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DISCOVERING GUNS N' ROSES
The beginning of the story:
In 1991-1992, When Guns N' Roses were very popular, i was only 12 or
13 years old and unfortunately i was not interested by music! But now the
situation is very different!
HOW DID I DISCOVER THE GUNS N' ROSES MUSIC? First, i remember that during an
English class in 1996, the teacher asked this question: "According to you, what
is the best song ever?" A lot of songs and of artists were mentioned: Beatles,
Led Zeppelin, The Doors (you know, it was my favorite band before and i still
like this band), Etc.... But one guy said that the best song was "NOVEMBER RAIN"
of Guns N' Roses. It kinda surprised me a little because it was not very old and
I remembered that it was a very popular song a couple of years before. It's
nothing important but i still remember it so i guess that was the real beginning
of the story as far as I am concerned!
A couple of days later, i heard a song on the Radio. On that song there was a
guitar solo that was so good! Then, at the end of that song (when slash is
playing fast and axl is saying "Don't you know that you need somebody, everybody
need somebody, you're not the only one...") i said: "Hey, this November Rain, i
remember this song! This is so good!". Then, during the same weekend, i saw the
video of that song of TV (I was lucky because they never play GN'R on TV!). And
i fell in love with that song! i was running all over the house to find a tape
to record it, so i had the end of the song on the first tape i found.
(unfortunately i erased a great Jimi Hendrix live song at the same time!)
So i went to the record store and i looked for the Guns N' Roses CD with
November rain on it. So I bought "Use Your Illusion 1". I listened to it and i
was not crazy about this album. I found that 'Don't Cry" was great but the rest
of the album was not my kind of music (I have to admit that at first i was
really disappointed of this album!). But i listened to it a couple of times and
i started to like some songs like "The Garden", "Double Talkin Jive", "Back Off
Bitch" and "Dead Horse". And the more i listened to this album, the more i liked
it.
But a couple of weeks later, I turned on the radio, a song was playing and
there was an awesome guitar solo. I said: "Hey, it's similar to Slash's guitar
solos on my Guns N' Roses album". Then when the guitar solo was over it was
"Where do we go, where do we go now". So i knew that it was Guns N' Roses! So i
bought another album: "Appetite For Destruction".
Then i listened to my new album and i discovered a lot of great songs. Sweet
Child O'Mine, of course, but also a long song called "Paradise City" WOW! What a
song! And also "Out Ta Get Me", a song full of energy. And all the album was
great, Nightrain, Rocket Queen, Mr. Brownstone, Welcome to The Jungle, Think
about you, My Michelle, etc... This album is so great! By the way, this album,
released in 1987, became the best debut for a band in music history!!! The best
seller for a first record! More than 21 millions copies of this album have been
sold now! This is an album to have! For some reason it took me a while to get
into the last song (Rocket Queen) but right now it's one of my very favorite
song ever.
So, at that time, GN'R was my favorite band. After "Appetite For
Destruction", i bought "Use Your Illusion 2" without knowing anything from it;
it was just a guess. I put that CD in the CD player but before i looked inside
the little booklet to see how long is each song. I saw: "11- Estranged, 9:22". I
like long songs like November Rain, Coma and Paradise City so i was happy to
find another long song. then i listened to the song #11. OH! WOW! I was so
happy. This song was so great! It was the first time that i heard that song and
it was my favorite song! I loved it immediately. This song is so good! I love
this song so much. This is the best Rock N' Roll song ever in my opinion.
 
And the rest of the album was great too. Civil War, Locomotive (another great
long song), Breakdown (very cool one), Pretty tied Up (great guitar solo!!!),
You could be Mine, Knockin' on Heaven's door (a fantastic cover of Bob Dylan's
song), etc...Only one exception, "My World". I don't like this song, and I'm not
the only one. but it's just a "less than 2 minute" song on a 76 minute album
so...!
This is one thing that i like about the 'Use Your illusion' albums, they are
long, 76 minutes each! You know, it's not easy to find a longer CD!
Then i bought "GN'R Lies". On this album there is a fantastic acoustic song
called "Patience" and this is one of my favorite. I like the 4 acoustic songs
on this albums; "Used to love her" is my second favorite on this album. The "G"
side of the cassette is pretty good too, especially "Mama Kin", an Aerosmith
song (Aerosmith is another band that i really like).
.
The last album i bought is "The Spaghetti Incident". This is a punk cover
album so there is no GN'R songs of it. This is not my favorite album but it's a
good album. The song "Human Being" is my favorite on it. I also like songs like
"Ain't it fun", "Raw Power", "Since i don't have you", "Hair of the dog", etc.
In 1994, Guns N' Roses released their version of the Rolling Stones' Song
"Sympathy for the Devil". I have it too and it's great! Both the original and
the GNR version are masterpieces.
More recently, i bought 2 video tapes: Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion World
tour 1992, live in Tokyo, part 1 & 2. These 2 tapes are ABSOLUTELY
GREAT!!! If you don't have it, go buy it, it's too much good ! On these
tapes there is a 9 minutes 'Double Talkin Jive' and Slash is so awesome on it.
