Album of the Day — February 16
Guns-n-Roses — Appetite for Destruction — 1987
Guns-n-Roses — Appetite for Destruction — 1987
16.February.2021
Guns-n-Roses
Appetite for Destruction
1987
I never liked the hair metal movement of the 80s. When I saw the video for “Welcome to the Jungle,” I lumped Guns-n-Roses into that category.
That was a mistake.
After a series of false starts with producers like KISS’ Paul Stanley, Spencer Proffer (Quiet Riot), Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton. Even “Mutt” Langes was kicked around, but Geffen Records refused to pay the fee. Released in July of 1987, Appetite for Destruction went largely ignored.
The band eventually grabbed Mike Clink (Triumph) to produce and stepped into Rumbo Recorders Studio (owned by Daryl Dragon — the Captain in The Captain and Tennille) in January of 1987.
Make no mistake; Mike Clink is the mastermind behind Appetite for Destruction.
Hard-rocking twenty-something snotty drug-riddled (and drunk) rockers were not de rigueur in the summer of 1987. If you glammed it up like Mötley Crüe or Ozzy’s hair era, you could get away with some misbehavior.
Guns-n-Roses didn’t glam it up. At all. These guys were jeans, tee-shirt, and leather rockers. And they weren’t shy about their use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. It got so bad; drummer Steven Adler was eventually kicked out for being TOO fucked up.
Their image and predilection for destruction went against the grain of sober boomers Aerosmith, who was making a comeback with Permanent Vacation. Def Leppard was still riding high on Hysteria, and U2 was on top of the world.
It didn’t help that these songs were …well, they were written by a bunch of hard-rocking twenty-something snotty drug-riddled (and drunk) rockers. Which is to say, the songs weren’t terribly sensitive. They were great songs, but songs reminiscent of early 70s era Rolling Stones, not Winger or White Lion.
But Appetite for Destruction was destined to be a juggernaut. It just took roadwork around the world, opening for the likes of The Cult, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, and Iron Maiden, three videos and singles “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Paradise City.” Eventually, radio and MTV caught on, and the G-nR train left the station. Appetite for Destruction would reach #1 on the Billboard 200 on August 6, 1988.
No one was more surprised than the band. In one interview, Slash commented:
“We thought we’d made a record that might do as well as, say, Motörhead.”
Robert Christgau gave it a tepid review saying: “…not only does Axl cruise where other “hard rock” singers strive, but he has a knack for believability, which in this genre is the most technical matter of all.”
Aside from whatever you can glean from that, reviews from critics were universal in their praise …once the album was discovered. And any retrospective review continues to pile praise on this album.
Appetite for Destruction has worldwide sales of around 30 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Once I finally got around to listening to the whole album, I was embarrassed at how I had so egregiously misjudged Guns-n-Roses.
If you play Appetite for Destruction today, it sounds just as good as it did then. It hardly bears saying, but that is the mark of a timeless album.
Someone once wrote that Led Zeppelin will always sell records because boys will always be in high school (pandemic aside). I think the same can be said of Appetite for Destruction; as long as boys are on the planet, the album will continue to sell.
Even objectively speaking, it’s just a great fucking rock record.