March 12 - Civil War

So far I have avoided the two bands who moved what in most of my teenage years had been fringe music into the mainstream in 1991. Metallica, who only 5 years earlier drew next to violent reactions removing them from the tape deck when I tried playing Master Of Puppets at parties, and Guns'n'Roses, who continued their mainstream success, both released albums in the fall. Metallica delivered a single, concentrated dose of their signature riffs, but with a more melodic approach than before, whereas Guns'n'Roses indulged Axl Rose in a sprawling double double album release (Use Your Illusion I & II were both double albums and released on the same day).

I was lucky enough to discover GnR when they were on their way up. My friend Geir had bought Appetite for Destruction, and I taped that along with David Lee Roth's Skyscraper on a 90 minute tape that I pretty much wore out. I also watched an early live concert that was broadcast on Sky Channel that further cemented my admiration for the band, and I was eagerly awaiting GnR's new albums in the fall of 1991.

I have said it before that if Guns'n'Roses had employed a producer that helped them narrow their songs down from two double albums to one single album, they could have made one of the best, if not the best, rock album ever. Instead they did too much, and the majority of songs were not really all that good at all. However, since the republicans currently are trying to get us back into a civil war, Captain America is also taking us there in the movies, and Guns'n'Roses are bringing the lineup that offered some of the best sleazy rock'n'roll of the 80s, I thought that the song Civil War could be a good song for today. From what I understand and have heard on various bootleg recordings, GnR was one of the best live acts of the late 80s and early 90s until they finally imploded over a period of three years, from 1994-1997 (although they really were over following their recording of Sympathy for the Devil in 1994).

I spent the summer of 2012 peering over three books that chronicled Guns'n'Roses from three different perspectives. Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler had all written their own accounts of what had happened. Adler got himself ousted from GnR for drug abuse. How messed up is that? Slash and McKagan were in it for the music, got caught up in the drugs, but came out on the other side (supposedly - although I actually believe it is the case for both of them). The books are interesting, and they all have in common that they talk about Axl Rose's incredible ego. I am not a fan of Mr. Rose, but I think the band he had behind him was top notch, and it's a shame it ended the way it did, with him continuing to use the band name. How good the band was can be heard in Velvet Revolver, where most of GnR teamed up with another junkie as a singer, Scott Weiland, although his voice and charisma completely outshone Mr. Rose. Unfortunately we did lose Scott Weiland last year.

Anyway, today's song is the last song to feature Steven Adler, who was replaced by Matt Sorum for all other songs on both Use Your Illusion albums, and it is an epic song that is well worth a listen still today. Here is Civil War.