With every year, it seems, I make a controversial decision regarding who gets snubbed from the best list.

For my first rock and alternative list for 2020, I completely bypassed Billie Eilish’s highly acclaimed “Everything I Wanted.”  I rejected the most famous song in 1963, The Beach Boys’s “Surfin’ USA,” on grounds of it plagiarizing Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.”  And for 1977, there were tons of obvious picks I rejected, most notably three songs from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” and “Sir Duke.”  For the sake of tradition, let’s introduce the obvious pick that’s getting snubbed this time out.

In 1991, Guns N’ Roses continued their two-part classic Use Your Illusion.  After scoring two chart successes that year with “Don’t Cry” and “You Could Be Mine,” their album cycle really kicked into high gear when they released “November Rain” as the fourth single from the album.  Although not released until February 1992, it was already charting in the 1991 calendar year.  It is among the most popular songs of the year, with its iconic music video becoming the first rock music video to surpass 1 billion views on Youtube.  It is also the most highly acclaimed song of the year in any genre, topping multiple lists in the reviewer sphere for the best song of 1992, possibly even more so than the obvious pick for number one in 1992, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Well, sorry to disappoint you all again.  “November Rain” is not going to be on this best list.

Don’t worry, it will be on the honorable mentions.  I like the song fine, I can tell it’s very good, especially in the guitar work in the solo and conclusion.  But I can’t honestly say that it’s one of my ten favorite rock songs of 1992.  The ten songs I’m going over today hit me harder than “November Rain” does.  But if you’re talking about a Guns N’ Roses song that truly hits me hard, well, there’s some other song on Use Your Illusion II…

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” – Guns N’ Roses

UK
#2 peak (May 23, 1992)
#11 year-end (#34 overall), 9 weeks on chart

(record scratch)

Wait, you’re asking me.  “November Rain” is not on your best list… but a cover song is?

Adding to that, since I started this blog I’ve pretty much been playing whack-a-mole on cover songs.  Two cover songs were on my 1963 and 1977 pop lists each, and another two were on the worst list I just completed for 1992.  So it’s probably come across to you all that I’m not very fond of cover songs.  Well, to that I say, I do not follow convention.  I’m the critic who repeatedly praises “Beverly Hills,” for Christ’s sakes.  Additionally, I did mention on my worst list that I do have an openness for covers that add something new or provide a new take on an old classic.  Of course, it has to be tastefully done.  To which this next song succeeds.  Oh, and if your heart hasn’t stopped yet, I’ve got one more shock to deliver to you all.  Guns N’ Roses are a band with several titanic songs in the history of rock, specifically on their debut Appetite For Destruction with “Welcome To The Jungle,” “Sweet Child ‘O Mine,” and “Paradise City.”  And yet despite all that… “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is my favorite Guns N’ Roses song.  It is better than the Bob Dylan original.  I’m currently dropping so many hot takes my computer has caught fire for no reason.

No, I’m not discounting the Bob Dylan original.  Dylan initially wrote the song for the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, where it scores a scene in which Slim Pickens is assassinated.  It’s an effective, peaceful song, where Dylan’s songwriting underscores the fragility of life and the chorus that backs him up on the chorus is just beautiful.  But as good as the original “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is, the song doesn’t seem to stretch up to that next level.  It comes across as rather one-note, a song that just fades into the background.  Guns N’ Roses took this Bob Dylan song and pumped it up to the next level.

