In honor of the second leg of their ‘Not in this lifetime’ tour, Rock band Guns ‘n Roses recently re-released their debut album: Appetite for destruction. One of the biggest hits from that album? ‘Welcome to the jungle’. Reason for me to talk about the album in this edition of the music section. The fact that this is one of my favorite records ever made has nothing to do with it. I swear.
Appetite for destruction was originally released in 1987. It came quickly after Guns ‘n Roses was formed and were signed to a record deal at Geffen records. It quickly became the best-selling debut album ever, selling approximately 30 million copies worldwide. The band released 5 singles of the album, with ‘It’s so easy’ released before the album came out, while ‘Welcome to the jungle’, ‘Sweet child ‘o mine’, ‘Paradise city’ and ‘Nightrain’ followed after the release. The album was almost universally received as being one of the best records ever made, with some critics claiming that the album was simply jumping on taboos surrounding the ‘Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll’ lifestyle for 1980’s rock musicians. Yet the album didn’t reach mass-audiences until popular music network MTV started playing the videos for ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Sweet child ‘o mine’ and ‘Paradise city’ in 1988. The showings on MTV started a big shift in the rock music industry, as it moved from ‘hair metal bands’ and towards punky qualities of bands such as Guns ‘n Roses.
The recording process for Appetite for destruction has some interesting stories to it as well. You might get a picture in your head of Slash, lead guitarist of the band, with the same iconic guitar in his hands, a Gibson Les Paul. But during the recording of Appetite, Slash was still searching for the right sound and guitar. His agent tells a story about how during one of the recording sessions he came into the studio to find a Gibson SG stuck in a window, because Slash threw it there out of frustration. Once he got him a Les Paul (The first he got wasn’t an original Gibson) things progressed much better for the guitarist. Another interesting story is about the interlude in the song ‘Rocket queen’. During the interlude you can hear a woman moaning. This was recorded in a studio, by Axl Rose (the singer) and the Steven Adler’s ‘girlfriend’. The woman was mad at Adler (the drummer) because he refused to call her his girlfriend even though they had been dating for more than a year. While the audio of the moans came out good, the technicians had several issues with it. The original sound engineer refused to set up microphones in the recording booth. So while he left, the job went to a replacement. The story gets even worse for the replacement. He had to adjust a microphone while Rose and the woman were getting it on because they had knocked it over during the act.
Overall, Appetite for destruction produced rock anthems everybody knows. ‘Sweet child ‘o mine’ and ‘Paradise city’ are songs many people know by heart. If you’re into hard rock music, every single song on the record is an absolute blast. So if you haven’t had the time to listen to it, I hope you will soon. And to end with some lyrics that can also be used to describe the album, this edition of the Lifeline and perhaps going to college as a whole: ’Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games.’
