When I look into your eyes, I can see a love for tacos. You naughty girl!

Sooner or later, I'll get around to listening to Appetite For Destruction.  Hasn't happened yet, but I am listening to Lies.  This may actually be a good introduction, the first side is four songs that came from their demo tape but it's not clear if they were literally from the demo tape or if the band re-recorded them for their first release.  It was just a preparation by Geffen Records to see how to handle the debut album.  They made it but it was officially an "independent" release.  Two of the songs came from bands that eventually formed to become G'n'R, one was written by Izzy with outside members and one was an Aerosmith cover.

The second side was new songs, mostly acoustic guitar, a very different type of sound from what they had done up to this point.  That's actually a good a idea, I'm surprised more bands don't split their albums like this.  It's sure what I do with most of my books.

Anyway, most of Side A isn't impressive.  It's fine for what it is.  "Mama Kin" sounds great but that has less to do with the band and more to do with the awesomeness of this early Aerosmith song.  The other songs only stand out because whoever listened to them were already fans of the band, either members of the LA party scene or millions of people who were thrilled by Appetite.  There's nothing else there worth listening to.  Might as well put on Motley Crue or Poison.

Side B is definitely different.  "Patience" stands out as a well-done pop song, especially something we wouldn't expect from this band.  At least power ballads were being discovered as God's Greatest Gift to Humanity, this wasn't even that much, it's just a decent melody and generic love lyrics, but they're all very well merged and the song stands out.

"Used To Love Her" stands out just as a comedy song.  This was basically the end of bands having to crank out songs in a studio in-between live performances.  Axl has complained about his vocals ever since but he's just fine on these.  He'd sure never do that again.  Then there's the slow version of "You're Crazy" which probably stands out better than the version on Appetite.  Have rock bands ever really gone in for noticeably different versions of the same song?  It does show off ability.

I've already written about "One In A Million," [The Horror Comics Picture Show, page 157-8] and don't have much else to add.  The lyrics don't really work together, the chorus is nice but has nothing to do with the verses, the end is long and boring, the band otherwise sounds good.

So it certainly works as an album, even if it's just some mediocre work mixed with fun-and-different-sounding tracks to be quickly-released and fill time before the next real album.  The different styles, the ostensible attempt to 'make people think' with the challenging last song, this band was on its way up and certainly seemed to deserve it.  Ok, future albums would take more time to record, a lot more money spent on production, the street bums would move into mansions, but that's pretty normal for that type, what could possibly go wrong?

I'm actually tempted to listen to some tracks from Chinese Democracy.  Not that I really want to hear them, just that I don't want to mess with Appetite.

Even scarier, I'm actually pondering whether or not to play the entire f*cking album.  Not sure I'll actually go through with it, but just in case, I'll start off with the well known "trilogy" of songs from Use Your Illusions.  They are power ballads and therefore absolute proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.  I've already written alot about them in previous books so I'll just work on the "History project" probably won't have anything to say about them now.

I did throw in a couple other songs.  Halestorm's cover of "Out Ta Get Me" is ok but obviously they have nothing to do with the song.  It's just chicks trying to be like guys were thirty years earlier, funny how that's always what happens.  I also included "Shadow of Your Love" which I've written about before.  The band is great, the chorus is stupid, the rest of it is mediocre.  The only real up-side is that it's just nice to hear something from those five that we haven't heard a zillion times already.

"Don't Cry" is a nice ballad but nothing's special about it.  The ending sucks and the overall sound is just massively over-produced.  "November Rain" is fine as an epic but it doesn't go anywhere or do anything.  "Estranged" is much the same.  There's just the sense that no one can stop Axl from doing this.  There are places where one can understand an individual picking a particular goal and using a particular method to achieve that goal, there are also places where there's no point, it could be done just as well but taking much less time or money.  

There's also an aspect that is probably different for every individual case and only God could see a distinction.  "November Rain" would have been just as memorable with less work but it would need more work than the pre-recorded versions in 1986, the question is how much extra work would be required.  I don't know, you don't know, Axl doesn't know, Izzy won't tell us...

Hopefully I won't get to Appetite, I've added the earlier recordings of "November Rain" and haven't even gotten to Chinese Democracy yet.  Neither have they but you get my point.  I think the track is overdone and still doesn't go anywhere, even in the earlier versions, but there is talent involved and it's all Axl.  What happened?  The music is at least nice for what it is and he's not stomping it down with vocals every possible second.  If I do put on Appetite, I'll have to pay attention to whether he did that back then or if it's only something he started after becoming famous.

I'm going to push 'publish' now just to get this out of the way.  But don't worry, I'll be back really soon with more work you'll love.  Axl would want it that way.