Guns N' Roses - G N' R Lies (1989)
Basically a stopgap EP between Appetite and the Illusion albums, G N' R Lies pulled off a neat trick in being both good and controversial enough to keep G N' R in the, er tabloids. The method of stretching this past an EP release into a barely qualifying 33 minute LPer was to reuse some old music to turn it into a short form, double (concept?) album. Side A consists entirely of late '80s L.A. club footage of the band at their sneering rawestness: it was lifted from the EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, features a couple of covers and does a great job of capturing the band in their sleazy barband youth. This is probably the kind of live G N' R (playing Appetite songs, natch) that people were looking for but didn't get from the Live Era album that would come out much later. All of the songs are solid, though the cover of Aerosmith's "Mama Kin," imho, improves on the original (though Aerosmith notoriously tore that up in concert in '70s, too). All of this generally gets lost / forgotten because of Side B, though.
The second half of Lies is a mostly all-acoustic affair. Bold move for what at the time was essentially a (albeit a nasty version) hair/metal band, they didn't just churn out a melodramatic power ballad with concert-hall reverberating solos (q.v. "Without You" by Motley Crüe or "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison), they *completely* unplugged and recorded, among other things, one of the best late-night hotel room ballads, um, ever. Featuring whistling and whispers, if you insist on qualifiers. It gives the second half of the album that oh-so-intimate campfire feel, and even though two of the songs were a throwaway and a self-cover, it was apparently enough to tide over their fans until the Illusion double release in 1991.
Oh, let's be honest; "Patience" was enough to tide over their fans. That song by itself carries the album; it's the aforementioned ballad featuring a saccharine Axl crooning over lush interlocking guitar arpeggios and earnest strumming. The song also features some fantastic acoustic soling from guitar-god Slash and a impassioned falsetto outro that one can't help but Axl-dance to ("one" being Nyet). This is a legitimately beautiful song, and additionally has that "aw, see, bad boys *can* be good!" Nice Boys don't play rock n' roll, but maybe just maybe they play last night anthemic panty-dropping ballads, maybe? This song was huge at the time, the video basically took over MTV for a while, and it undoubtedly made Lies the success it was.
About that "nice boys" thing, though: this is also the album that featured a tongue-in-cheek sing-along "I Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)." And a killer acoustic take on "You're Crazy*" from Appetite; a great song, no doubt (one of my favorites, I'll readily admit), but one where Axl repeatedly berates a lover. I don't know if that qualifies as misogynist or just bitter-at-a-lover Dylan-style sans eloquence. And then the last track, which drew the ire of EVERYONE. I specifically remember a 60 Minutes piece on Axl's vitriol poem; the media had a field day lambasting the song's homo/xeno/authori?-phobic lyrics, and it seemed like the un-nice boys had finally stepped too far. Which is strange in and of itself, given that the media-attitude pretty blatantly implies that gender-based hatred from rockers is A-Okay, but don't you ever use the n-word.
* - I'm really underselling this here - it's an excellent acoustic jam AND it features Axl scatting. My favorite part of the album.
I had real trouble with this at the time - in my youth I really did listen right through lyrics to the guitars, and wow did I love this band's music. "One in a Million," though, has such prominent vocals and such a ho-hum guitar line that it was difficult to reconcile my love with that much hatred. Further complicating the situation is that the chorus is so pleading and heartfelt; I still don't really see how it relates to the verses. Those bad-word lyrics also woke me up to the fact that the other songs in the catalogue were not exactly nice to the fairer sex. It made it tough to tell what was some sort of artistic statement and what was a straight-forwardly expressed opinion from a guy who certainly sounded like a racist asshole. I still have no idea what the explanation was, but given other image-based theatrics - fight with Vince Neil, anyone? - I would hardly be surprised if it wasn't just offense for its own sake. Which brings it back to a performance, not a real attitude. That's actually been my take ever since with the monstrosity of Axl and G N' R - it's basically a show and a grandiose (and great) performance*, and I can comfortably separate the art from the artists*. For the special case of "OiaM," though, I pretty much just don't listen to it - it's a stupid song, musically and lyrically, and whatever hate-spewing there is is a sort of name-check third grade sentiment. It's got some historical significance, I suppose, but I really think it was a mistake to tack it on to the album.
* - I covered this in my Appetite review - the gist is that the music overrides the inanity of the misogynist lyrical content, and I can respect the spectacle of their presentation without buying into its ideology. I could be accused of moral reprehensibility in that I'm sort of ignoring the widespread effects my acceptance of such lyrics on any basis can have on the more malleable members of society, but I guess I'm just in the free-speech-and-art-have-their-costs camp on that one.
** - It should be duly noted that Slash et al. basically disowned this song. It's an Axl-only composition, his first for the band.
So, Lies clearly suffers from its tailspin into hate, and that knocks it down several pegs. But it is a musically good rock album that sits in the formative years of my youth, and the baggage it carries w/r/t misogyny v. calculated spectacle almost makes it more interesting. I'd recommend channeling your inner eleven year-old Nyet, being a little, um, patient with Axl's stupidity, and listening through those lyrics to the guitar; they're what keep this album worth it.
Status: Recommended (solid)
Nyet's Fave: "You're Crazy"
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