So over the past week, I finished up the autobiography of Slash, the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses and also Velvet Revolver.  It was a library book that I picked up on our way to the cabin.  It was an interesting read and brought backs waves of nostalgia for G-n-R.  In as a gentle a way as possible, Slash says Axl Rose was a jerk and dragged the band down.

Late last week I listened to Appetite for Destruction (which Slash considers their greatest work).  It is a fantastic album, even now, 20 years after its release.  I loved it back then and it sounds better now.  Now, I am able to differentiate all of the instruments.  Back in 1988-89, I focused mostly on the lyrics.  Lyrics that I found I still remember!  Guns was so raw to me back then.  As a white kid from the suburbs, their lyrics and persona were alien but fascinating.  they sang about sex and drugs and it seemed real to me.  Like a distant place where all of these glorious and onderful lives were being lead.  Well, according to Slash, the subjects of the songs are basically their real life at the time tho wonderful it is not.  The drug abuse was sad and dark and lonely, leading to relationship and health problems.  

After listening to Appetite (MP#s via inAmp), Idug out my original cassette tape (yeah baby) of G N' R follow up album Lies.  The songs on this album are explicit with sex and racism and violence.  Again, suburban white boy found this fascinating.  At the time, my life was not exposed to such realities in the first person.  Neither was I aware via the media or other displaced means. Geography kinda sheltered my upbringing.  I would not have even known how to find books or media that talked about the drug and sex lifestyle.  Kinda funny as today, any and all info is available for all on the internet.    Today, one can read all about drugs and debauchery within a few minutes of sitting down at a computer.  

So now Ineed to get a digital copy of Lies to listen to.  I could pipe the audio from the cassette tape to my computer but the quality will be poor by today's standard.  I never listened much to Use Your Illusion I and II, tho the song Civil War was great.  Slash said that song was actually written and recorded in the Appetite sessions.  I never even listened to The Spaghetti Incident.  It would be nice to get these albums.