“Cha-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees! Knees! In the jungle….”, she sings.
“Wait”, she says. “How come I know this song?”
“Probably because you’ve heard it one million times playing Guitar Hero”.
Guilty as charged. Guns ‘n Roses “Appetite for Destruction” has been rotating in and out of my CD player in my car. It started at the last “Heavy Metal Burlesque” show that I went to – the sponsor had hired a GnR tribute band to play. The dude that was playing “Slash” didn’t impress me much, but that was because his Les Paul kept pulling out of tune. But it reminded me of all the songs off Appetite that I loved. I sang along to a bunch of them and couldn’t believe that I remembered the words. Stopped at Forever Young and scored a used copy.
Initially, I didn’t warm to GnR until right around the end of high school – around 1991. In passing, we would see the video for “Paradise City” when waiting for the Metallica video “One” (somewhere around 1989). GnR initally struck me as kind of a hair metal band so at the time I was pretty non-plussed. Looking back, we also didn’t think much about the instability of the guys in GnR. Just when you thought they SHOULD be releasing an album or something – they just didn’t. There was a LONG stretch of them releasing nothing until that double album set came out (which I only bought one of – and I can’t remember why). At that time, I wanted my music to be harder/heavier
on AM radio! Rawk!
It wasn’t until a few of us drove down to Galveston with Ty’s crappy boom-box sporting a (cassette) copy of Appetite did I really start to dig the album. I have to say, it still really holds together and stands the test of time (for me anyway). Whenever I listen to it, the reckless-energy vibe still is there for me.
As a guitar player I’ve never been a huge Slash fan, although his playing on Appetite (to me) is a great exercise in judicious Wah usage. When I got bored at lunch, I popped over and picked up his autobiography. There were only two things that really surprised me. One is that he got a pacemaker at 34. (After continually having heart attacks onstage!). The other that shocked me was that Slash drove a Honda CRX. Seriously? A CRX? I was in an accident (as passenger) in one of those. I can’t imagine a less masculine car for a guitar-guy like Slash to be driving. I mean sure, it was black-on-black, but c’mon…..a CRX? Heroin usage? Blah, blah, whatever. Expected. That CRX thing blew me away though.
Listening to Appetite now, I have to agree with Slash’s assesment that Stephen Adler was essential to that album’s success. No matter how much you dog him for whatever else he’s done, his drumming is really an essential part of that album.
I haven’t gotten into GnR live stuff yet – their Youtube stuff is not really doing it for me. If you see me walking around with a top hat on, you’ll know I’ve lost it.
I read that Slash autobiography this year as well, I really liked it. The fact that he’s not dead is incredible. The book really sheds light on why their albums came out so erratically, and why Use Your Illusion I & II aren’t that great. His description of recording Appetite really accounts for why it’s such a great record. That’s the way it ought to be done.
Yeah, it struck me as a pretty interesting read. Much more so than the Clapton bio I read a while back which can be summed up thusly: “Went on tour, don’t remember it. Went on another tour, don’t remember it. Went on ANOTHER tour and don’t remember it either.” At least Slash had some appropriate rock ‘n roll hijinx.