Guns N' Roses ‎ Appetite for Destruction Rare 1987 Geffen Records Club Vinyl

$

100

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Appetite for Destruction Studio album by  Guns N' Roses Released July 21, 1987 Recorded January 18 – June 23, 1987 Studio

• Rumbo (Canoga Park)
• Take One (Burbank)
• Record Plant (Los Angeles)
• Can Am (Los Angeles)

• Hard rock 
• heavy metal 
• glam metal

1. "It's So Easy" / "Mr. Brownstone"
   Released: June 8, 1987
2. "Welcome to the Jungle"
   Released: September 21, 1987
3. "Sweet Child o' Mine"
   Released: June 3, 1988
4. "Paradise City"
   Released: January 1989
5. "Nightrain"
   Released: July 1989

Appetite for Destruction is the debut studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on July 21, 1987, by Geffen Records. The album was recorded from January 18 to June 23 in 1987, and was produced by Mike Clink. Most of the album's themes reflect the band's personal experiences and daily life, including their youth. The cover of the album depicts a Celtic cross and skulls representing each of the five band members: Izzy Stradlin as the top skull, Steven Adler as the left skull, Axl Rose as the center skull, Duff McKagan as the right skull, and Slash as the bottom skull.

Appetite for Destruction initially received little mainstream attention, and it was not until the following year that the album became a commercial success, after the band had toured and received significant airplay with the singles "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child o' Mine". The album went on to reach number one on the US Billboard 200 and spend four non-consecutive weeks there. It became certified 18× platinum, making it among the top 10 best-selling albums in the United States, as well as the best-selling debut album in the country.

In total, five singles were released from Appetite for Destruction: "It's So Easy" with "Mr. Brownstone", "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Paradise City", and "Nightrain". "Sweet Child o' Mine" would reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" would also reach the top 10 on the Hot 100.

Although critics were originally ambivalent toward the album, Appetite for Destruction has received retrospective acclaim and appears on lists as one of the best hard rock albums of the 1980s. With over 30 million copies sold, it is one of the best-selling albums worldwide. In 2018, it was re-released as a remastered box set to similar universal acclaim, hitting the top 10 of the Billboard 200 once again, over 30 years after the original album was released.

Background

Guns N' Roses' first recordings were for a planned EP in March 1985, shortly after the band formed, with "Don't Cry", a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel", "Think About You" and "Anything Goes". However, plans for the release fell through, as original guitarist Tracii Guns left the band, being replaced by Slash. Shortly afterward, the classic lineup of Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, Steven Adler, and Izzy Stradlin was finalized.

After heavy touring of the Los Angeles club scene, the group signed with Geffen Records in March 1986. In December of that year, the group released the four-song EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, which was designed to keep interest in the band alive while the group withdrew from the club scene to work in the studio. The EP release was also designed to soothe the label, which believed the band did not have enough songs to record a full-length album.

Reception and legacy

The album was not well received by contemporary American critics, many of whom complained that its massive success with consumers was fostered by the taboo of "sex, drugs and rock & roll" during the 1980s, when much of the cultural atmosphere in the US became informed by the Reagan-Bush Administration, the AIDS crisis, and the popularity of MTV. Writing in 1987, Dave Ling of Metal Hammer dismissed the album as an inferior mix of elements from bands such as Aerosmith, Hanoi Rocks, and AC/DC. Critics in the UK were more positive, and Kerrang! claimed that "rock is at last being wrestled from the hands of the bland, the weak, the jaded, the tired, the worn, and being thrust back into the hands of the real raunch rebels." However, the album was voted the 26th best album of the year in The Village Voice's 1988 Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide. Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, was qualified in his praise when reviewing the album for his 1990 book Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. While applauding Rose's "effortless, convincing vocal abilities" as "undeniable and [setting] him apart from his contemporaries", the journalist found his performance undermined by questionable lyrics that reveal darker ideas: "He doesn't love 'Night Train', he loves alcoholism. And once that sweet child o' his proves her devotion by sucking his cock for the portacam, the evil slut is ready for 'See me hit you you fall down.'"

In a retrospective review for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Ann Powers wrote that Guns N' Roses "produced a unique mix of different rock values", such as "speed and musicianship, flash and dirt", on an album that "changed hard rock's sensibilities at the time." Stephen Thomas Erlewine also viewed the album as a "turning point for hard rock" in his review for AllMusic, and felt Rose's singing and songwriting were enhanced by Slash and Stradlin's dual guitar playing, which helped make Appetite for Destruction "the best metal record of the late '80s". According to Jimmy Martin of The Quietus, the album, which he called "the greatest hard rock record of the 80s", has an "unrefined, punk quality" that marked a "shift away" from the hair metal bands commercialized by MTV. Christa Titus of Billboard said Appetite for Destruction was able to appeal to various rock music listeners because, on it, Guns N' Roses incorporated "metal's forceful playing, punk rock's rebellious themes, glam metal's aesthetic, and bluesy guitar riffs that appealed to purists." Russell Hall, the features writer for Gibson's online publication, said the album "injected a much-needed dose of '70s-style rebellion into the frothy pop metal of the '80s", by "combining the swagger of late '60s Stones and vintage Aerosmith with the menace of punk and a trash-glam aesthetic".

Writing for Pitchfork, Maura Johnston called the album "a watershed moment in '80s rock that chronicled every vice of Los Angeles led by the lye-voiced Axl Rose and a legendary, switchblade-sharp band." BBC Music's Dennis O'Dell said the engagingly hedonistic album remains the band's best, as did Ric Albano of Classic Rock magazine: "This band would never again reach this level of importance and breakthrough originality." In a 2000 list, Q named it one of the greatest metal albums ever and hailed it as "a riotous celebration of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll". Chuck Klosterman said the album would be the only pop metal album to make a theoretical list of rock's ten best albums, and Chuck Eddy, who called it "the greatest album ever made about how you can't run away from yourself", named it one of his essential hair metal records in Spin. On the other hand, Sputnikmusic said the album has been somewhat overrated, and most of the songs suffer by comparison to the highlights "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Paradise City", "Mr. Brownstone", and "Rocket Queen". In a retrospective review for the album's 30th Anniversary David Bennun in The Quietus commented on the albums "incipient cruelty and contempt...towards women" while still calling the albums first side "one of the most thrilling rushes rock & roll music has ever delivered"

Track listing

Original release

All tracks are written by Guns N' Roses, except where noted.

• Guns N' Roses 
• West Arkeen

• Guns N' Roses 
• Chris Weber