "She's got a smile that it seems to me / Reminds me of childhood memories. This comparison gives a great resemblance to the sweetness and innocence that are attributed to the loved one; the kind of warm, soothing affinity evokes nostalgia for days gone by.

"And when I see her face / She takes me away to that special place"—here, it is denoted how the very look of the loved one takes and emotionally lands the speaker. The "special place" would very likely refer to a state of mind or emotional condition—an amount of happiness and tranquility sensed at some point in life.

"She's got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain." The vivid, powerful image represented by this line does much more than stimulate the idea of ideal for what is described as lovely eyes; it elicits depth and emotion, much like the sky on the brink of rain. It's a metaphor for the complexity and richness of the loved one's soul, capable of profound feeling.

The choruses of "Woah, oh, oh / Sweet child o' mine" serve to pull this impression throughout, acting as a loving anchor point for the song's emotional center.

The term "sweet child o' mine" is a means of soothing and, at the same time, accepting the dear one's state of absolute innocence and purity, which brings forth a timeless feeling of security and adoration. And the closing lines of the song, "Where do we go? / Where do we go now?," insinuate with a feel of uncertainty and longing, quite in opposition to the powerfully certain and nostalgic verses that have been referred to above.

This very shift shows the universal transition from clear vision of the past into the ambiguity of the future, whereby skepticism as to the course life and love take. "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses, as covered by Wendlo on the "Ordinary Angels" soundtrack, encapsulates the deep beauty of love with memories flitting innocently through ages. A song of joy that is constantly singing from the latest quality of love, against the fleeting moment that life provides in every generation.