Move To The City

by **Soulmonster** Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:06 pm

MOVE TO THE CITY

Album:
Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, 1986, track no. 3.

GN'R Lies, 1988, track no. 3.

Info:
Another old song stemming from Hollywood Rose. Penned by Chris Weber and Izzy together with their friend and bass player D.J. in May 1984.

Written by:
Izzy Stradlin, Chris Weber and D.J. (Daniel Nicolson).

Musicians:
Vocals: Axl Rose; lead guitar: Slash; rhythm guitar: Izzy Stradlin; bass: Duff McKagan; drums: Steven Adler.; horn: Matt McKagan (unknown who the rest of the horn players were).

Live performances:
'Move to the City' came from Hollywood Rose and was played regularly up until 1992. It has not been played since then. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {MOVESONGS} times.

Lyrics:

You pack your bags and mou move to the city
There's something missin' here at home
You fix your hair and you look real pretty
It's time to get out on your own
You're always fightin' with your mama and your papa
Yo' family life is one big pain
When ya gonna move to the city
To the city where it all began

You gotta move you gotta move
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
You gotta move

You stole your mama's car and your daddy's plastic credit card
You're sixteen and you can't get a job
You're not goin' very far
You're always ridin' with the teachers and the police
This life is much too insane
When are you, you gonna move to the city
To the city where it all began

You gotta move you gotta move
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
You gotta move

To the city
With the real nitty gritty
Aw child ain't it a pity
Sometimes it gets too shitty
Come on and hit me

You're on the streets and it ain't so pretty
At least you get ta do what you please
You do what you gotta do for the money
At times you end up on your knees
I'm always buyin' with local desert junkies
This city life is one big pain
But you, you had to move to the city
To the city where it all began

You gotta move you gotta move
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
You gotta move

To the city
With the real nitty gritty
Aw child ain't it a pity
Sometimes it gets too shitty
Come on and hit me

Quotes regarding the song and its making:

Talking about what influenced the writing of Anything Goes and Move To The City:

I think, you know, Izzy and I were listening to a lot of Aerosmith and I think Rock And A Hard Place had just come out or come out just, you know, around that time, listening to a lot of that. And it just sort of felt, you know, kind of I felt some of the vibe that that giving off kind of inspired some of my writing. I think Move To The City is a good example, you know a riff that I wrote that- [...] it's got that sort of same type of vibe.

Appetite For Distortion, July 30, 2017

Weber says that he and Izzy would continue writing music for Hollywood Rose after Axl left the band after the show on May 10, 1984, before the band disbanded:

At the time that [Axl] left is when Move To... within that period of time is when me and Izzy wrote Move To The City because Axl wasn't part of it.

Appetite For Distortion, July 30, 2017

This puts the date to the writing of Move To The City to May 1984. Steven, though, in a quote below, would claim the song was already written when he and Slash went to watch Hollywood Rose (likely in February 1984) before the band temporarily disbanded as Weber left.

The bass player's name was DJ. I believe he helped write 'Move to the City', one of the songs they performed.

"My Appetite for Destruction", 2010

This DJ who played bass for a short time in Hollywood Rose, also has writing credits on the song.

I just looked at a Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide cassette tape, and on it, “Move to the City” is credited: Stradlin, me, and D.J., which is a fella who was a friend of ours. Then later, everybody in the band that wasn’t even part of the band at the time is credited for it. So, there are a lot of interesting things that happened with credits that aren’t totally on the up-and-up. I’ll put it like that.

Vinyl Writer Music, August 15, 2022

And Duff would mention that the song was written by the time he joined Guns N' Roses:

Izzy and Axl already had some songs, and the other guys knew them: "Think About You," "Anything Goes," "Move To The City," "Shadow of Your Love," and "Don't Cry." And we did sped-up punk versions of the Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel".

Duff' autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 88-89

Axl introducing the song in 1985:

This is a song about coming to L.A. This is a song called 'Move to the City'.

The Troubadour, June 6, 1985

This is a song dedicated to anybody that got tired of wherever the fuck they were and moved to a big city such as L.A. This is called, 'Move to the City'.

Madame Wong's East, July 4, 1985

When they recorded the song, Duff would get his brother, Hank, to play horns:

One of the staples in our early sets was a tune called 'Move To The City,' which was eventually recorded for our Live! Like A Suicide EP. We always heard that song the way it was recorded - with a horn section. And sometimes, even at the smallest venues, where we could barely all fit in the backstage area, we put together a few brass instruments to come onstage for the song. I recruited my brother Matt, who played trombone, to be part of the horn section.

