Guns 'N Roses: Appetite for Destruction

Lock up your daughter

On the parental anxiety scale, Guns n' Roses (Gn'R) fell somewhere between the Sex Pistols and Mötley Crüe. Undoubtedly, some people—Spin writers, mostly—would claim that Gn'R was less "dangerous" than Iggy Pop. These people are wrong. The Stooges never sold eight million records or appeared on MTV.

SHAWN CHENG/YH

That said, Gn'R's first full-length record, Appetite for Destruction (1987), exuded attitude like it was spitting broken glass. The band breathed punk rock fire into hairspray rock, transforming its cable-ready rebellion into a monster that acidly flung around words like "coke" and "faggot." Axl Rose and company didn't try to be scary—they just were. When the protagonist of "It's So Easy" talks about "making" your sister in "her Sunday dress," he's not being ironic.

Gn'R didn't believe in irony, but they had enough cynicism—cheaper than irony—to go around. Appetite presents a world in which girls are on the road to whoredom—if they aren't already there. "My Michelle," an unsympathetic ode to a teenage junky prostitute, is callous and direct in its denigration ("Stop your crying...you'll get what you deserve"). But Rose finds purity in "Sweet Child O' Mine"'s virginal subject, though he wonders aloud in the song's closing crescendo about making her a woman: "Where do we go now?" If yesterday is any clue, she'll be screwing pushers for clean needles by sunrise.

Attitude is everywhere on Appetite, from its lyrics to the liner note thank-yous, a list which includes pals with nicknames like "Balls Out" and "Fuckem." But no other American band in recent memory has combined attitude with brilliant songwriting so seamlessly. Every tune on Appetite has two or three big hooks; a careful study of the album leaves you wondering what exactly is a chorus, what exactly is a bridge, and what in motherfuck is a "Rocket Queen"? It didn't hurt that Gn'R were exceptional technicians—their instrumental flash ignited already inflammatory words and attitude.

Of course, any debut album this good had to burn out the band that bore it. Gn'R released a two part follow-up, Use Your Illusion, but the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll had caught up with them. Axl was married and divorced in less time than it took to promote the record. Ex-drummer Steven Adler suffered a speedball-induced stroke. Rumors of a new Gn'R album, featuring only Axl Rose and Moby, still abound today. The Gunners may have become a cliché of rock star gluttony, but let's never forget what they were like when they were hungry. (Geffen)

—Daniel Silk

Back to A&E...