Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Let me say that you can not put on Appetite For Destruction, and not get excited. It can not be done. I mean, I dare you. I double-fucking-dog dare you to put on this album and not get excited. I'm getting excited just writing about getting excited from listening to the music.

When Geffen released Guns N' Roses' bad ass Rock & Roll album in 1987, no one was ready for the in your face spirit that would follow. They should have been, but they weren't. Hell, the fact that the band originally wanted the cover art to be an alien, with daggers for teeth, suspended in a jumping motion, above a woman that clearly looks like she's been sexually assaulted, but they settled for a skull with five skulls attacked to it, was a pretty good indication that the shit would hit the fan sooner than later.

When I opened up my first CD player one Christmas morning, in the earlier part of the 90's, this was one of the first three CD's I recieved as a gift to go with it. One of my Aunts picked it out for me, just after the Illusions were released. I have since replaced the CD once, due to how much it got used and abused over the years.

I know it's been said over and over that this is one of the best Rock albums ever, but that's because it's true. The original line-up of Slash, Duff, Izzy, Adler and Rose somehow created the most energetic, full throttle, in your face Rock album I have ever heard.

I don't care how contraversial The Rolling Stones were in the 60's, how much Alice Cooper scared parents in the 70's. No band has terrified parents more than Guns N' Roses, simply because they existed.

Most other mainstream bands (Metallica wasn't mainstream yet) from that time simply had bad reputations for being stupid man/childs, drinking, drugging, fucking, and trashing shit. They built names for themselves based on that and catchy riffs (I'm mainly talking about Motley Crew and the sad Glam clones they accidently spawned). The Gunners were very different. They had Izzy, Duff and Slash. Axel wasn't a premadonna yet, and Steve Adler wasn't a heroine riddled junky, but on his way.

The only band in all of Rock & Roll that is a fair comparison to this band is Aerosmith, which everyone has heard a million times before, but it's very true. Appetite for Destruction is like taking the best from Toys In The Attic and Rocks than putting them together in one twelve song package, that is how good of a Rock album it is.

Some people may think the Rolling Stones are a better comparison, but their music was actually quite a bit different from Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith in sound.

Let's start with the beginning, it always sounds like a good place. You've heard Welcome To the Jungle and you know how it gets you pumped. If you haven't, how the hell did you find this article?

It's fast, vicious, and get's right to the root of the glamourous L.A. Strip meat factories (I mean the people it produces). Not only was this a video single and radio single, it was the most real and honest music coming out at a time when cheesy (I mean bad) Rap, was sucking up the airwaves.

It wasn't exploiting poverty and perversion like todays music does. Welcome to The Jungle was a gripping look at how shitty things really were/are. It was a warning, not a cash grab.

It's So Easy is fast, furious, and over before you know it. Was that the idea they were going for to match the content? I don't think so, but it works. It works really well.

A favourite of mine has always been Nightrain. As a young teen that spent a lot of time hanging around traintracks, this song had a different meaning to me. The reality is that it's G'N'R's Cold Gin, but musically better. I love Ace, but he's no Slash. Out Ta Get Me is the point when you start to notice that you are really burning a lot of energy bouncing around with the excitement of this album. Also nothing like being thirteen and singing/yelling "I'm fuckin' innocent". That is therapy that still helps me to this day.

Lyrically Mr. Brownstone has no common ground with Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies, musically most people would say the same thing as well. However, I've always associated the two in sound and feel for some reason. It could be that wicked awesome bouncy beat the drums have flying out, or the guitars, or the whole collection together. I just really don't know. All I know is I love this song, and that's all that matters.

There are two soft songs on Appetite, Paradise City is the first one. Like Welcome to the Jungle you've heard it, because it was radio friendly. You may have seen the video of Axel in his white spandex shorts. You know how to sing the chorus, and if you don't... So is there a need to go on about a song many of us can agree has been over played through the years? In the days of vinyl and cassettes this was a great finish to side one.

The second side starts up with My Michelle. The truth is scary, and the fact that this was actually based on a female friend of the band is really fucking scary. Even if it's loosely based. This poor woman is now forever immoratallized as an L.A. Sleaze Strip victim of circumstance. A warning for others.

Think About You is the only song on the album that I would consider filler. It's got everything that the other songs have, except for a soul. The song just sounds rushed and hollow. Still a decent song, but on this album that's not good enough. Which now brings me to the biggest joke of the G'N'R career, not including The Spaghetti Incident. The story behind Sweet Child O' Mine is simple. Izzy wrote this song, and hated it. Axel loved it, and wanted to use it to get chicks. Izzy tells Slash to lay down the, now trademark, opening riff to turn Axel off the song. Axel likes it even more. The song goes on the album, is released and never has a group of ugly L.A. Strip junkies pulled more tail. To this day Slash still hates the song, but plays it for the fans, because it just became that huge. It's the song credited with making Guns N' Roses a house hold name. It's also the most mellow song on the album.

You're Crazy thankfully picks the pace back up after being brought down so low. It's not one of the better songs on the album, but it's still damn good. The same thing can be said about Anything Goes, although I like that one a lot better. I love songs full of raw in your face sexuality. I also really like the sound of a Talk Box.

I have a favourite G'N'R song and it's Rocket Queen. There is no other song from this band that I like to get down and dirty to, that is like this one. The lyrical content is 180 degrees of dirty, right down to the litteral Fucking Engineer, Victor Deyglio. It's all kind of dirty porno dripping sexuality, until the second half of the song. Then it becomes more tender and caring. A certain kind of understanding and sympathy seems to develop after discovering how used up the Rocket Queen really is. The only thing in my view that stops this album from still being a perfect ten is the second half of the album, especially Sweet Child O' Mine. It's a fantastic song, but it's like the mandatory ballad for the album, that only gets hyped up because it gets the girls wet. Also Out Ta Get Me and You're Crazy are a little more filler sounding than I care for.

Bottom line, if you don't already own this album you better either be just discovering Rock, or have been hidden from society for the last 25 years. I guess people my Grandparents age can be excused too. Anyone else should be ashamed of themselves, since my Mother-In-Law even went out to buy a copy after my Missus' was no longer easily available.

9/10 - content

10/10 - production

10/10 - personal bias