Artist: Guns N' Roses
Label: Geffen Records
Release: 1988
Length: 33:31
Rating: 3/5
Part two of the Guns N’ Roses saga is G N’ R Lies, or just Lies. A follow-up to the success story the band started writing with their debut Appetite For Destruction, it came out in 1988. The album is made up of eight tracks written at different points in the band’s existence.
The first four tracks carry the rawness and primal energy the band brought to concert stages back when they were just starting out. The recordings were first used back in 1986, when the band put out another “in-between record” called Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, which landed them the deal to record the aforementioned debut.
Of the four songs that make up the first half of the record, only two are originals: “Mama Kin” is by Aerosmith, and “Nice Boys” comes from the Aussies in Rose Tattoo.
The beastly “live” first half is interrupted by the gentle ballad “Patience”, written entirely by guitarist Izzy Stradlin. Through it, Izzy tells us that you need a bit of patience in life, because otherwise it just doesn’t work. The band’s acoustic turn gets a playful boost from “Used To Love Her”. Many people think the song is about one of the band’s ex-girlfriends, but it’s actually a kind of farewell to Axl’s dog. On the way to the top of the record we also run into “You’re Crazy”, this time recorded in an acoustic version and marking a goodbye to the party-hard themes that shaped the debut album. The high point of the acoustic half is definitely “One In A Million”, which outlasts all its predecessors. At just over six minutes, it was seen at the time of its release as Axl’s racist outburst, in which he hurls a string of insults at nearly every kind of American living on the margins of society, the ones who helped shape the concrete jungle of the wild eighties. Although the lyrics make it clear that racists and radicals should leave him alone because all he wants is to live his own life, the song became the target of misreadings and kicked up a lot of dust when it came out. Axl rejected the outrage and accusations more than once, since the song was based on real experiences he’d had in the past. In the lyrics, Axl is simply describing how he watched street hustlers (many of them immigrants) at the Greyhound bus station in Los Angeles, fleecing unsuspecting city folk.
Even though most of the album consists of previously released and previously unused songs, it holds an important place in the band’s catalog. With this new material, the band proved they were more than just one of the many acts hanging around the Los Angeles Sunset Strip. The album itself is very good, but unfortunately it can’t compare to Appetite For Destruction, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. I’d recommend it to any fan of the band, since it has quite a few gems, but if you’re only just discovering Guns N’ Roses, start with one of those three instead.
Lineup
- W. Axl Rose − vocals, piano on “One in a Million”
- Slash − lead guitar, lead acoustic guitar on tracks 5-8
- Izzy Stradlin − rhythm guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar on tracks 5-8, backing vocals
- Duff McKagan − bass, acoustic rhythm guitar on “Patience” and “One in a Million”, backing vocals
- Steven Adler − drums, backing vocals on “Patience”
Guest musicians
- West Arkeen, Howard Teman, Rik Richards & Ray Grden
Production
Guns N’ Roses, Mike Clink
Track list
- “Reckless Life” (Hollywood Rose cover) 3:20
- “Nice Boys” (Rose Tattoo cover) 3:03
- “Move to the City” 3:42
- “Mama Kin” (Aerosmith cover) 3:57
- “Patience” 5:56
- “Used to Love Her” 3:13
- “You’re Crazy” 4:10
- “One in a Million” 6:10
