Appetite for Destruction was peak Rock music

[toonkee]

 

[gold-n-brown]

On 4/8/2024 at 5:12 PM, toonkee said:

 

I liked his solo album.

[Mano]

Rolling Stone top 10:

10. Lauryn Hill, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’

9. Bob Dylan, ‘Blood on the Tracks’

8. Prince and the Revolution, ‘Purple Rain’

7. Fleetwood Mac, ‘Rumours’

6. Nirvana, ‘Nevermind’

5. The Beatles, ‘Abbey Road’

4. Stevie Wonder, ‘Songs in the Key of Life’

3. Joni Mitchell, ‘Blue’

2. The Beach Boys, ‘Pet Sounds’

1. Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’

Appetite for Destruction comes in at #62

Wouldn't be my list, but thought you might find interesting.

[Nevada Convert]

What I’m about to say, some of you are aware of. But back in the 80’s, I got it from the horses mouth. In 1985, living in SD as a business major, I got this really dumb idea that I wanted to be an A&R guy at a major record label and work my way up to the top. So I started reading Billboard Magazine every week and some other trades to educate myself. 

About a year later, I saw an ad for a music industry class taught at UCLA through UCLA Extension by the infamous Tom Noonan. Legendary A&R guy at Motown that signed the Jackson 5 and many others, and he later became the guy that determined the weekly charts, Top 40 singles, Top 200 Album Chart, etc. He had a lot of power with that position that he held for so long. 

So I signed up for it. It was 3 hours from 7-10 on Tuesday Nights IIRC. 3 hour night class. So every week I drove up from SD to Westwood and the traffic. Every week he invited someone in from a major label to discuss their job in detail, and sometimes actually brought in artists. Every week I just happened to sit next to a guy that eventually told me he was Willy Nelson’s attorney. 

One night, Van Halen’s classic infamous Roth era manger and father figure to them, Ed Lefler came in. Alex was going to come in, as well, but his dad had just been rushed to the hospital, and died soon after. But I had lots of questions for him, and after class just me, Ed and Tom hung out and talked for another hour. Tom kind of started taking me under his wing and liked my passion for learning more….he liked that I drove up from SD for class. 

So from all I learned from class and discussions after class, I realized that I probably didn’t want to be a record company executive. He told me to pick the label and he would get me an internship and go from there. 

I’ll start another post and explain….

 

 

[Nevada Convert]

Some 70’s rock, a lot of hard rock and most metal were dominated by male audiences. A whole bunch of bands in the mid to late 70’s through the early 80’s were doing great with sales, but the labels were always pushing for more sales. There were lots of bands where you’d go to their shows and there would be very few chicks. The labels saw females as the big untapped market. 

It started off with softening the edge of the music overall, and then adding more ballad-like songs. That started happening to rock bands in the late 70’s, and spread to metal in the early 80’s. It even got to Metallica, eventually. You’ll never see another Master of Puppets type album from them ever again. 

The labels also took notice that the few original glam bands always did well with women. So they started pushing their metal bands to slowly incorporate that into their look. Women were intimidated by angry heavier music with a bunch of angry dudes. Looking more like them made it become less and less threatening. As that happened, more and more chicks showed up to metal shows. 

Then you had Motley Crue release their Home Sweet Home ballad on their Theater of Pain album, and the hair metal movement was in full swing. It did so well that every ‘metal’ band also responded with a ballad. Bands really pushed the glam look and ditched the angry attitude. Now it was about partying with chicks. There was lots of laughing and good times banging hot chicks. 

GNR was formed in 1985 with two hair bands merging, Hollywood Rose and LA Guns. AR had big hair and was doing the hair band thing. However, what made GNR different is that they decided to eventually ditch the hair band culture and go back to 70’s & early 80’s hard rock with long hair and attitude, but ditch the girly shit. 

