Classics: Appetite for Destruction

The American Championship Band Belt thing has me going back and listening to the music that the author said was the greatest for every era.  Going back to Appetite for Destruction makes me realize just how awesome it is, so I felt like I needed to talk it out.

When I was growing up, I was not comfortable with hard rock or metal.  I was not supposed to listen to things like that (although I don't recall anyone expressly telling me that message, I just knew it was the truth).  And Guns n' Roses and Metallica held a special place of terror for me.  One of my childhood best friends, Cary, had an older brother named Kyle.  I thought Kyle was crazy.  He drove this beat up little car that he had painted with Scooby Doo and other strange things, he drank Mountain Dew all the time, and I remember him listening to Appetite for Destruction (loud) in his car.  All of this may be mis-remembered, but I have a very clear recollection of him blasting Appetite out of that little white car in the street in front of their house in the Woodlands.  In my mind, he did not give a damn.

I knew Paradise City from the radio, and that seemed safe-ish and innocuous enough.  I mean, if you don't like that song, then you probably just don't like rock and roll.  But Welcome to the Jungle and Nighttrain sounded like the music of the devil to me.  He screams that you're gonna diiiiiiieiieiiiiieee! in Welcome to the Jungle.  Come on!  Not cool, man!  I never listened to that album and was not about to like that kind of music, ever.

Fast forward to 1991, and Terminator 2 came out with You Could be Mine fired out as the lead song/advertisement for the movie.  I freaking LOVED that song.  When the two boys ride that dirt bike to the mall, blasting it on their jambox, I thought that stuff was the coolest you could possibly be.

I remember waiting by the TV for this video to come on so that I could try to tape a copy of this song so that I could listen to it to my heart's content.  Finally, my sister took me to the mall and I bought Use Your Illusion I and II.  That's right kids, you used to be able to buy music on pieces of plastic at a place called a mall.  It felt like just about the wildest thing I could do.  Right up there with freebasing cocaine or murder.  Buying that CD was so rock and roll.  Although I needed her there just in case they hassled me about the whole Parental Advisory thing.  That is rock and roll for sure.

I jammed those discs for years before getting to college and stepping back to check out Appetite for Destruction.  I can't remember what made me do it, but I can recall the realization of just how absolutely bad ass and cool that whole album made me feel.  Paradise City and Welcome to the Jungle are the best known songs off of there, and for good reason.  They are tight, aggressive, soaring rock and roll anthems that still sound fantastic cranked up right now.  Sweet Child o' Mine is not only an amazing song in its own right, but in the many years since I first heard this album, it has become one of my go to lullabies for my kids.

I leave out most of the "Where do we go now"s and woaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaaoaoaoahs, but otherwise, it is a fantastic song to love on your kid with at the end of a long day.  "She's got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain, I'd hate to look into those eyes, and see an ounce of pain.  Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I'd hide, and pray for the thunder and the rain, to quietly pass me by.  Woaaaoh sweet child of mine, woaaaahoooaoahhaoh sweet love of mine."  I mean, come on.  Among the other songs on this album about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, that is pretty damn sweet to sing to your sleepy little kid.

The rest of the album didn't make the charts (that I recall), but it is swaggering and aggressive rock and American roll.  My Michelle, It's So Easy, You're Crazy, Out ta Get Me.  All of it is great music for unleashing that slice of you that needs to be awesome.  Go back up there and play Paradise City, at high volume, and see if you don't feel some of that when they kick in the reckless, swarming jam at the end.  See?  You deserve to mosh with yourself sometimes.  You're welcome.