Duff' autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 88-89

by **Soulmonster** Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:46 am

Lovin' it!

by **Blackstar** Sun Oct 23, 2022 6:44 pm

About the mysterious "D.J.", who is credited as co-writer of this song in the liner notes of Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide:

Many people (including the editors of the Wikipedia entry for Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide) have thought that "D.J." stood for Del James.

However, Steven said in his autobiography (quoted above) that DJ was the bass player in Hollywood Rose at some point in 1984. And Chris Weber said recently:

I just looked at a Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide cassette tape, and on it, “Move to the City” is credited: Stradlin, me, and D.J., which is a fella who was a friend of ours. Then later, everybody in the band that wasn’t even part of the band at the time is credited for it. So, there are a lot of interesting things that happened with credits that aren’t totally on the up-and-up. I’ll put it like that.

Vinyl Writer Music, August 15, 2022

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, D.J.'s real/full name is Daniel Nicolson:

https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/2287749

(I have updated the information in the OP).

by **Soulmonster** Tue Aug 01, 2023 7:35 am

Talking about what influenced the writing of Anything Goes and Move To The City:

I think, you know, Izzy and I were listening to a lot of Aerosmith and I think Rock And A Hard Place had just come out or come out just, you know, around that time, listening to a lot of that. And it just sort of felt, you know, kind of I felt some of the vibe that that giving off kind of inspired some of my writing. I think Move To The City is a good example, you know a riff that I wrote that- [...] it's got that sort of same type of vibe.

Appetite For Distortion, July 30, 2017

by **Soulmonster** Tue Aug 01, 2023 7:54 am

Weber says that he and Izzy would continue writing music for Hollywood Rose after Axl left the band after the show on May 10, 1984, before the band disbanded:

At the time that [Axl] left is when Move To... within that period of time is when me and Izzy wrote Move To The City because Axl wasn't part of it.

Appetite For Distortion, July 30, 2017

This puts the date to the writing of Move To The City to May 1984, although it is possible the lyrics where written by Axl a bit later when Izzy and Axl got together again to continue with the band. Steven, though, would claim the song was already written when he and Slash went to watch Hollywood Rose (likely in February 1984) before the band temporarily disbanded as Weber left, although I think it is more likely Steven is wrong about this than Weber.

by **Blackstar** Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:03 pm

Soulmonster wrote:Weber says that he and Izzy would continue writing music for Hollywood Rose after Axl left the band after the show on May 10, 1984, before the band disbanded:
At the time that [Axl] left is when Move To... within that period of time is when me and Izzy wrote Move To The City because Axl wasn't part of it.
Appetite For Distortion, July 30, 2017

This puts the date to the writing of Move To The City to May 1984, although it is possible the lyrics where written by Axl a bit later when Izzy and Axl got together again to continue with the band. Steven, though, would claim the song was already written when he and Slash went to watch Hollywood Rose (likely in February 1984) before the band temporarily disbanded as Weber left, although I think it is more likely Steven is wrong about this than Weber.

Axl doesn't have writing credits for Move To The City - at least he didn't have originally (only Izzy, Chris Weber and DJ/Daniel Nicolson were listed as writers in the liner notes of Live Like A Suicide) before GN'R arranged the royalty splits. So yeah, Chris Weber is probably correct here.

by ludurigan Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:05 pm

axl was so convincing singing all these "izzy songs" back in the guns n' roses era that anyone watching had no reason to even suspect that he didn't write all the words and all the music for it

by **Soulmonster** Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:24 pm

I was sure Move To The City was sort-of biographical for Axl but I suppose it could just as well be Izzy.

by ludurigan Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:41 pm

Soulmonster wrote:I was sure Move To The City was sort-of biographical for Axl but I suppose it could just as well be Izzy.

I, for my part, back then in the very late 80's and early 90's, before internet, before being able to understand English language properly, was 100% sure that all Guns n' Roses music was 100% biographical for Axl! Not only that but I was 100% sure that Axl was the main creator of words and music!

I believe that the absolutely majority of non-hardcore "fans" -- that should make about 80% of the people that go to in any given live concert of this current tour or of the past tours -- are, to this day, 100% sure that Axl and Slash are the main creators of Guns n' Roses music. They have very little idea -- or no idea at all -- of Izzy's role in creating the Guns n' Roses songs and have no idea how his rocking and grooving and warm and vital guitar playing is a key part of the band's sound and appeal.

(even Axl seems to be unaware of that)

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