Here’s a couple pics of glammed out Axl Rose in Hollywood Rose and then early GNR:

And the AFD album did just that. They were one of the first to hit hair metal in the face and buck the trend before Grunge came along and killed it off. They went back to more of a 1981 Def Leppard look and attitude even though the music didn’t sound the same. 

So I very much respect GNR for doing that even though I never really liked their music. 

The irony here is that the whole hair metal movement that brought women into accepting and loving rock through metal is exactly why GNR was able to make such a splash when they did. You obviously have to have music that people will like to be a success, and AFD had that. But when GNR decided to go back to the early hard rock attitude, it didn’t scare women away thanks to hair metal. 

 

[Nevada Convert]

On 4/8/2024 at 10:42 PM, Mano said:

Rolling Stone top 10:

10. Lauryn Hill, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’

9. Bob Dylan, ‘Blood on the Tracks’

8. Prince and the Revolution, ‘Purple Rain’

7. Fleetwood Mac, ‘Rumours’

6. Nirvana, ‘Nevermind’

5. The Beatles, ‘Abbey Road’

4. Stevie Wonder, ‘Songs in the Key of Life’

3. Joni Mitchell, ‘Blue’

2. The Beach Boys, ‘Pet Sounds’

1. Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’

Appetite for Destruction comes in at #62

Wouldn't be my list, but thought you might find interesting.

Rolling Stone’s opinion on anything is suspect. 

[Mano]

A few of my favorite rock Albums:

Who's Next - The Who

Damn the Torpedos - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction

A Night at the Opera - Queen

Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix

Let it Bleed - Rolling Stones

The Doors - The Doors

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Ten - Pearl Jam

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

 

 

[toonkee]

 

 

[Nevada Convert]

Of course, once grunge hit, everyone not grunge had at least one attempt at a grunge style album to see if they could catch the wave. I can’t think of anyone that re-invented themselves that way which is kind of surprising. And most of them were just cringe. 

But there was one fascinating occurrence that I can think of that’s worth noting, and that’s the new band in 1991 called Saigon Kick. To me, the name reminds me of the 80’s glam band Hanoi Rocks. Not sure what the fascination of Vietnam was other than there was a bunch of big Vietnam War movies in the 80’s. 

Anyway, these guys looked like a hybrid of hair metal and grunge. In late 92 and early 93, when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alive in Chains, etc. were in full swing, they released an album called The Lizard (very grunge sounding) which totally sucked except for one song. 

It was called Love Is On The Way, and it was a grunge/hair metal hybrid and it was a huge hit. It was a grunge unplugged acoustic kind of thing that was popular at the time, it’s verses were grunge sounding similar to an Alice In Chains, Layne Staley sounding lighter vocal, but had this huge harmony chorus that couldn’t be done unplugged because it required a lot of harmonizing using either an Eventide Harmonizer or created with a multitrack tape machine, neither which you’d use live unplugged. 

But the big hair metal type chorus against the unplugged low tech simple grunge verses created a powerful dynamic. And it was a song that came across as sincere and real. It wasn’t hair metal horse shit. So a partial hair metal song was totally accepted and loved smack dab in the grunge explosion. Quite an accomplishment. 

Check it out. You’ve probably heard it in the past. 
 

 

[Poorohman]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:11 PM, toonkee said:

 

 

Interesting.  My parents were huge Manheim Steamroller fans.  It was pure torture as a kid growing up in the 70s.

[thelawlorfaithful]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:11 PM, toonkee said:

 

 

Eminem is from Missouri? Somebody tell him,

Also what the hell is wrong with you Washington?

[gold-n-brown]

On 4/9/2024 at 7:11 PM, toonkee said:

 

 

Uhhh.  This map is BS.

[toonkee]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:52 AM, thelawlorfaithful said:

Eminem is from Missouri? Somebody tell him,

Also what the hell is wrong with you Washington?

[thelawlorfaithful]

On 4/10/2024 at 2:15 PM, toonkee said:

8 Mile is a lie? Take back the Oscar:

[SharkTanked]

I take back every bad thing I said about Guns n Roses... nice threads...