80's Music Junkies: Gun n Roses - Essential 80s Rock

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Guns N' Roses are an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. Having sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, they are one of the USA's most successful hard rock bands. Their 1987 major label debut, Appetite for Destruction, produced by Mike Clink, went on to sell 25 million copies worldwide and reached #1 in the USA a year after its release date. The song "Welcome To The Jungle", the second track released from the album (after "It's So Easy"), gained notoriety after it was used on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's 1988 film The Dead Pool.

The band's musical style, onstage presence and bad boy rock image helped usher in a new era in the dominant hard rock scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. While glam metal was the leading genre in record sales, video charts and radio airplay, Guns N' Roses offered a grittier, more traditional take on rock music, which helped to popularize the sub-genre known as sleaze rock and won many fans who admired their apparent authenticity. The band enjoyed worldwide success from 1987 to 1993, but clashing personalities of different band members brought about the end of the original line-up. Today, front man Axl Rose is the only original member in the band's current line-up. He has now served as lead singer for 22 years.

Appetite for Destruction was released on July 21, 1987. In the US, "Welcome to the Jungle" was issued as its first single with an accompanying music video. Initially, the album and single did not perform well, but when Geffen Records founder David Geffen was asked to lend support to the band, he obliged by personally convincing MTV executives to add "Welcome to the Jungle" to their after hours rotation. Even though the video was played at inopportune times, rock fans took notice and soon began requesting the video and song en masse.

In the United Kingdom, "It's So Easy" was released prior to the album itself. The band quickly gained popularity through radio airplay and via a rousing performance at London's famous Marquee Club on June 28, 1987. The 12-inch single for "It's So Easy" included Marquee Club performances of "Shadow of Your Love" and "Move to the City".

Overseas, countries were often treated to material that never saw release to the US market, and went unexposed to US fans. The original UK "Welcome to the Jungle" single was backed with the Marquee Club performance of AC/DC's classic "Whole Lotta Rosie" and a 12-inch single included live renditions of "It's So Easy" and the Bob Dylan classic "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". In Japan, an entire EP entitled Live from the Jungle was issued, containing the album version of "Sweet Child O' Mine" and most of the Marquee Club recordings. European and Asian single releases were often accompanied by interviews with Slash or Axl Rose, a common practice in those countries.

Appetite for Destruction (original)The album underwent an artwork change after the original Robert Williams cover design (a surrealist scene in which a dagger-toothed monster vengefully attacks a robot rapist) spawned complaints from religious groups and caused some record stores to brown bag, obscure, or refuse to sell the album. The revised cover was gleaned from a tattoo that Axl had recently commissioned featuring skeleton faces of the five musicians arranged on a cross. Rose later insisted that the Gold and Platinum plaques issued by the RIAA be set using the original cover. Copies of the LP with its original artwork are now rare collector’s items. The artwork from the original cover can be found in the booklet of the CD release.

"Sweet Child O' Mine" was the album's second US single. Due to the growing grassroots success of the band and the cross-gender appeal of the tune, the song and its accompanying music video received heavy airplay on both radio and MTV, and became a smash hit during the summer of 1988. "Welcome to the Jungle" was then re-issued as a single, with new pressings of records and tapes and new artwork. The UK re-release was backed with an acoustic version of "You're Crazy", recorded much earlier than the one featured on the G N' R Lies EP.

By the time "Paradise City" and its video reached the airwaves, the band's touring success and fame had catapulted the album to #1 on the Billboard charts. "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City" were all top ten singles in the US. To date, Appetite For Destruction has sold over 25 million copies.

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