The Untouchables 02.02.06: Guns 'n' Roses (Part 2)
Posted by Stephen Mogan on 02.02.2006
Steve wraps up his look at Guns 'n' Roses starting with the bands double-headed opus, "Use Your Illusion"
There are many artists that are universally recognised as being great, some achieve superstar status, but very few reach the point where the acclaim for them is so intense, that it becomes inconceivable to question their genius. They are The Untouchables….
Hey everyone, I'm Steve Mogan and I'm back with another Untouchables. Last week was part 1 of our look at Guns ‘n' Roses. We covered the history of the band and their first two albums, so if you didn't catch it then check it out here before you carry on reading this. Last week the band's fate was delicately poised, with second album "GNR Lies" having aged a lot better than their debut, "Appetite For Destruction", a lot of which sounds quite dated in 2006. Without further ado, let's get back to the action…
The Albums:
Use Your Illusion I (1991)
For the sake of quickness I'm just gonna state which tracks are filler straight away so I can get to the interesting ones: "Dust ‘n' Bones", "Perfect Crime", "Back Off Bitch", "Double Talkin' Jive", "The Garden", "Garden Of Eden", "Dead Horse". They're all just your standard GNR rockers; no surprises here. They probably sounded exciting in 1991, but again, today they sound dated. Bands like System of a Down and Rage Against The Machine have made these tracks pretty redundant, so let's talk about the rest of this instead. "Right Next Door To Hell" kicks off the disc, and is an exciting way to start. It's nothing new, sure, but it's got a great bassline and the "fuck yeeeeeeeeah!" line still makes the hair on my neck stand up. Good start. "Live And Let Die" is a sort of half-ballad half-big rock song. It's one of the more famous ones on the album, but the way it pinballs between the two styles is half-assed and the "big riff" just sounds terrible; it should have been left in the 80's where is belonged, guys. Sorry, this one doesn't do it for me. "Don't Cry" is another ballad, and by now people must surely have been sick of these things. This one is formulaic, even for GNR, and "November Rain" later on makes this song completely pointless. "You Ain't The First" is a slow, folky number that I really like. I said last week that the band sounded so much better when they used acoustic guitars, but here Axl also puts a lil' country twang in his voice that makes the song even better. A good, fun track, that's too short in my opinion. Next up we have "Bad Obsession", a classic rock ‘n' roll track complete with honky-tonk pianos. Sure, The Rolling Stones may have done this about 20 years earlier, but GNR carries it off pretty well. It's well-crafted, studied and infectious. The band sound great doing this style of music.
Ah, "November Rain"; the ultimate rock ballad. The most overblown, over-the-top rock song GNR (or anyone else for that matter) ever did. It's the perfect continuation of the anthems of their debut and is so massive in scope that I doubt it'll ever be repeated (a fact that is completely typified by its epic video). Personally, I don't like the track, but GNR liked to do this sort of thing and I guess if you're gonna do it you may as well do it bigger and better than everyone else. The album finishes very strongly (with one notable exception). "Don't Damn Me" is straightforward rock, but the band pull it off very well. Axl's half-stuttered style of singing on this one really makes it stand out; definitely a forgotten GNR classic. "Bad Apples" on the other hand is another Stones rip-off that sounds pretty dated but is still entirely addictive. It's a great sing-a-long track that I really want to hate because it's so unoriginal, but the band were good at this style of music and the song works because of this. We finish of with the 10-minute "Coma", which starts with the drums mimicking a heartbeat and builds up to the usual stuff; "I love you", "don't leave me", "I'm in a coma" etc. etc. I think it's about Axl staging his own death or something; either way it's extremely grandiose in a not-very-good way. It's also entirely formulaic; we even get the traditional breakdown in the middle (though it does have some unconvincing vocal samples of doctors handling a coma interspersed in the middle as well). There's no big arm-waving ending, as Axl apparently just rants until he runs out of steam and the song finishes. A messy ending to a decent album overall.
Use Your Illusion II (1991)
Filler: "Yesterdays", "Get In The Ring", "Shotgun Blues", "Pretty Tied Up", "So Fine"; same deal as Part I with these songs. Speaking of overblown, "Use Your Illusion II" is by far the most ridiculously epic album the band ever produced. Four songs here go over 7 minutes and the entire album only just fits onto a CD. Part I was filled with many tracks that stuck to the GNR formula of hard, fast guitars and wailed vocals, whereas this disc takes a more traditional approach. It's not as heavy and there are a number of "classic" rock songs. This is a bad thing. There's more experimentation with musical styles on Part II in terms of genre, but the songs themselves are quite tame. Part I may have been samey, but at least it had punch and urgency, something "Use Your Illusion II" could do with, amongst all the long balladeering. We kick off with "Civil War", a big, pump-your-fist epic that goes over 7 and-a-half minutes. It's not bad, but it's very tame. There's nothing challenging in either the lyrics or the music. It sounds like a Springsteen off-cut, to be honest. And for an opening song, 7:42 is just too long. I mean, come on…you're supposed to be drawing people in here. Most of ‘em will be asleep by track two. "14 Years" is straightforward trad-rock that offers little of interest. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is the album's second "dramatic" track, and we're only four songs in. This song….well, it sucks. Axl's voice is pure comedy ("Ay…ay…ay aay aaaaay" Hello? What?) and the band doesn't reach the peaks hit by the original, mainly because of this. He sounds like he's parodying himself, and thus the emotion of the song is completely gone; terrible.
