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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Guns N’ Roses.
By Ken Shimamoto
Doo-dee-dah-doo-dee-doo-dee-dah. Go ahead, admit it. If you were breathing oxygen in America in 1987, you probably had that annoyingly hypnotic riff from Guns N’ Roses’ big MTV hit “Sweet Child of Mine” etched in your brainpan, just like everybody else.
With Aerosmith in rehab, the Gunners briefly held the “American Rolling Stones” crown (which the New York Dolls really own forever, but ...). Infused with metal and punk influences, this product of an active L.A. scene was the most interesting hard rock band anybody had heard in awhile, and their debut disc Appetite for Destruction also bore hits like the kickoff-classic “Welcome to the Jungle” and every stripper’s favorite soundtrack “Paradise City.”
It didn’t take long for the rot to set in, though. G N’ R Lies’ inflammatory closer “One in a Million” painted strident, bandana-headed singer Axl Rose as a walking hate crime, even as he tried to sell himself as a sensitive soul with “Patience.” Unfortunately for Rose and Co., in 1991 their two Use Your Illusion albums — a cornucopia of pretension and bombast unmatched by any artist this side of Michael Jackson — coincided with the arrival of Nirvana and lotsa guys from Seattle wearing flannel shirts. The Gunners and their ilk were promptly relegated to the dustbin of history. (Anybody still got Izzy Stradlin and Gilby Clarke’s c.d.’s? I didn’t think so.)
But wait. Axl’s back on the road, having traded in a lead guitarist who habitually hid his face under a waterfall of black ringlets and a top hat (Slash) for one who always wears a KFC bucket on his head (uh, Buckethead). Axl’s playing all the old hits, as well as material from the 10-years-in-the-making-and-still-nowhere-near-complete seventh full-length ironically named Chinese Democracy.
Anybody game?
Thu at American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Av, Dallas. 214-373-8000.
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