Appetite for Destruction

Appetite for Destruction —in Spanish: Appetite for destruction— is the debut album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, was released by the Geffen Records record company on July 21, 1987, after their self-released Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide. It achieved massive success around the world explosively after its release. Likewise, Appetite for Destruction is the best-selling debut album in all of musical history, with more than 30 million copies sold worldwide.

Due to its enormous success, the album managed to reach the first position on the Billboard charts in the United States where it was certified 18 times platinum.

The album is also ranked number 20 on the list of The 500 Best Albums of All Time prepared by Rolling Stone magazine and number 4" on the list of the 100 greatest debut albums of all time; calling it the fourth best debut album in history. It has also been named as a fundamental pillar in the definition of hard rock in the second half of the 1980s. "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child o'" Mine" are the most recognized songs that best characterize this album, which have influenced the popular music scene in the United States, in addition to serving as inspiration for numerous versions. However, the rest of the songs also achieved international success and impact, which resulted in literally all of the songs reaching international hit levels.

On June 29, 2018, the remastered version of the album went on sale called Appetite for Destruction: Locked N' Loaded.

Background

The first recordings of Guns N' Roses were for an EP planned in March 1985, shortly after their formation, with "Don't Cry", a cover of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", "Think About You" and "Anything Goes". However, plans for the release fell through, as original guitarist Tracii Guns left the band, being replaced by Slash. Shortly after, the classic lineup of Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, Steven Adler and Izzy Stradlin was finalized.

After heavily touring the Los Angeles club scene, the group signed with Geffen Records in March 1986. In December of that year, the group released the four-song EP called Live ?!* @ Like a Suicide, designed to keep interest alive in the band as the group retreated from the club scene to work in the studio. The release of the EP was designed to appease the label, which felt that the band did not have enough songs to record an album.

History and legacy

Axl Rose had written songs for the album when he was part of Hollywood Rose, but they were later discarded for the album. These were "Back Off Bitch", "You Could Be Mine", "November Rain" and "Don't Cry". The reason for not including "November Rain" was that there was already a ballad on the album, "Sweet Child o'" Mine", and there could be no other one on it (however, the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II contain several ballads).

Paul Stanley of Kiss considered producing the album, but then backed out when he couldn't switch to Steven Adler on drums and get some songs off it. Robert John Lange was also considered for the production, but proved to be too expensive. Mike Clink, who produced the band Triumph's albums, was eventually selected. The total budget for the album was approximately $370,000.

Many of the songs on the album Appetite for Destruction began as individual tracks that each band member wrote separately, only to be completed later. These songs include "It's So Easy" (Duff McKagan) and "Think About You" (Izzy Stradlin). "Rocket Queen" was a composition between Slash, McKagan and Adler for their previous band Road Crew, while "Anything Goes", written by Hollywood Rose and included on their compilation album The Roots of Guns N' Roses, was later rewritten for Appetite for Destruction. The band also draws lyrics from some of their friends, which is reflected in the songs "My Michelle", "You're Crazy", and "Rocket Queen".

In a retrospective review for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Ann Powers wrote that Guns N' Roses "produced a genuine and unique blend of different rock values," such as the " #34;speed and musicality, with touches of cleanliness and a lot of dirt", it has been cataloged as the album that marked a before and after," changing the sensibility of hard rock at that time. Stephen Thomas Erlewine also saw it as a "turning point for 80s hard rock" In his review for AllMusic he highlighted that Rose's heartbreaking voice and songwriting shone along with Slash and Stradlin's double guitar performance, making Appetite for Destruction probably "the best rock album." 3. 4; from the second half of the 80s. According to Jimmy Martin of The Quietus, Appetite for Destruction achieved massive impact due to the great mix of ingredients, it had enough "unrefined punk quality" that marked a "estrangement" of the typical commercial Glam metal bands of the time. According to Billboard magazine, Appetite for Destruction attracted several listeners from different sides of rock/metal music, because the band incorporated "the forceful touch of metal, the rebellious and transgressive themes of punk rock, the aesthetics of glam metal and the blues guitar riffs that appealed to purists.' Russell Hall, the writer for Gibson's online publication, said the album 'injected a much-needed dose of rebellion and anarchy influenced by '70s style, which in the first half of the '80s had been lost., GNR managed to combine the arrogance and rebellion of Hard rock, with the threat of punk and a unique trash-glam aesthetic.

