Merry-Go-Round

Album: Too Fast For Love (1981)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The inspiration for this song was a bizarre incident Crüe bass player Nikki Sixx witnessed when he was living in Seattle. He saw a guy with a mental condition being taken away by authorities when he refused to get off a merry-go-round.

    "He was about 22-23 years old and had about four kids and had all these pressures," Sixx explained. "He regressed to being a little kid. He was out there playing on the merry-go-round and he just lost it — too many pressures."
  • This is a track from Too Fast For Love, Mötley Crüe's debut album, which they released independently. Nikki Sixx was the primary songwriter in the band, and many songs on the album, including this one, he had in the works before Mötley Crüe even formed.

    The album got the attention of Elektra Records, which signed the band and gave the album a proper release. It went on to sell over a million copies in America when the band took off and fans sought out their back catalogue.
  • "Merry-Go-Round" was included on the soundtrack to the 2019 Mötley Crüe biopic, The Dirt.

Comments: 4

  • You from MfCome on and Dance is the best track ever recorded by them
  • Johan from SwedenI thought first that this was a cover of Led Zepplin.
  • David Gustavo Nunez-montoya from Lrd TxShawn from Green Bay, Wi
    I think a very good argument can be made that THIS short diddy is the best Crue song they ever recorded. Extremely artistic for them, it has a cycling chord line throughout that invokes the image of spinning around and around even without the lyrics. The lyrics themselves mean nothing or everything, like a truly great poem. And yet the base pick-up and chorus still has the grinding energy you expected from Crue in their early days.

    on da dot ese
  • Shawn from Green Bay, WiI think a very good argument can be made that THIS short diddy is the best Crue song they ever recorded. Extremely artistic for them, it has a cycling chord line throughout that invokes the image of spinning around and around even without the lyrics. The lyrics themselves mean nothing or everything, like a truly great poem. And yet the base pick-up and chorus still has the grinding energy you expected from Crue in their early days.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.

Yoko Ono

Yoko OnoSongwriter Interviews

At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennittSongwriter Interviews

The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.