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26 February 2006

Warning: easily offended read no further. (and this is not a joke post either), but a post about probably the most controversial song of the late 1980's→[More:]

This song was very popular among my high school social circle, and I'll stipulate that there are lyrics in it that are racist , xenophobic, and homophobic. I also think the song was misinterpreted and also musically excellent. It's been removed from all copies of the album it's on, but I think that's a shame since it's an excellent portrait of urban paranoia and the mind of a Travis Bickle in the making, which I think gives it some artistic value. And it's as much about self-loathing as anything else.

Guns & Roses - One In A Million

(Caveat: I am expressly not endorsing the veiws expressed in these songs although I do... get where they come from, and do think that anyone of any race or orientation who says that they never feel these sentiments is lying. But I'm not trolling either. I actually think these songs are fascinating documents of a fucked up mind and worldview, and the way Axl wound up sorta bears that out. I'm interested in what you think)

post by: jonmc at: 15:59 | 24 comments

Dude - this song rocks. never mind the lyrical content. I'm down with GNR for making all those other shitty hairmetal fuckers look so stupid back in the day.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 26 February | 16:03

It was removed from the album? I never knew that... that's just wrong.

I've always liked the song, too, despite the offensiveness- Axl Rose was always a disturbed individual, so I think you're right on with the Travis Bickle mindset comment.

posted by BoringPostcards 26 February | 16:08

and in my high school crowd there were plenty of Axl/Travis's in training if you know what I mean. These songs are important documents in the same way that NWA's best stuff is.

posted by jonmc 26 February | 16:11

As a bonus, here's Night Train (from G&R as well), one of the few truly nihilistic rock songs ever. People always say that Nirvana killed hair metal, but if you ask me G&R smacked it down first (if only by explicating the ugliness behind the glittery facade), then Metallica beat it unconcious (by singing metal from the point of view of the street kids who listened to it), only then did Nirvana finally stick the final knife in. IMHO, of course.

posted by jonmc 26 February | 16:22

I agree with your point about G&R, but I'm not sure that Metallica had much to do with the demise of hair metal. But yeah, G&R were quite something when they came on the scene, and the music still fucking rocks.

posted by nomis 26 February | 16:44

I'm not sure that Metallica had much to do with the demise of hair metal.

Dude, they returned metal to it's Sabbath/Zep/Blue Cheer roots; as Hetfield put it 'ugly guys singing ugly stuff to ugly music.'

posted by jonmc 26 February | 16:46

Yeah, but I always thought of Metallica as being at one remove from hair metal, whereas G&R were unashamedly big haired, made-up poseurs who sang violent, vicious, nihilistic songs. Bringing hair metal down from within, if you like.

posted by nomis 26 February | 16:52

Metallica should have been lined up and shot after the black album so we wouldn't have had the last few albums of crap. Although these days I can't stand anything of theirs after they went from metal to hard rock.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 26 February | 16:53

Oh, and nice quote from Hetfield. Lest we forget, they weren't pop till the black album.

posted by nomis 26 February | 16:54

Nice one weretable. Great minds etc.

posted by nomis 26 February | 16:54

Metallica should have been lined up and shot after the black album so we wouldn't have had the last few albums of crap.

Agreed. But Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets and ...And Justice For All can stand with just about any albums you could name as classics, and they were much needed when they arrived.

posted by jonmc 26 February | 16:55

GnR always fascinated me in that they were somehow deemed OK for alterna-kids to like. There were certain albums back in my high school that EVERYONE owned, regardless of clique. Appetite For Destruction was one of them. (Others were Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and U2's Joshua Tree.)

posted by jrossi4r 26 February | 17:49

I didn't like Nirvana for a long time because they and the other grunge bands took over alternative radio completely, for years! Everybody and their brother were fans, even if they'd been listening to Debbie Gibson just the year before. It was horrible. I finally started appreciating them a few years ago.

posted by halonine 26 February | 18:26

My favorite band from back in the day was LT and the Woolsucking Whufflefuckers, because they rocked, but not enough or angry enough for you to say, put down your glass of Chardonnay at the party. They were one toke over the line, though, definitely.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 26 February | 19:00

jrossi4r -- that was the exact same thing at my high school! (In junior high, Cheap Trick and the Cars played that same quasi-unifying role as bands/records that everyone liked, regardless of clique.)

I always found GnR (and Axl in particular) strangely fascinating, too, despite all the ways in which I felt I "should" have been repelled -- the Travis Bickle comparison is really apt, methinks. (And I have to cop to loving the guitar solo on "Sweet Child O' Mine," even after all these years.)

posted by scody 26 February | 19:07

Oh, and the one other record that everyone liked regardless of clique was De La Soul's "Three Feet High and Rising." Jenifa, oh Jenny!

posted by scody 26 February | 19:08

G&R didn't just kill hairbands (so to speak), they killed the 80s. Then they killed themselves in the 90s to make way for Nirvana. Heh.

posted by WolfDaddy 26 February | 19:09

Well, I think that part of G&R's is importance was that Axl was a bonified badass, who had more in common with Darby Crash and Mike Muir than Bret Micheals and Vince Neil. Thus he was much more like the actual metal audience. And once Metallica came along,...hey those four could've been the kids they were singing to. And almost all the punks I know give props to Metallica, Anthrax, Venom, Exodus at al for playing sleazy clubs and firmly doing their own thing.

Plus G&R's music was simply better. They took what hair metal pretended to be and made it real. 'My Michelle,' 'Night Train,' It's So Easy,' and "Paradise City," are all perfect examples of this.

I remember being into both Metal and Punk in the late 80's and early 90's and being so glad when the grunge crew made the link explicit. especially since bands like Primus, Suicidal Tendencies, Ministry, Cro-Mags, Jane's Addiction, The Descendents and The Ramones had been popular with both sets for so long.

posted by jonmc 26 February | 19:24

I love Jane's Addiction. Nothing's Shocking is one of my favorite albums.

posted by halonine 26 February | 21:25

Is this something I'd need to be over 30 to apreciate?

posted by delmoi 26 February | 21:26

"There were certain albums back in my high school that EVERYONE owned, regardless of clique. Appetite For Destruction was one of them. (Others were Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and U2's Joshua Tree.)"

A few years earlier it would've included Thriller, The Unforgettable Fire, the soundtrack to Purple Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Born in the U.S.A..

posted by mr_crash_davis 26 February | 21:33

Thriller and Purple Rain were definitely the jr. high unifiers, crash. (My school wasn't as cool as Scody's.)

And Nothing's Shocking is one of my faves too, halonine.

posted by jrossi4r 26 February | 21:52

Guns and Roses wore out their welcome real fast on my stereo. The first listen or two they were sort of cool, but by the fourth or fifth spin it seemed a little silly. Now they're a band that can make me genuinely laugh, whether it be a song on the radio, a video, or an interview with any member (other than Duff McKagen - who seemed to be less lunk-heady than the others). I did manage to like Izzy Stradlin's first solo album and most of the second. His apporach to solo records reminded me of Keith Richards at times. And Gilby Clarke's record had it's moments. I was in my third year of college when Appetite came out, and I feel like I was just two or three years too old to embrace the GnR schtick.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 26 February | 21:57

It's been removed from all copies of the album it's on
That must have been a neat trick - how did they even know where all the copies were?

posted by dg 26 February | 22:51

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