Losman's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Blog

20 years ago this month, out of the LA gutters came the debut album of a little known band that was more dangerous, more violent, more sleazy, more apathetic and way more real than anything the world had seen in a long time. Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction was born in a world chock full of completely cheesy and commercially-bland pop metal and dance music, but its tales of sex, drugs, violence and big city squalor tore that whole world down. It was all great rock music should be…dangerous and unapologetic. It was the sound of the post-Reagan yuppie American dream exploding. It was the best mainstream rock album the decade had seen….made by a group of LA miscreants hungry, angry and vying for a piece of the pie….so what happened?

Now mind you, I was kid when Appetite came out…just a young chap entering the 6th grade. But even at that ripe young age, the rebellious nature of the music called to me. I had enough of sneaking upstairs to my sisters’ room and playing their Police records. I wanted the sleaze! Down and dirty rock and roll…even though I hadn’t a clue of the dirty lifestyle they were talking about. I just thought it was cool to have a record with tons of “F bombs” on it, and I couldn’t wait to “smoke my cigarette with style”.

And it seemed the rest of the world felt the same…GNR became the biggest band in the world at the time, from ’87 all the way up into ’90. However, by that time, I had left that record by the wayside, was taken hostage by the ‘80s American hardcore punk underground, the unbelievably original music coming out of Manchester and London, and the burgeoning sounds just underneath the surface of rock music that eventually exploded onto the mainstream with Nirvana’s Nevermind. Buy Use Your Illusion I & II…screw that, tell me how I can see Jane’s Addiction before the break up!

And now, its 20 years later….and the band that released the best sleaze rock album of the ‘80s turned into a joke over that time. Axl Rose killed the original lineup with his weirdo, maniacal control issues, and has spent the last 15 years as some mythical recluse while occasionally coming out in public to convince the world that some magical GNR album will eventually be released to slay all other rock in it’s wake. Slash and Duff play in joke of hard rock band called Velvet Revolver with that loser from STP. And now, in 2007, what do you think a fickle rock audience is going to choose between…some jokers in the forties trying to relive glory days they skipped out on because of their egos, or some fat emo kid crying over some girl? I ain’t choosing either of those options…

But…I’ll still throw on Appetite for memories sake, ‘cause “It’s So Easy”, “Nighttrain”, “Mr. Brownstone”, “My Michelle”, and “Rocket Queen” still sound as kick ass as they did 20 years ago.