Finally listened to "Appetite for Destruction"

I am not really a hard rock fan, but enjoy my share of the classics in measured amounts. At 53, I'm not in the same adrenaline- and hormone-fueled phase of life that often calls for loud, pounding tunes. But I used to be.

GnR is one of those outfits that arrived on the scene after I'd lost interest in such stuff (such interest as I had) and so I let it pass by. I knew about the characters, about Slash the guitarist with the top hat and Axl Rose's melodrama, but left it at that.

Enter Spotify. Now I can pull up darn near anything and give it a listen (the Pro account is really worth it!). And so, what the heck? "Appetite for Destruction" it is.


Slash is a fine rock guitarist who plays with a natural flair and huge tone. He sounds like he is having a genuinely good time.
Axl Rose sounds like every parody of him I ever heard. See: Jimmy Fallon.
The songs are juvenile, and I would have thought so at 16. I mean really, painfully, juvenile. Ouch.


The verdict: I kinda like Slash. I can't stand Axl Rose. I'll never listen to this album again, and now I know.

Thank goodness for Spotify!

Fashionably late, I can dig that



I was 11 when it came out. It seemed about as rock'n'roll as it gets(at least to me at that age)Especially for the time. Cultural context is very important



In hindsight, it has it's weaknesses, but it's still a beast of an album



(maybe you had to be there?)

Slash made me reconsider the humbucker in a non-trem guitar. When others were going for speed, dive bombs, sweep picking, and diatonic scales, Slash had a blues based rock and used plenty of warm sustain. Paradise City was when I realized (again) just how good a Les Paul or any fixed neck Gibson style guitar could sound. I later found out it was a custom made Les Paul copy that Slash used in much of Guns early stuff but nevertheless, it brought back the Les Paul's popularity in a big way.

Cultural context is very important
In hindsight, it has it's weaknesses, but it's still a beast of an album
(maybe you had to be there?)

Context is key, yes. Personal as well as cultural trends and phases have a profound effect upon how we see the world, that's a given.

I was 29 when the album came out. I was a full time working musician in Boston, doing loads of country, R&B, and blues. Hard rock wasn't on my map.

I still haven't listened to it, but its on the waiting list. Somewhere around 2,000,000th.

..