"Breakdown" again goes over 7 minutes and is some kind of attempt at a Hillbilly-stomp track. A GNR hoedown if you will. How they stretched this to 7 minutes I'll never know. This goes nowhere, and is just horrible, especially the stupid voiceover for the last couple of minutes. "Locomotive" clocks in at a massive 8:42 and for once the band actually makes it exciting and worth listening to. We get some great solos, nice drumming and overall a good song (finally). "Estranged"; 9.23. What in the hell is this? I guess it's meant to be touching. It's not. It's dull. And way too long (surprise!). At least "You Could Be Mine" is on here. The band manages to stay under the 6-minute mark and delivers a slice of good old thrash metal (well, a watered down version at least, just like everything else on the album). We then get another version of "Don't Cry", for some reason, and we finish with "My World". WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? Axl cod-raps over electronics then simulates about 20 seconds of sex or something and we're out. That's not even a song. I mean…just… what? Please everybody go and listen to this if you've never heard it because I really can't do its crapularity any justice with words.
Ok, here's the deal; a lot of people think this album is the greatest ever, that "Estranged" is the best song of all time and love the fact that it's so epic and blah blah blah, I understand all of that. The thing is; this album is so dull I almost fell asleep just contemplating listening to it. Honestly, I'm not biased against this band or anything. I loved them way back when; "Welcome To The Jungle", "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child" still sound great to me, and I'd never realised before writing this column how good "GNR Lies" is. However, by this point, the band was just awful. There are no exciting songs on this album. It's like they realised they'd perfected the art of the rock ballad on their first record and decided to just keep watering the formula down until they were more mass-consumable than KFC. It's a horrible approach to music, and this album is the nadir of what the band became. Just listen to "Welcome To The Jungle" then "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and tell me which one sounds like the band at the peak of their creative powers and which sounds like a band who doesn't give a fuck and wants as much money as they can fit into their tight pants. That's what I thought.
The Spaghetti Incident (1993)
OK, this is an odd one. After the huge success GNR had with the "Use Your Illusion" albums, even they themselves must have been sick of their own formulaic music, so they decided to record a covers album. We start with something completely unexpected; a 50's swing song (well that's the best stab I can have a genre anyway, I'm not too knowledgeable at anything pre-60's. Put it this way; it sounds like it was originally performed by that band at the end of "Back To The Future"). Truly bizarre; we get the "ooh ooh" vocal harmonies and everything (although I doubt the original, released in 1959, contained the lyrics "Yeah, we're fucked"). I'm sure this was recorded with tongues firmly in cheeks, but believe it or not, GNR sound utterly convincing here. Very odd. Second track "New Rose" is fairly a fairly standard punk song, which is almost too faithful to The Damned's original. The same can be said about "Down On The Farm" (originally by UK Subs), where Axl sings with a British accent. And do you know what? He actually sounds pretty good. This vocal performance is a lot more convincing than "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (*cough* random example *cough*), which is weird, since nobody has talked like that in Britain since about 1980. Anyway, the song is great. It's worth the price of the CD alone to hear Axl's sheep impression at the end. It reminds me a lot of The Stooges at times as well, which is obviously a good thing (speaking of which; I had an email this week from Mark Gilbeaux, who suggested I cover The Stooges in a future column. My friend, that may be the best idea I never had. Expect to see it soon).
"Human Being" follows, and it's another slice of honky-tonk piano-driven rock. It's pretty average, notable only for its use of the kazoo (awesome! Go kazoos!) and its frenzied finish. "Raw Power" has more piano compared to The Stooges' original, but is still the short, sharp shock that it ever was (though that doesn't really say much for the creativity of GNR; this really is one where you may as well just listen to the original). "Ain't It Fun" is a little depressing for my tastes, and it feels like it goes on for hours and hours. It's like listening to a dying man telling you how shitty it is that he's dying. I mean, do you want that? You could always just visit the hospital (although Axl would probably be there recording Chinese Democracy's final track, "Appendix Removal"). "Buick Makane" is a T. Rex cover, and we're really going downhill here, folks. Some nice guitar playing saves this one, as does another good ending. That only just about makes it listenable, though. "Hair Of The Dog" is a funny one; it starts off as a pretty unremarkable rock track with an awesome chorus, then the whole thing just gets confusing with crappy vocoder vocals about halfway through. It also speeds up to a frantic finish, which really loses its impact if you do it on almost every friggin' track.
