Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine is at its most basic level a love song.  But at a deeper level, two themes emerge: One is a quasi-oedipal yearning which creeps into the verses.  Another is a yearning for the innocence of childhood, and how a first love echoes that sense of innocence and purity one feels as a child.  Finally, we shall examine the ambiguous and ominous final lyrics, “Where do we go now?” 

VERSE 1 

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 stared too long 
I'd probably break down and cry

COMMENTARY 

In the first verse, “childhood memories” are evoked by the beauty of the beloved of the song, and a freshness is associated with these memories.  The sight of the beloved’s face takes the speaker to a “special place” that would make him weep to think of.  So what is this special place?  It is the innocence of childhood, I would argue, and the safety of a loving mother.  

VERSE 2

She's got eyes of the bluest skies 
As if they thought of rain
I 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

COMMENTARY 

The beloved’s hair reminds the speaker of a warm, safe place “where as a child I’d hide.”  Whose hair do you suppose a child would hide in?  Of course, his mother’s.  The beloved gives him a sense of safety and security that a boy knows with his mother and is recreated in some iteration within a romantic relationship between a man and a woman.  

CODA 

Where do we go now? 

COMMENTARY

I recently learned (can’t remember from where) that the “Where do we go now?” lyric originated with Axl Rose literally thinking out loud, “Where do we go?” into the microphone, in terms of where do we go with the song itself.  Still, I impute greater meaning to the line, especially in terms of the tone of this brash ending to the iconic song.  One of the greatest rock hits of the late eighties seems to ask “Where do we go?” as a civilization or as a culture. What lies next after the decadent decade of which Guns N’ Roses ruled the latter half? 

Or if you prefer, to keep the focus on a love relationship, “Where do we go?” can refer to the uncertainty of such an intense romantic love.  With the feelings of love so passionately expressed in “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” what room is there for growth?  What can transpire in the aftermath of this passion?   If we are to judge from the beautiful cacophony which is the coda of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” not to mention the title of the album,  the ending is…destruction. 

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