"Seattlehead" (also typeset Seattle Head) is a song written by American musician

Duff McKagan Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964), sometimes credited as Duff "Rose" McKagan, is an American musician. He played bass for twelve years in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late ...

. It is best known as a song by his band Loaded, from their album '' Dark Days''; it also featured on earlier releases by

Neurotic Outsiders Neurotic Outsiders was a British-American rock supergroup founded in 1995, consisting of Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, and John Taylor of Duran Duran. The first line-up featured Billy Idol and Ste ...

as well as McKagan's unreleased solo album ''

Beautiful Disease ''Beautiful Disease'' is an unreleased solo album by Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan which was slated to be released as his second solo album in 1999. However, it was shelved after a merger between McKagan's parent label Polygram and Universal, ...

''.

Composition

The song was originally written in the early 1990s, with its subject matter being "what L.A. came to represent, rather than what it is". It also references McKagan's move to Los Angeles from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in 1984 with the lyrics: "Movin' to the city sight unseen/19 years of age I'm packing my bags/Hollywood was all the rage/I came to you in 1984/You showed me in, then you shut the door."

Releases

The first version of the song was released as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of the 1996 single "Jerk" by the supergroup

, featuring McKagan, Guns N' Roses bandmate

Matt Sorum Matthew William Sorum (born November 19, 1960) is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. S ...

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

guitarist

Steve Jones Steve or Steven Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Steve Jones (English presenter) (born 1945), English musician, disk jockey, television presenter, and voice-over artist *Steve Jones (musician) (born 1955), English rock and roll guita ...

and

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

bassist John Taylor. It also featured on the ''Angelina'' EP released in Japan in 1997. This early version featured a shorter first verse than the later releases. "Seattlehead" was later re-recorded for McKagan's second solo album ''

'', which was ultimately shelved after Geffen and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

merged. McKagan was dropped from the roster of the "new combined" label. After the cancellation of the release of ''Beautiful Disease'', McKagan decided to make a live release featuring new songs, which resulted in the release of Loaded's live album '' Episode 1999: Live'' including a live version of the song. McKagan began re-recording some of the songs from ''Beautiful Disease'' such as "Seattlehead" as well as new material at Jupiter Studios in Seattle for Loaded's debut studio album: '' Dark Days'', released in the U.S. and Japan in July 2001 and in Europe in July 2002. A 2001 music video by Eric Waggoner featuring clips of the band performing live in Japan was made available on Loaded's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

page in 2008.

References

{{Loaded (band) Loaded (band) songs Songs written by Duff McKagan