There is also a great interpretation of 'Rocket Queen'. But the best song during
this concert is 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door'. It's about 12 minutes long and It's
.... too good ! The second Slash solo is so beautiful.
Patience, Nightrain, The Slash solo & GodFather Theme (Can you imagine
this: Slash playing the GodFather theme on guitar! awesome!!), and Paradise City
are also among my favorite songs on these tapes.
During April 1998 a very cool friend gave me 3 bootlegs audio tapes: Guns N'
Roses live in Rio, Guns N' Roses Unwanted illusion and Guns N' Roses Unplugged.
And this is 3 great tapes! that was my first contact with bootlegs and i liked
that so much that now i have a big
collection.
Click on this picture of AXL to see the full & always updated description
of my bootlegs (CD's, audio tapes, Videos).
.
On my Guns N' Roses Live In Rio tape i love the Slash solo (very different
from Tokyo solo). The live interpretation of Dead Horse is also great. And
again, Knockin' on Heaven's Door is very good. Double Talkin Jive too, i love
this song. there is a very cool transition from Double talkin' Jive to Welcome
to the Jungle.
Guns N' Roses Unplugged is great! My favorite songs on it are: "Dead
Flowers", "You ain't the first", "Used to love her", "Patience", "It's alright"
and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". This acoustic version of Knockin' on Heaven's
Door is.....EXCELLENT!!! With a great piano solo and a great guitar solo too.
And the crowd sings loud! I love it! Now i have this on CD and the sound quality
is perfect! could not be better!
On Guns N' Roses Unwanted illusions there is a lot of songs that were new for
me. "Crash Diet" is one of them and it's great, i love the last part of that
song. "Sentimental Movie" with Slash and Duff on vocals is also a great song.
The guitar solo and the end of the song are so good. Heartbreak Hotel is
also very good.
Okay i wrote that when i just got the 3 tapes but now i have many many CD's,
video and tapes and if you want to read more about them, check my list. And YES,
i could copy them for you. (I received a couple of e-mails about that!) If you're
interested, e-mail me! I
can sell or do trades.
Also, i recently received another gift: A GN'R live in Paris videotape. The
entire show, this is GREAT!!! Especially the Last song, as usual, "Paradise
City". There is also some other artists on it like Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and
Lenny Kravitz.
Me, I'm a real Guns N' Roses addict! I NEED to listen to them everyday! In
the car, before sleeping, when I get up in the morning, when I cut the grass,
when I go biking, at school, etc... And I'm always ready to listen to my video
tapes of Guns n' Roses.
Oh! I also have another Great CD! The Slash's solo album! This album is
called "It's five o'clock somewhere" and the name of the band is Slash's
Snakepit. (There is a couple of GN'R members in Slash's Snakepit: Slash, of
course! and also Gilby Clarke (rhythm guitars), Matt Sorum (drums) and Dizzy Reed
(keyboards). Duff McKagan, the GN'R bass player, also participated to this album
but didn't play on it). Killer album.
Ok, I received another bootleg recently: Guns N' Roses live in L.A.
(L.A.Forum) 1991. And this one is a long one! 3 tapes, ~ 3½hours! This is
another awesome concert. And it's fun when it's a long concert because they play
songs that they don't play usually. For example, they play Locomotive, You Ain't
The First, Right Next Door to Hell, Perfect Crime, Dust N' Bones, Out Ta Get Me,
My Michelle... I also really really like the last song, Paradise City: It's a
longer version, a little bit different! Double Talkin' Jive is always excellent,
as well as the Slash's guitar solo & GodFather Theme. The sound quality is
good! but Axl's voice is not always perfect. A very cool and long concert!
The same day, I also received a VERY VERY COOL song! It's a studio demo
version of "Don't Damn Me". Very hard to find! IT IS AWESOME. The music is
almost identical as the album version but Axl vocals are different. And at the
end it's really fun what he says: "OOOH OOHhooooh Oohhhhooooohhaaaaaoorrwww!!!
Rock n' roll, everybody (laughing) now, yeah, smoke 'em if you got 'em, yeah,
How are you doin' tonight? Alright!". I love this version of Don't Damn Me. The
sound quality is almost perfect, the only bad thing is that there is a very
little cut during the slow part of the song : (
(~~~July 6th 1998~~~)
Today i bought a new video for my collection!! Making F@ * king Videos, part
I: Don't Cry. Here I have to say that I have seen the MTV video of Don't Cry
only once before today. So at first we can see the entire video with the song.