"Attitude" is more standard punk but it's over in 1:30 so it's forgivable. "Black Leather" chugs along without really doing much, then we get "You Can't Put Your Arms Round A Memory". Acoustic ballad ahoy! This is nowhere near as sentimental or vomit-inducing as the "Use Your Illusion" ballads and actually ends up as a pretty touching tribute from Axl to Johnny Thunders, who recorded the original. Good stuff. "I Don't Care About You" is chest-beating punk rock at its finest. It's by the numbers again, but it's also a really convincing performance from the band. "Look At Your Game Girl" is a hidden track, and is a gentle song with some interesting percussion. It's a great way to finish; with two songs from completely opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both done in incredibly convincing fashion. Taking into account all five albums here, Guns ‘n' Roses probably took on more styles than any other mainstream rock band in the early 90's. This is a good, overlooked album. Sure, the songs here might not add much to the originals, but it's a great collection of songs and there isn't really a stinker in the whole bunch (T. Rex covers excluded). GNR do spend about 60% of the album sounding like The Stooges, however. Whether this is by coincidence or design I don't know, but I'm certainly not complaining about it. Tons better than "Use Your Illusion"; it shows that when they wanted to, they could take a break from the bloated ballads they made a living from and actually deliver some decent music.
The Verdict:
You know I was pretty undecided until the "Use Your Illusion" albums, but they definitely made up my mind. Guns ‘n' Roses came along with a new sound at a time when music was becoming stale. They made music exciting for people again, and they were very good at a whole range of musical styles (see "GNR Lies" and "The Spaghetti Incident" for proof). However, they quickly realised that the stuff that was gonna shift albums and make money was the rock-ballads (which they were good at, granted) so they focused all of their energy into creating more of the same, albeit more diluted each time. And they sold a hell of a lot of records and made a hell of a lot of money. However, they neglected the fact that they were great musicians. If they'd have stretched themselves in '88-'89, they could have produced some really special music. However, they decided to fill the "Use Your Illusion" albums with a mixture of overwrought, overblown ballads and safe, cookie-cutter rock songs that couldn't have been more disgustingly oriented towards the dollar if they'd tried. And by the time the band did decide to experiment a little with the talent God gave them, it was too late. Drugs, success, money, alcohol, whatever it was; it went to their head it made them believe that it was acceptable to not only create, but also close, your supposedly career-defining album with the pile of shit that was "My World". If you took that song back in time to the band in 1987 I'm sure they would have laughed in your face if you told them that's what they'd end up doing. They had so much potential, and if they continued developing as on the first two albums, they'd probably have walked this. But the fact that they made the choice to create safe, profitable music and turn their back on the greatness they could have produced leaves no doubt in my mind; no way are these guys Untouchable. They made some classic anthems in the early days, sure, but most of their first album hasn't aged well, and if I even think about the later stuff again my head may pop. Once again: no freakin' way.
Their Influence:
Well, they made heavy music acceptable again (with their first album anyway), which allowed Metallica to follow them into the mainstream. They also opened the door for Rage Against The Machine to come along and make the kind of exciting music that GNR, at one point, could have made. Korn came out around this time too, and doubtless wouldn't be as big as they are if it wasn't for GNR. Based on this, we can also blame nu-metal monkeys like Fred Durst and that guy from Creed on Guns ‘n' Roses too. A pretty mixed impact, then, but there's no doubt that GNR allowed heavy bands to reach a mainstream audience in a way that wouldn't have been possible before "Appetite For Destruction".
What Now?
Well, Axl insists that Guns ‘n' Roses sixth studio album, "Chinese Democracy", will hit stores later this year. He says this every year, of course, but I'm sure the wait will be over soon. It's only been 8 years, after all. Dizzy Reed is in a covers band called "Hookers & Blow", who sound…er, great. Slash and Duff, along with Matt Sorum (who replaced original drummer Adler during the "Use Your Illusion" sessions, as I glossed over last week) are currently in Velvet Revolver, making music that sounds very similar to early GNR stuff. Expect an album full of 19-minute ballads in approximately three years, then. Stradlin had a solo career in the late 90's and was…wait for it…big in Japan (of course). Adler also had an eventful decade; successfully suing the band for wrongful dismissal and doing two separate jail terms for beating women (nice guy) before trying to instigate a reunion with the original GNR lineup. Presumably this is the lineup that the sued, but I'm sure the proposition made sense in Steve's coke-addled brain. Remember kids: don't do drugs. And don't make shitty ballads, either.
Well, that's it for another week. I hope you enjoyed the two-parter; it's a bit of a format change so let me know what you thought. Does it make the column easier to read? Harder? Send me an email! Suggestions are always welcome, too. Take it easy,
