It has been quite a jump going from Dave Brubeck to this album! While this album is approaching 30 years, as opposed to approaching 60 years for Brubeck, the issue of "I guess you had to be there" is again present. It's hard to repress thoughts of the pathetic behaviour of these ageing rockers over the years, and more recent bands like Slipnot, Rage Against the Machine, etc can make Appetite for Destruction appear like children's music these days.
Also, the lack of modern digital effects magic leaves the album sounding very thin these days (in fact, there is a disclaimer on the back cover basically saying "please excuse the poor recording quality of this CD"!)
Putting that aside, the riffs are very catchy and the music is still good headbanging fun. And the tales (eg tough guys from rough suburbs now partying with heroin paid for by someone else) are well told and captivating. As an example, the poetry of:
Your daddy works in porno
Now that mommy's not around
She used to love her heroin
But now she's underground
is an intriguing tough-guy description of a tragic situation. Perhaps these lyrics were a fluke and I'm over-analysing things, but there's enough clever lyrics through the album to give the impression that someone in the band was a pretty skilful poet.
While Welcome to the Jungle perhaps isn't that special in isolation, it is the perfect opening song and quickly establishes the mood.
The rest of the world might be sick of Sweet Child O' Mine but I still enjoy it every time I hear it. For years I thought the song was really only 3 and a half minutes long, with the whole "where do we go" lyrics section being pointlessly drawn out. But now I appreciate the lyrics are actually just backing for some epic guitar shredding, so now I enjoy the entire length of the song.
Listening to these songs from another generation sometimes gives me an impression of grandpa trying to convince the kids that he was cool once, but there are many times when they still sound tough even today. For example, the chorus of Mr Brownstone is one of my favourites. As a side note, I don't think this album worships drugs, since it depicts both the highs and lows that result (I actually think it's a healthier influence for kids than the image-conscious plastic lifestyle presented these days by Mr Bieber, Ms Cyrus and co).
For me, Rocket Queen summarises the best of Guns N' Roses: the raw devil-may-care thrash, catchy chorus, the sex scene (just to make sure that everybody is offended!), finally the shift to rock ballad with beautiful lyrics.
Love the review in itself! :-)
ReplyDeleteDon't know a great deal of Gun's n Roses songs, but a bloke I know (you might remember him from my 21st, Kevin) went to the concert at Calder Park in '93 (I think???). He said they were so hardcore at the time that the City of Melbourne didn't want them to perform anywhere within the boundary of Melbourne, and so the promoters took them to Calder Park. He said the show was nuts and I remember a kid from Primary School went to that show too and said the same thing.