Day 0600 - Appetite For Destruction

Guns n Roses "Appetite For Destruction" (1987)

 
Gunners, formed from members of two bands: LA Guns and Hollywood Rose... should be pretty obvious from that where their new band got its name.   After a few disagreements and members quitting, guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler were brought into the fold and... well I'd say the rest was history, but the band line-up continued to be in flux long after this.

The 'classic' GnR lineup set about recording their debut album.  They had an abundance of material, and several songs (including "Don't Cry", "November Rain" and "You Could Be Mine") were held over until the "Use Your Illusion" album.

The album doesn't suffer from the omissions, it's a stonking classic of a rock album.  From opener "Welcome to the Jungle", the blues rock vibe of "Nightrain" to the MTV favourite, rock ballad "Sweet Child o' Mine", the album is a lean, mean rock monster.  I'm not even a huge GnR fan, but I enjoyed every song.

I'm not sure if this is true or 'Axl legend' but I read that the band finished the music quite quickly, but Axl insisted on recording his vocals one line at a time to make sure and get everything right.  I'll bet he had a glass of brown M&Ms on standby too.

The original cover (top) featuring some kind of robot john and a prostitute or something was deemed to be 'a bit much' and was replaced with the better known alternative above.

Day 0445 - Entertainment

Gang of Four "Entertainment!" (1979)

 
A band from (my one-time home) Leeds named after a group of Chinese Communist Party officials... hinting at the band's left-wing sympathies.

Another one of those bands that mixes the attitude and melodic minimalism of punk with a bit of white-boy funk (though here the funk element seems to have been ramped up considerably). Another of those bands that most likely stylistically inspired some of the early 00 indie rock bands like Bloc Party or Gossip.

Listening to the angular funk sounds here, I wouldn't be surprised if the Gang were listened to by Les Claypool or his band Primus.  They were certainly an influence on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who drafted the Gang's guitarist Andy Gill to produce their first (self titled) album on the basis of the "Entertainment!" album.

Day 0439 - London Calling

The Clash "London Calling" (1979) - got it

From a ho-hum punk album on day 438 to one of the greats.  To be fair, the Clash were barely 'punk' by this stage.  The attitude remained, and some of the more direct, raw 'rock' tracks still reflect that side of their sound, but the band were pulling influences from all corners: rockabilly, northern soul, post-punk, ska, reggae... even hints of new-wave.

 With a run of 19 tracks, I do tend to get a feeling of 'track fatigue' with it.  Most of these tracks are good and I can pick out pretty much any one track and enjoy it, but it just seems as though 65 uninterrupted minutes of Clash is probably slightly too much in one sitting for me.