After that they show how they filmed every scene. It is very very interesting
and also funny. And it's so cool as background sound you have GN'R songs,
including Shadow of Your Love, Heartbreak Hotel, and also a great demo version
of Don't Cry. I realized how much work, time & money was spent for this
video. It's a 60 minute videotape. At the end of the tape there is another video
of Don't Cry with alt. lyrics: But for this second video we only see Guns n'
Roses performing the song (With Shannon Hoon) on the top of a L.A. Building. If
you like Guns N' Roses, i think that you should buy it! I really enjoyed this
video and i will continue to enjoy it a lot of times! And i will buy the 2
others (November Rain and Estranged) very soon!(~~~July 6th 1998~~~)
I just received 2 awesome CD's! They are really really GREAT!!!! On one of
these CD's, there is 9 songs from GN'R live at the Ritz, N.Y. 1989. The sound
quality of these songs is almost PERFECT! As great as the Tokyo videos! And the
GNR performance was great!!! I also have on these CD's a lot of other rare
songs: demos, b-sides, live stuff ... from different bootlegs. Among these
awesome songs, there is a superb Blues Jam and Slash is wonderful on it! And
this beautiful November Rain "Piano only" version is so beautiful! The sound
quality of these CD's is better than everything i have on tapes. I am very happy
to have this unique compilation of 140 minutes!
Look at these 25 songs that i have on these CD's:
CD ONE
Out ta get me
Sweet Child O'Mine
My
Michelle
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Welcome to the
Jungle
Nightrain
Paradise City
Mama Kin
Rocket Queen
Always on
the Run (GN'R & Lenny Kravitz live)
Sentimental Movie
Crash Diet
CD TWO
Shadow of Your Love
Don't Cry (beautiful
demo!)
Heartbreak Hotel
Dust in the wind
November Rain (acoustic
guitar)
Nov. Rain (piano)
Whole Lotta Rosie
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Unplugged
Bohemian Rhapsody (with Elton John; live)
We will rock you
(live)
Salt of the Earth (live; with the Rolling Stones)
The Garden (Early
version (Axl sings Alice Cooper's part)
And the awesome "Blues Jam" (7 minute
long approx.)
It's possible for me to find a guy to make CD copies of this! This is so
good, i can't keep it only for me! Let me know if you're interested!
(~~~September 29th, 1998~~~)
I got a lot of Guns N' Roses stuff lately!! First, i finally found some GNR
t-shirts with the UYI covers on them!! I love them! and i received some great
videos: Chicago 1992, Deer Park 1991, Felt Forum 1989, Making of November Rain,
Melbourne 1988 and Okahoma City 1992!!
My favorite is definitely the Chicago video, let me tell you about this one!!
It was an Awesome concert. I mean more than 3 hours long!! During this show they
played COMA !!! Very rare!!!! This is the best GNR show i saw so far. Axl's
voice was terrific and Slash was unbelievable! Usually he's unbelievable but
that night it was even better!!!! Here's what they played: Nightrain (i loved
it!), Mr. Brownstone, then Axl talked for a while to the crowd about his family
and about what he said in the Rolling Stone magazine... He talks for maybe 6-7
minutes! Then they play Live and Let Die, Attitude, It's so Easy, Wild Horses,
Patience, Double Talkin' Jive motherfucker!, Civil War (after that song Axl talk
about all the "pot smokers rock-n-roll critical judgemental fuckheads" that he's
seeing into the crowd, pretty funny!), Welcome to the Jungle, November Rain, You
Could be Mine, Drum Solo, Guitar solo (very very cool one!!!! Slash used his red
guitar that he used during You Could Be Mine, there is a blues section with
Teddy "Big Bag" "Zig Zag"!) and then the Godfather Theme, Coma, Don't Cry (With
Shannon Hoon), Bad Obsession, Sweet Child O'Mine, Knockin' on Heaven's Door (*),
So Fine, Move to the City, Estranged and Paradise city (unfortunately this song
is cut! Impossible to find the complete song!!)
I put a (*) next to Knockin' on Heaven's Door because it's the best version i
have ever heard!!! It's very very long, 15 minutes approx. And the second guitar
solo is my FAVORITE guitar solo! The best ever!!!! Over 3 minutes long, it's so
wonderful!!!
And the cool thing about this video, is the awesome quality!!!! The image is
excellent and the sound quality is almost Perfect!!!!! I was very surprised to
see the excellent quality of this video!!
My others videos, i received them in the last days, and i haven't watched all
of them yet! But i did watch Deer Creek 1991, with Izzy, and it's also very very
good! The quality is not as great as the Chicago video but it's great. GNR
played songs like Perfect Crime, Right Next door to hell, 14 years and dust n'
bones on this video!! (~~~ Decemeber 7th 1998, 9:50am~~~)
Ok the stuff i wrote on this page is not really up to date, since then i got
many many new CD's, videos, shirts, posters, autographed stuff.... I even
received an autographed picture from Slash himself dedicated to me! you can
learn more about the new bootlegs on my bootleg list, because i update that list
often and this page well,... not really often! (~~~July 21st 1999~~~)
Yes, this page is definitely ridiculously not up to date at all but oh well,
at least it's funny! (~~~December 27th 2000)
Did you sign the Guestbook? You can do it, the guestbook is on my HOME PAGE
e-mail me at: rats_and_guns_n_roses@yahoo.com
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