"Madagascar" is a song by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

, written by

Axl Rose W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr.; born February 6, 1962) is an American musician. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its incep ...

and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

Chris Pitman Chris Pitman (born November 16, 1961) is an American musician best known for his involvement with the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. A multi-instrumentalist, Pitman is known to play keyboards, guitar and drums, in addition to his role as a lead o ...

and featured on their sixth studio album, ''

Chinese Democracy ''Chinese Democracy'' is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 2008, by Black Frog and Geffen Records. It was the first Guns N' Roses studio album since the 1993 covers album ''"The Spaghet ...

'', released in 2008. The song is the 12th song on the album, featuring dramatic orchestral arrangements and numerous audio samples during its bridge, including several from

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

's 1963 speech "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...

" and 1967 sermon "Why Jesus Called Man a Fool", and others from the motion pictures ''

Cool Hand Luke ''Cool Hand Luke'' is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison cam ...

'', ''

Mississippi Burning ''Mississippi Burning'' is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker that is loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi. It stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI ...

'', ''

Casualties of War ''Casualties of War'' is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for ''The New Yorker'' in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film star ...

'', ''

Braveheart ''Braveheart'' is a 1995 American historical drama film directed and produced by, and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson portrays Sir William Wallace, a late-13th century Scottish warrior who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence ag ...

'', and ''

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

''.

History and composition

The song was first performed publicly at the 2001

Rock in Rio 3 ''Rock in Rio'' is a recurring music festival originating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid and Las Vegas. Nine incarnations of the festival have been held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 199 ...

event in Brazil. It was announced by Axl Rose as being "a brand new song" which he hoped would "express his sentiment". On Pitman's official Facebook he posted a photo of Rose playing guitar on this song from its debut performance, commenting that all the guitar parts on the song were written by Rose; "Axl playing guitar on 'Maddy" live in Rio 2001, He wrote all the gtr parts, including lead gtr. I recorded him playing lots of awesome guitar parts back then, I don't think people know what an original and cool guitar player he really is, ... those were fun times". Pitman spoke of the writing of this song on talking metal in 2008, saying "I was up at his house for about a week or two, and I was setting up rack mounted samplers, and you had your fake orchestra with synthesizers. One would be the strings, one would be the brass, and I was setting that up for him, and I was going "now this module here, we’re going to us this for brass instruments and here you have horns…", and he was playing while I was switching the sounds, and I switched the sounds to French horn sound and he was playing this chord progression and I went to another sound, and he goes "oh no, go back to that one". We went back and it was the French horn sound and he kept playing this progression and it sounded really cool and I turned around and turned on the tape machine and that ended up being the very intro for the song "Madagascar". And that’s just how that evolved and he just had this chord progression and all of sudden it married with the French horn and it was their super-moody song and that was the start of that song. We actually recorded it really quickly up there at his house and he just sang unbelievably on it". The song's intro and outro sections feature

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

s played at slow speed by musician Suzie Katayama, while the song's instrumental break, or bridge, features dramatic orchestral string arrangements and audio samples of the "I Have a Dream" speech. Samples from numerous films including ''

'', ''

'' and ''

'' also feature. During live performances, images of

delivering his speeches are shown on large video screens during this section.

Live performances

"Madagascar" has been played at nearly every concert since its live debut in 2001, having been played 204 times live by the end of the US 2012 Up Close and Personal Tour. The song was absent at the start of the Not in This Lifetime... Tour, but returned during the 8th leg.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Guns N' Roses *

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, synthesizer *

Robin Finck Robert John "Robin" Finck (born November 7, 1971) is an American guitarist. Finck is the longest-serving touring musician for Nine Inch Nails, performing with the band from 1994 to 2000, and returning in 2008. With Nine Inch Nails, Finck contribu ...

– rhythm guitar *

Buckethead Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), known professionally as Buckethead, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has received critical acclaim for his innovative electric guitar playing. His music spans severa ...

– lead guitar, rhythm guitar *

Paul Tobias Paul H. Tobias (also known as Paul Edward Huge (pronounced hugh-gee); born in August 1963, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American guitarist best known for his involvement with hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has collaborated since 199 ...

– rhythm guitar *

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal Ronald Jay Blumenthal (born September 25, 1969), better known by his stage name Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal or just simply as Bumblefoot, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He adopted his nickname from the bacterial infection of the s ...

– rhythm guitar *

Tommy Stinson Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...

– bass guitar *

Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

– drums *

– keyboards,

sub bass Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

, bass Additional credits * Orchestra –

Marco Beltrami Marco Beltrami (born October 7, 1966) is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. He has worked in a number of genres, including horror (''Scream'', ''Mimic, The Faculty, Resident Evil, The Woman in Black, A Quiet Place' ...

* Additional orchestra –

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a Grammy Award-winning British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Sha ...

* Orchestral arrangement – Marco Beltrami, Paul Buckmaster, Axl Rose, Dizzy Reed, Chris Pitman * French horns – Suzie Katayama * Horn arrangement – Axl Rose, Suzie Katayama * Synth French horns – Axl Rose * Drum programming – Chris Pitman * Guitar solos – Buckethead * Sample collage – Axl Rose * Arrangement – Axl Rose, Chris Pitman * Drum arrangement – Chris Pitman, Brain * Digital editing – Chris Pitman,

Eric Caudieux Eric Caudieux is a French sound engineer and producer. An accomplished player of the keyboards and rhythm guitar, he is best known for his work with Joe Satriani, appearing on many of his albums and as a member of his backing group when he is on to ...

, Caram Costanzo, Axl Rose,

Sean Beavan Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Guns N' Roses, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. His production style is typically heavy, with heavily saturated guitar ...

References

{{authority control Guns N' Roses songs 2008 songs Songs written by Axl Rose Songs about Martin Luther King Jr. Songs based on speech samples