Other critics such as Maura Johnson call the album "a defining moment" in the era of 80s music, the album managed to narrate every vice, every concern and every problem of the Los Angeles of the time, brilliantly directed by the then very young Axl Rose who had a voice like flammable bleach and a band legendary behind his back, which was loaded and sharp ready to bother. Dennis O'Dell of BBC Music said that the album owes, among other things, its appeal to the hedonism that made it mystical and timeless, which will forever maintain it as the band's best album, which also highlights that "no artist/band will currently or in the future reach that level of originality or that stratospheric level of importance and impact worldwide that Guns N' Roses achieved this with this album, identifying not only the entire American youth of the time but also those of much of the world. The legacy of GNR and that album is so great that even more than 3 decades later, they are still one of the "most popular artists in the world". In a list of the 50 most relevant and impactful albums in history, which ranked it at No. 15 and named it one of the best albums of all time along with hailing it as "an unbridled celebration of sex, drugs, rebellion, anarchy and rock'n'roll" who said things clearly, without fear of making people uncomfortable or what people would say. I also emphasize that it was and is probably "one of the best albums ever made by a pack of marginalized young people just out of adolescence", which showed how you can't escape from yourself, but be one himself and succeed by being so". Finally, "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child or 'Mine", "Paradise City", "Mr. Brownstone" and "Rocket Queen" They are on the list of the 100 best Rock/Metal songs in history.

Information about the songs

Welcome to the Jungle

It was released as the band's second single on October 3, 1987, and reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number seventy-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In the United Kingdom, "Welcome to the Jungle" was supported with a live version of AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie", while in the United States, the B-side was "Mr. Brownstone”, also from Appetite for Destruction. In 2009 it was named the best hard rock song of all time by VH1. It also appeared in the trailer for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PS2 and in the trailer for the SpongeBob SquarePants movie: A Hero Out of Water. It also appears in the film Megamind, now in 2017 it appears in the film of the same name Jumanji 2: Welcome to the Jungle.

Nighttrain

This song refers to a brand of cheap wine that some members of Guns N' Roses used to drink, and to drug addictions (Loaded like a freight train | Flyin' like an aeroplane | Feelin' like a space brain | One more time tonight...| Wake up late | Honey put on your clothes | Take your credit card | to the liquor store...). At the concert that Guns N' Roses offered at the Ritz in New York in 1988, Slash expressed himself in the following way about it: "I'm not going to say anything offensive, so we can do this song on TV.". Ironic about MTV's censorship, he then adds: "This song is not dedicated to drinking, drug addiction and that kind of thing; This song is dedicated to a walk in the park and is called Nightrain'.

Out Ta Get Me

Its lyrics focus on the constant problems between singer Axl Rose and the law, during his youth in Indiana. Slash describes the song as being written even faster than "Welcome to the Jungle", indicating that it was written in less than three hours.

Paradise City

In his biography, Slash states that the song was written in the back of a rented van, as they were returning from a concert in San Francisco with the band Rock N' Riders. He claims the band was in the back of the van, drinking and playing acoustic guitars when he came up with the intro. Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin started playing together. Slash began humming a tune when Axl Rose sang, "Take me down to the Paradise City", when Slash continued "Where the girls are fat and they got big titties". Axl didn't like the lyrics, the rest of the band agreed and the line was changed to "Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty".

My Michelle

The song talks about a friend of the band, a girl named Michelle Young, who was thanked in the Appetite For Destruction cover art. According to Axl, he and Michelle were in a car together when the song "Your Song" started playing on the radio and Michelle mentioned that she had always wanted someone to write a song about her. The song is brutally honest, so much so that Slash thought she was going to hate it, but she liked the song.

Sweet Child O' Mine

It is the ninth song on the album and the third single. Released on August 18, 1988, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's first and only single in the United States. It reached number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. In the Tokyo live, Slash demonstrated his great skill by performing the 3. er solo the song.

You're Crazy

It was originally written as an acoustic song, but was revamped for Appetite For Destruction. The acoustic version was later recorded forG N' R Lies, this version has also been performed live with electric guitars.

