"Appetite for Destruction" is an outstanding album and should be a "must-know/must listen" for any Rock audiophile: they were able to create a sound in Rock at a time that didn't sound like anybody yet they sounded like everybody (!)....but they just couldn't repeat that recipe in their subsequent albums, with hit-n-miss moments throughout most of them. They also had the unfortunate circumstances of debuting internationally in the late 80s (1987 to be exact), which only gave them about seven unhindered years/five albums before Grunge took over in '93 and they would be forced to compete with new trends (which impacted their output)
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I thought that the live side one of the "GNR Lies" album was pretty good at the time. I saw the current lineup of GNR perform live just a few years ago and thought that it was actually pretty good. It was even a good three hour show. Axl is a jerk but he sure can rock!
Library Jon
Count me among those who think A4D is a classic. As was already mentioned, GNR were a welcome respite from the mascara and rouge wearing, hair-teased pussies that passed for hard rock and metal in the late '80s. With A4D, rock-n-roll was sleazy and edgy again. How the mainstream media could dismiss prog for a decade but give hairy metal a pass in the '80s beyond me - lemme see; capes were pretentious, Aquanet was cool... right.
I ordered A4D in a record store after hearing the store's pre-release copy, before ever hearing it on the radio. It would be another 4 or 5 months before I'd see them on Headbangers Ball. But then they hit the big time and Axl Rose's ego exploded. He turned out to be one grade-A prick. As much as I think they coulda, shoulda been big as anyone before them, you just couldn't root for a buttplug like Rose. Just ask Metallica.
I never cared for anything they did after A4D anyway.
Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that
This. They weren't the poseurs that the hair metal boys were. I know some lumped them in with that crowd but for a brief period of time, GnR was the real thing. UYI was a bloated mess and when I started burning CDs one of the first things I did was make a compilation of the best tracks. But when Izzy and then Slash got pushed out, it all went to shit.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Appetite For Destruction: A rock classic in my opinion. It kicks ass from beginning to end without a bad track on it. Essential for fans of sleazy hard rock.
Use Your Illusion 1 & 2: Paired down to a single album I think it could have been another classic, but between the two discs there is defiantly some filler. Still, the good stuff on them is really good.
Chinese Democracy: I like a lot of it. It had to grow on me some, but I still pull it out from time to time and think it is a pretty good album.
I have never seen G & R live, but did go see Slash in a club last year. His last two solo albums have been really really good and I thought he put on a great show.
Steve Sly
Well, I was a teen when A4D came out, and I loved it. They brought back a bluesy swagger that seemed to be missing in the hard rock/hair metal/metal at the time. At least I wasn't aware of it at the time, anyway. For a kid traveling down the classic rock radio path, GnR revived a sound I really came to love. However, in that same turn, what they did wasn't really original. It's understandable that people think there was much better elsewhere. It was, however, happening at the time- not something that had happened a generation ago. So I knew where I could get some of that swaggering hard rock sound, and those great blues-drenched licks.
A saw them open for Aerosmith, on the Permanent Vacation tour. That was a great night in my young life. (Of course, since PV set the template for the next dreadful phase of Aerosmith, I have a much more ambivalence about the music. At the time, however, I thought it an enjoyable pop album by a hard-rock legend.) I saw them a few other times, but that was the best.
Most of what has been said on this thread nailed it, though: they couldn't sustain what they captured on A4D, Axl is/was an monster douche - even by Sunset Strip band standards, and their next full-length follow-up was a bloated mess. The last one puzzled me in as much as it was bothered with at all. Didn't we all move on? I guess not. That they have attained a kind of cult status kind of surprises me too.
My wife never could stand them, and they were an easy band to let go of, truth be told. Totally denying them, however, would be denying myself in my junior and senior years in high school.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.
A4D – yea (written in capital letters with at least two raised fists)
everything past that – nay (a resounding one). believe me, i tried.
G'n'R does the prog?
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off
Well if you accept the ridiculous revisionist notion that Nevermind was the start of grunge. Green River started grunge way back in 85!
I was in Central London then and heavily into grunge and going to gigs with English bands doing their take on it, and A for D was most definitely included among the albums from grunge bands. The only people I knew who called G n R heavy metal were the same people who were listening to Bon Jovi, Europe and Poison and never went to gigs.
Here are some US grunge albums from before A for D and before 91, and as you know grunge I won't need to include the band names.
Bleach 89
Ragged Glory 90
Postcard C.V. 89
You're Living all Over Me 87
Mudhoney 89
Ultramega O.K. 88
Come On Down 85
Facelift 90
Conveniently ignored the phrase 'took off' in my post didn't you.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I didn't ignore it. It just isn't accurate for how things were back then. You can keep believing that Nevermind was the beginning of grunge if that makes you happy, in the same way that newcomers will keep believing that ITCOTCK was the beginning of prog and that Elvis was the beginning of rock n roll.
In 87-88 loads of grunge fans and grunge fashion was visible in London and being played on London radio stations, but you carry on in your own beliefs, it really doesn't matter.
Your really in denial about Grunge taking off in 91 aren't you. I completely agree that the beginning of grunge was much earlier. It didn't take-off until Pearl Jam - Ten & Nirvana - Nevermind. Guess they don't fit your argument so you'll keep banging on.
Nice dig about newcomer by the way, tactit little shut up rookie there? Ha.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
GnR- I had never heard of them when they were the opening act for The Cult back in '87. I see these 'misfits' step on the stage and wondered WTF?! Stupid band name, a guy with no shirt and a top hat...Anywho, by the end of their set I was a fan! IMO they blew The Cult off the stage that night. Appetite was released shortly after that gig. Bought the disc and it became the soundtrack to the summer of '87 for me. Dug their material through UYI I and II but then I just burned on them. I don't own a single GnR song and don't care if I never hear one ever again.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
i remember GnR being dubbed “sleaze rock”, never glam let alone grunge rock. labels will invent labels.
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