Paradise City

I remember this song from when I was in high school -- we used to listen to G N'R constantly on long bus rides to away track meets. Some of the guys on the team even had their own Medfordized version of the lyrics (original lyrics in parentheses):

Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is (green) free and the girls are (pretty) come on!

The Medford boys were singing about pot and easy women - which is one of the reasons it still makes me smile to hear this song, as we did sitting in J.'s car after enjoying an evening in our own paradise city -- Madison in the summertime at the Terrace. At one point we looked out at the water with all the boats and it was so beautiful it didn't even look real -- it looked like the set of a movie. But it was real, and for me, it's soaking up these summer nights that makes it possible to get through the long winter. There's a lot of the year where I wouldn't call Madison the Paradise City, but this time of year, it's so incredible it doesn't feel like a stretch to think it's exactly what makes Axl bang his long red locks: Take. Me. Home.

Here's Axl in all his glory.