MTV Censorship

The reason why the MTV network had refused to show the band's music videos is because the original cover of the album, based on a painting by Robert Williams, showed a raping robot, which was considered offensive by the network. television. The band then changed the cover, and put the original inside the album, now showing a crucifix with the skulls of the five members of the band, something like the Grateful Dead album covers. This was not enough for MTV, and the network continued its blackout. Finally, David Geffen, then president of Geffen Records, called MTV and begged them to air the music video for "Welcome to the Jungle." MTV agreed to show it only on one Sunday at 4 in the morning. The song became the most requested song on MTV in just 24 hours.

Most of the songs on the album reflect the personal experiences that the band had been living since the early 80s in daily life, such as "Welcome to the Jungle", lyrics that Rose wrote after encountering a man who assaulted him. on the streets of Los Angeles in 1980, shortly after arriving there from Indiana (in the song Axl Rose describes Los Angeles, the American metropolis which was convulsed by excesses and problems in the 1980s), and "Mr.. Brownstone", which deals with the band's problems with drugs such as heroin. Likewise, songs like "It's So Easy" ironize the easy and promiscuous life of rock stars. Other lyrics in some of the songs also focus on the band members' younger years, such as "Out Ta Get Me", which focuses on vocalist Axl Rose's constant problems with the law as a teenager in Indiana, his small town of origin, in which he was arrested many times for his bad behavior or for his repeated occasions in which he consumed marijuana in public places with friends.

Cover

The original album cover, based on the painting by Robert Williams, showed a robotic rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger. After several music retailers refused to stock the album, the label compromised and placed the controversial cover inside, replacing it with an image depicting a Celtic cross and skulls of all five band members with (designed by Billy White Jr., originally as a tattoo), each skull represents a member of the band: Izzy Stradlin, top skull; Steven Adler, left skull; Axl Rose, skull center; Duff McKagan, right skull; and Slash, lower skull. In a 2016 interview, Billy White Jr. explained: 'The cross and skulls that the band looked like were Axl's idea, the rest was me. The knot work on the cross was a reference to Thin Lizzy, a band Axl and I love.'

Robert John, Marc Canter, Jack Lue, Leonard McCardie and Greg Freeman took the photographs used for the back of the album and the liner notes. The original cover was supposed to be on the 2008 vinyl reissue, although the record label replaced it with art from "Skulls" In the last minute.

The band said the artwork is "a symbolic social statement, with the robot representing the industrial system that is violating and polluting our environment." On albums that were issued on double-sided media (vinyl records and audio cassettes), the two sides were not conventionally labeled "A" and "B", but "G" and "R". Tracks 1 to 6 that make up the "G" are about drugs and hard life in the big city ("Guns" side). The remaining tracks, which make up the 'R' side, are about love, sex and relationships ('Roses' side). In an interview with That Metal Show in 2011, Rose stated that his original idea for the cover was to be the photo of the Challenger space shuttle explosion that he saw in a magazine in 1986, but Geffen rejected it, saying that it was "in bad taste".

Recognitions

In 2001, the magazine "Q" named Appetite for Destruction as one of the 50 heaviest albums of all time. In 2003, the VH1 television network named it the 22nd album of all time. Rolling Stone magazine called it the fourth best debut album in history; only behind Are You Experienced, Ramones and Licensed to Ill respectively.

Influences

On the album you can see the band's predilection for classic hard rock and blues rock bands such as Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC or Rolling Stones. The work also has connections with the Los Angeles glam metal scene (in which various members of the band had been immersed), with the British heavy metal of the time, and with punk. The band is sometimes classified as sleaze rock.

Remastering: Locked N 'Loaded

On April 30, 2018, billboards appeared in major cities across the United States and a website was launched with the slogan "Destruction Is Coming" ("Destruction Is Coming" in English). The website was updated with a countdown clock until May 4, 2018 and a snippet of the Hollywood Rose song "Shadow of Your Love" ringing. Journalist Mitch Lafon said the campaign was for a deluxe edition of Appetite for Destruction. A video advertisement was inadvertently released a day earlier, detailing theAppetite for Destruction: Locked N' Loaded, which was released on June 29, 2018. The box set includes 73 songs (49 of which were previously unreleased) on four compact discs and seven 12-inch 180-gram LPs. Includes remastered versions of Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, an EP of B-sides, 25 recordings from the group's 1986 sessions at Sound City Studios with producer Manny Charlton, and two previously unreleased tracks from the group sessions with Mike Clink. Included are three of the four songs on the EPG N' R Lies, except for the controversial song "One in a Million".

