My friends and I were in Grade 7 or 8 when Guns N' Roses dropped "Appetite For Destruction" and while I wish I could say that I was on the cutting edge of music at that time, it would be a lie. Pop music was in my wheel house those days, with the likes of Paula Abdul, Debbie Gibson and Madonna's "Like A Prayer" getting some serious spins. Yes, I can admit this.
Bohemian Rhapsody brought me back into the realm of rock music in the summer of 1992, when I heard the song in Wayne's World and wondered what it was, followed by I need to get this. Cue the first CD I ever bought, "Classic Queen" by Queen. I wore that CD out and I'm being serious, I actually had to replace it.
I'm not actually sure how I got into Guns N' Roses, I want to say it was likely through my friend Hutch but I do know that "Use Your Illusion I and II" were the first albums I bought by the band in the summer of 1993. I think for $22.99 each because they weren't new releases. I then worked backwards and bought "Appetite" and "GN'R Lies". I was pretty obsessed with the 9 minute epic Estranged, but also felt (and still feel) the Gunners brought it on tunes like Dead Horse, Locomotive, Civil War, Get In The Ring, Rocket Queen, Mr. Brownstone, etc. These are still great albums that I like to spin when feeling aggressive AKA driving to work.
My friends and I - Hutch, Dave, Matt - used to make music videos of songs in my parents' basement. I honestly wish that I still had these tapes because they were gold. Rocking out consisted of using a tennis racket or pool cue as the guitar and jumping off of the couches or chairs while we took turns filming. There was no rehearsing or re-starting. There were some straight performance videos where we stood in place playing the song and also ones that mimicked the actual artist's video, such as the one we did for U2's Numb. But I digress. We definitely did some GN'R. Likely You Could Be Mine or Paradise City or Rocket Queen. Or all 3. Our career high was jamming out to Smashing Pumpkins' 11 minute opus Silverfuck. These were good times.
Another GN'R album that is still in my collection is 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?". As we all got way into GN'R after purchasing the "Illusion" albums, we were pretty psyched that they were putting out a new album in the fall of 1993. Hit Parader magazine was all over this and this is how we got our info. So we knew the date it was coming out (Wikipedia tells me it was November 23rd, 1993) and we heard the first single Ain't It Fun on the radio. This was a great tune although we had no idea it was a cover song at the time, nor did we understand that the album was actually all covers. I'm not sure if Hit Parader mentioned this.
On November 23rd, Hutch and I skipped English and walked in the cold half an hour to the Sunrise Records at Burlington Mall and each dropped I want to say $19.99 on this album. We then walked another half an hour to his house and met up with Dave and Matt. We then fired up NHL '93 on the Sega Genesis system and put on the album. The first song on the record was Since I Don't Have You, which is GN'R doing a '50's song. It was quite jarring and also quite terrible. It also was the second single.
I believe we all looked at each other and wondered what had happened to the band who dared Andy Secher at the aforementioned Hit Parader to get in the ring. 11 more songs followed, including Ain't It Fun, still the best thing about this album. Duff McKagan sung lead on 3 tracks, which we were okay with, as I believe my friend Dave and I are the only people in Canada to own Duff''s solo debut "Believe In Me", purchased a few months before "The Spaghetti Incident?" and still in my collection. As an aside, Duff''s autobiography "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)" is one of the best rock autobiographies I've ever read, do yourself a favour and check it out.
Some of the tracks on "The Spaghetti Incident?" admittedly after listening to it last week for the first time in 21 years, are good - Hair Of The Dog, You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory, Attitude - but these were not GN'R songs and they didn't (and still don't even now that I understand they are covers and have heard the original artists) hold a candle to Appetite, Lies or the Use Your Illusion records. This was the first record I bought where I felt really let down after purchasing it. There have been many more since, but this record will always hold down 1st place, which makes it special.
After "The Spaghetti Incident?" it was pretty much over for us and GN'R. We moved onto other bands, such as Weezer, STP, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins (and for me Gin Blossoms and Counting Crows so I could discover my "sensitive side"). But GN'R for me was a flame that burned bright from July 1993 to November 1993, unfortunately, they just couldn't keep the fired fanned. I know I courtesy bought their cover of Sympathy For The Devil from "Interview With A Vampire", I think I bought the first Slash's Snakepit album and Gilby Clarke's solo album tying to see if any of them could re-capture the magic. I also bought "Chinese Democracy" when it came out and it was actually pretty good, but it did confirm that the magic was gone when I stopped listening to it after a month.
Maybe the band will get back together, pull a Weezer and release something awesome, which would also be quite special. Until then, I will just hold onto the memories from those 5 months in 1993 when this band ruled our world.