Let’s start with the most obvious advantage the Guns N’ Roses cover has over the Bob Dylan original.  I know I’m not supposed to say things like this as a horrible singer myself, but… Axl Rose is a way better singer than Bob Dylan.  Yes, Axl is among the most infamous figures in rock history for feuding with his fellow band members, accumulating a prolific criminal record, and for blowing off a show in Montreal in 1992.  And for the 5,000^th time, it has to be said that he stole his signature dance from Davy Jones.  But when he actually stopped being a delinquent and focused on, you know, his actual job, he was one of the most dynamic frontmen of his time.  Rose boasted a five-octave vocal range, and his vocal performances on songs like “Welcome To The Jungle” and “November Rain” could absolutely pulverize you.  But even with those songs available, none of his other vocal performances touch “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”  Just listen to his vocals, where he sings the lead vocals in his lower register with his backing vocals an octave above.  The low vocals are just embarrassingly infectious.  Every time I listen to his unsettling, paranoid low vocals, especially on the chorus, I struggle to resist the temptation to hum along.  In private, of course.  I don’t want anyone hearing my awful Axl impersonation.  But then his signature snotty high vocals come in for the second vocals, reaching their peak on the final “Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door” recitation and it just becomes cathartic.  How does Axl switch his style of vocals so effortlessly?  The way he does it is just breathtaking.

The Guns N’ Roses rendition of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is 5 ½ minutes long: more than twice as long as the original.  So with how much longer this song is compared to its predecessor, it is required that Guns N’ Roses add something new to this version.  That they do.  The guitar is just so much more lively and impactful on this version than the Bob Dylan version.  While the Dylan version is peaceful, again, Guns N’ Roses adds more diversity and power to the song.  Just as it sounds like it’s going to be a similarly morose and mournful affair led by Slash’s arpeggiated chords, the distortion comes in and it becomes a lighters in the air anthem, at least while lighters were still a thing.  Also comes the one set of added lyrics to the song in the bridge, after Slash’s solo.  For the bridge, Josh Richman, a friend of the band who also directed their video for their cover of Wings’s “Live And Let Die,” provides us with a case of hard hitting reality.

You just better start sniffing your own rank subjugation, Jack, because it’s just you against your tattered libido, the bank and the mortician forever, man.  And it wouldn’t be luck if you could get out of life alive.

With the song being written about the death of a fictitious police officer, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is about said officer recognizing the finality of death as he knows it is coming after that fateful shot.  On the other hand, this passage demands that the officer recognize that there is no hope, and that death is the only option.  The “wouldn’t be luck if you could get out of life alive” sounds like a statement as to how sometimes, death is actually preferable, as sad as it is.  It’s an ultimatum to the officer: would you rather die, or live as a paraplegic or with severe mental problems for the rest of your life?  It results in food for thought.  But the Guns N’ Roses provides this juxtaposition as a new way to indicate, death may actually be the ideal outcome.

But the final part of what makes “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” such a great cover that it surpasses the Bob Dylan original is Slash.  My God, that guitar work.  It may not be his greatest guitar work, but it soars in a way that even the best-known Guns N’ Roses songs can’t match.  “Welcome To The Jungle” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” feature great guitar work, of course, but they exist in my book as, “well, they’re good…”.  Slash’s guitar on “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” hits me hard every time I hear it.  It starts off with yet another melody that you can’t help but just hum along to.  But then it gets to the part that kills me every time, where Slash’s guitar rises to the C#-B-A#-B-C# melody line.  It is the most epic slow-moving guitar solo of the year, the moment where I’m absolutely sold that this is my favorite Guns N’ Roses song.

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is, simply put, a good song turned into a great song.  Taking the basic track that Bob Dylan made famous, Guns N’ Roses made this simple track about death into an epic statement on the fragility of human life.  Add to that Axl’s best vocal performance and one of Slash’s best performances and I am finally starting to see why people consider these guys legends.  Great song, Axl.  But don’t take my boy Davy Jones’s dance.  Pick on somebody your own size.  Like MC Hammer.

UP NEXT: Back to grunge at #6.

SOURCES

Markhorst, Jochen. “Knocken On Heaven’s Door: Change, Change Again.” Untold Dylan 30 September 2019. Web. 27 August 2022 https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/11626.

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Guns N’ Roses.” Genius 2022. Web. 27 August 2022 https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-knockin-on-heavens-door-lyrics.

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Genius