Retro Spins: Guns N' Roses - G N' R Lies

Guns N' Roses took the world by storm with their 1987 album, Appetite For Destruction, and since its release I wanted more. That more came in the form of 1988's G'N'R Lies. 

Lies took everything I loved about Appetite, shelved it, and then delivered a cash grab to this high school kid who barely had a nickle to his name most of the time. What was this live / acoustic album?

I didn't have a job in 1988. I barely got an allowance, and when those rare moments arrived that mom would allow us to buy a cassette, choices had to be heavily weighed. As such, when I ended up with what was the Lies album, I was ticked off. To me, it wasn't even worth listening to. I not only hated live music, but also didn't want to hear Guns N' Roses singing slow songs to acoustic guitars.

As time passed, and the age of the internet dawned, I would learn that the first half of the album was actually taken from G'N'R's Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP, which was in fact not a live album. Rather, the audience was overdubbed over the studio performances. While this didn't necessarily make me excited about the record, it did help me to look at it from a fresh perspective, and since then, it has grown on me a bit.

In fact, I've also become quite fond of the acoustic tracks, which actually stand out. I mean, how can you hate Patience? It's a staple crowd pleaser from the band. I do tend to favor One In A Million and Used To Love Her, but will pass on, You're Crazy. It was never my favorite on the Appetite album in all of its heavy metal glory.

Though Lies isn't my least favorite album from Guns and Roses, it certainly isn't my go to either. Despite growing on me over the years, it doesn't house the sheer power that Appetite or Illusion (I and II) delivered. At the end of the day, when I put on a G'N'R album, I don't want to be swooned to. I want someone screaming in my face.

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Retro Spins: Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

It's kind of almost a "gimme" posting about this album. I honestly didn't even have to listen to it because I know it back to back.

I remember playing the album for the first time on cassette tape while sitting on my bedroom floor in front of a boombox. It blew my young mind away from that first howl of Axel all the way to the final guitar riff of Rocket Queen, and quickly became the soundtrack for many of my young teen days.

Truth be told, I don't know how I ended up lucking into getting Appetite For Destruction. As I mentioned before in a prior post, my mom wasn't big on us having albums with Parental Advisory stickers on them. Whether she just wasn't looking, or for whatever reason, didin't care that day, I ended up with this fantastic cassette. As I listened to it, I remember looking over my shoulder towards my bedroom door, waiting for my mom to burst in shouting, "What are you listening to!" Somehow, that never happened, and from there, I was hooked on Guns N' Roses.

When an album is crafted so perfectly, can one honestly pick "favorites" from it? In my youth, that would have been a resounding, "No. Not a chance." However, in my adult years, I have to admit, I've grown a little tired of some of the songs, and others have been shuffled off to the "skip" pile.

Tracks like Welcome To The Jungle, Paradise City and Sweet Child O' Mine will forever remain classics. However, at this point in my life, they're a bit overplayed for my tastes. Meanwhile, songs like Mr. Brownstone, My Michelle and Rocket Queen are my go to tracks these days. The rest of the songs on the album, yeah, I remember them and they'll always be affiliated with fond memories. However, I don't tend to listen to them much.

These days, rather than live in the past for Guns N' Roses, I actually find myself wondering what the band will do now that it has a successful reunion tour under its collective belts. As of this writing, January 2019, there have long been rumbles of a new album, but so far, no sign.

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