Counter Opinion: Guns N’ Roses is NOT a One-Album Band

The revisionist assertion that Guns N’ Roses were “a one album band” has become popular in the two-decades-plus since the group’s classic line-up dissolved. I could write a whole article as to why I think this has occurred, but I’m not going to, for this pair of reasons: 1) I suspect that the classic line-up’s current semi-reunion will lead to a revision of this revision (especially since it seems that the reunion is actually not a trainwreck), and 2) it’s total bullshit.

So let’s simply stick to this second point and explore why this assertion is so untrue.

Of course taste is wholly subjective – so by what metric can we ‘prove’ that GN’R’s post-Appetite for Destruction catalog has merit?

Shall we measure their success by sales? Commercial popularity isn’t always an indication of artistic accomplishment, but it does say something about our culture — and our culture really likes this band. Assuming we define “Guns N’ Roses” as the pre-Chinese Democracy line-up (which logic dictates we ought to – and I say that as someone who sincerely likes Chinese Democracy), then the three releases of original material which succeeded Appetite — the 1988 EP GN’R Lies and 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II — have sold a combined 40 million copies (that we know of – Lies came out before the Soundscan era, when the tracking of album sales was a far less precise science). Toss in “The Spaghetti Incident?”, a covers collection that even most of the band’s fans consider lackluster, and that number goes up to about 45 million records sold. And while it may be tempting to note that Appetite has sold about 30 million units to date on its own and use that fact as “proof” of its superiority, the Illusions collection has sold a combined 35 million copies; if you consider them one album*, in other words, they’re as popular as Appetite.

Shall we measure their success by chart positions? Fine: in addition to the inarguably classic “Patience” getting to #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list, eleven – ELEVEN!!! — of the twenty-nine songs on the Illusion records** were chart-topping radio hits that even your grandma would recognize. That’s a whole album unto itself of songs that made a serious impact on popular culture.

Shall we measure their success by their longevity? Okay: not many bands can return from a twenty-something-year absence and just start headlining stadiums – not sheds, not arenas, stadiums. Nostalgia gets Poison a not-sold-out show at a 15,000 capacity amphitheater; this summer, GN’R will fill venues five times as large at prices four times as high. And the literally millions of people who will pay out literally millions of dollars to see the band together again isn’t coming to hear “Paradise City” and then head home. Fuck, listen to the crowd at the band’s recent Vegas performance sing along with “Coma,” a ten-minute Use Your Illusion epic that has rarely ever been played live and was never a single:

That is not casual affection, and that is not a small group of people singing along. Most of these people will continue to listen to, and love, “Coma” until they themselves are in a coma, and maybe even after that. That’s devotion.

How about we measure the success in creative terms? Even the most staunch defender of GN’R (e.g., me) will admit that the Illusions albums are bloated… but in the scheme of things, that’s not the world’s worst issue. A lot of people (Slash included) want(ed) Guns N’ Roses to be another AC/DC or Aerosmith – a kick-ass arena rock band that never ever does anything even mildly interesting anymore. Axl Rose’s vision for the band was considerably more grandiose; his favorite artists were Queen and Elton John, both of whom are/were known for the diversity and scope of their sound. Part of what makes the Illusions records so much fun, then, is the very fact that they aren’t just Appetite for Destruction 2: Still Hungry. In addition to the snotty rock on which GN’R made their name (“You Could Be Mine,” “Garden of Eden,” “Dead Horse,” etc.), the Use Your Illusion albums feature songs that are in the style of southern rock (“Bad Obsession”), funk rock (“Bad Apples”), smelly hippy campfire sing-alongs (“You Ain’t the First”), Rolling Stones worship (“Dust N’ Bones” and “14 Years,” both featuring lead vocals by Izzy Stradlin), soft rock (“Yesterdays”), legit, not-just-in-name only metal (“Right Next Door to Hell,” “Perfect Crime,” “Back Off Bitch,” “Don’t Damn Me”), industrial (“My World”), a sexy, boozy, probably misguided ode to male lust (“So Fine”), some weird hybrids that I’m still not sure quite how to categorize (“The Garden,” “Get in the Ring”), two sterling examples of how to successfully cover someone else’s song (“Live and Let Die” and “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”), two of the best power ballads ever composed (“Don’t Cry” and “November Rain”), and three of the most emotionally sushi-raw songs about the dissolution of a romantic relationship ever composed (“Estranged,” “Breakdown,” and “Locomotive”). So maybe the Use Your Illusion albums swing for the fences and don’t quite get there – how many other bands even have the balls to try something so ambitious? Why would you ever chastise an artist who shoots for the stars?

Look: I get how bizarre it seems that people are SO into the GN’R reunion despite the fact that this band only really existed for seven years. But that’s the thing about Guns N’ Roses: they’re bizarre! They’re unique. They are, like it or not, a phenomenon. Did they attain that status with a relatively small body of work? Yes. Was that body of work mostly junk? In the words of the man himself: back off, bitch.

*Which you should. The band, and not their label, decided to do it as two releases instead of a double album. Why? They advised fans to team up with a friend to save money: each would buy one of the two volumes, record it for the other, and swap. I’m sure the label was thrilled.

**Thirty if you count the two versions of “Don’t Cry” as different songs despite the fact that they’re identical save for the verses’ vocal melody and lyrics.