In addition to the music, it includes a 96-page book with previously unpublished photos from Rose's personal archive, 12 lithographs visualizing each song on the album, and a variety of replica memorabilia. "Shadow of Your Love" was released as a single on May 4, 2018, the band's first single in almost a decade. The complete edition of Locked N' Loaded initially sold for $999; A deluxe edition was also made available including all five discs and extras and standard editions with only the remastered album and bonus tracks. Additionally, the Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions were made available for digital downloads.

On May 21, 2018, the band released the unreleased music video for "It's So Easy" on Apple Music. "Welcome to the Jungle" (1986 Sound City Session), "Move to the City" (1988 Acoustic Version) and "November Rain" (Piano Version, 1986 Sound City Session) were released as promotional singles. A hidden tape of the band's five-song 1985 Mystic Studios demo session is included as an Easter egg in one of the drawers of the Locked N' Loaded.

A pop-up store opened in London on the day of the release, featuring Guns N' Roses-themed drinks, a tattoo artist, merchandise and a large screen showing the band's 1988 show at The Ritz. The remastered release resulted in Appetite for Destruction re-entering the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time in 29 years.

Reception

The box set received universal critical acclaim, with Metacritic earning a score of 95/100, based on nine reviews. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Boxed Set, his first nomination since 1993 (however, he lost to 'Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of 'Weird Al' Yankovic') 3. 4;).

Song list

Original release

All songs were written lyrically by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, except "It's So Easy", written by Duff McKagan and West Arkeen, in terms of its musical composition all members of Guns N' Roses participated in it.

Super Deluxe Edition

Editing y#34;Locked N 'Loaded#34; and the "Super Deluxe Edition" They have the same musical content. Disc one is the original album.

All tracks are original Guns N' Roses, except where noted.

Disco 2: B-Sides N' EP's
N.o	Title	Writer(s)	Duration
1.	«Reckless Life» (Live)	Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin	3:21
2.	"Nice Boys" (Live)	Rose Tattoo	3:02
3.	«Move to the City» (Live)	Stradlin and Rose	3:34
4.	«Mama Kin» (Live / Edit)	Aerosmith	3:41
5.	«Shadow of Your Love» (Live)	Rose and Stradlin	3:03
6.	«You're Crazy» (Acoustic Version)	Stradlin and Rose	4:25
7.	«Patience»	Izzy Stradlin	5:54
8.	«Used to Love Her»	Stradlin	3:13
9.	«You're Crazy»	Stradlin and Rose	4:10
10.	«It's So Easy» (Live at the Marquee Club, London / 1987)	Duff McKagan and West Arkeen	3:54
11.	«Knockin' on Heaven's Door» (Live at the Marquee Club, London / 1987)	Bob Dylan	4:59
12.	«Whole Lotta Rosie» (Live at the Marquee Club, London / 1987)	AC/DC	4:06
47:21

Members

• Axl Rose: Voice, percussion in "Welcome to the Jungle", synthesizer and whistle in "Paradise City".
• Slash: Soloist guitar, rhythmic guitar in "Nightrain", "Think About You" and "Anything Goes", talkbox in "Anything Goes" "The band's main guide."
• Izzy Stradlin: Ritmic guitar, solo guitar in "Nightrain", "Think About You" and "Anything Goes", percussion and background voice.
• Duff McKagan: Low and background voice.
• Steven Adler: Battery.

Positions

Country (List)	Better. position
United States (Billboard 200)	1
United States (Hard Rock Charts)	1
Germany	2
Canada (Billboard Canada)	7
Australia (Aria Australian Charts)	7
New Zealand (New Zeland Charts)	1
United Kingdom (UK charts)	5
Ireland	7
France	25
Italy	5
Belgium	68
Portugal	4
Sweden	12
Finland	22
Spain	3
Netherlands	3
Poland	46
Norway	9
Switzerland	5