Very interesting parallel's between Now and 1991 Pt1(NY Times article, Sep 91)

RECORDINGS VIEW; Guns 'n' Roses Against the (Expletive) World

By JON PARELES
Published: September 15, 1991
A family of screeches lives in Axl Rose's throat. One sounds like a chainsaw hitting a railroad spike; another slides and catches like a car alarm on a deserted street; another yowls like a tomcat locked out of a fish store. There's a ratchety quaver, a narrow-eyed low growl, a strangled shriek, a decadent cackle. His voice, the voice of Guns 'n' Roses, is never pretty or endearing; it's a constant irritant. The band would rather stick in the craw than tickle the ear.

From the beginning, Guns 'n' Roses have been a skillful band with a nasty, often stupid attitude. Their unvarnished spite has paid off handsomely; although Guns 'n' Roses have only released one full-length album until now, they may well be the world's most popular rock band. Violent incidents, confessions of drug use and vicious song lyrics have only convinced fans that Guns 'n' Roses are true rock-and-roll rebels.

The way their songs tell it, it's Guns 'n' Roses against the world on "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" (Geffen GEFD 24415 and 24420; all three formats), separate albums the band is releasing simultaneously. Mr. Rose, the group's main lyricist, has acted as a generation's voice of male resentment; his howl speaks for millions of listeners' free-floating anger. The band's first album, "Appetite for Destruction," has sold 14 million copies since its release in 1987; a stopgap EP released in 1988, "G 'n' R Lies," sold six million copies.

Over the last three years, Guns 'n' Roses have toured, appeared constantly on MTV and got themselves in well-publicized troubles. By barely managing to avoid self-destruction, they have become legendary -- the band that defied every sober platitude of the 1980's, though they cleaned up slightly for the 1990's.

Mr. Rose tries to be more mature on the new albums. "These last four years of madness sure put me straight," he sings in "14 Years." But he still does his old job with glee. As the guitarists Izzy Stradlin and Slash knock out hard-rock riffs, Mr. Rose snarls the obvious expletives or lines like "Stay away from the bad side of me," "I got no more patience" and, over the sound of a cheering audience, "I'd like to crush your head tight in my vice" (sic). Sometimes he's defensive, sometimes he's self-righteous. Either way, he turns confusion into confrontation. Finishing off the second album, a half-serious rap called "My World" describes his world as "a sociopsychotic state of bliss."

Guns 'n' Roses have nursed a lot of grudges since 1987, and they vent them all in the two-and-a-half hours of music that pack the two new albums. They lash out at the press, the neighbors, governments and, in song after song, rapacious women. Yet "Use Your Illusion" I and II do more than shake a fist at the world. The music is brash and confident, but the lyrics aren't always so sure of themselves; they register doubt and admit to mistakes, veering from accusation to confession to self-pity to bluster. Often, they suggest an honest struggle to understand the "four years of madness," even if the conclusion is that the band has been persecuted.

Reality is a little different. MTV, radio stations, Geffen Records, the makers of "Terminator 2," arenas around the world and virtually every place that sells recordings are eagerly coddling the band. That doesn't prevent Guns 'n' Roses from feeling confused, abused, defensive and defiant.

There's a fine line between rebelliousness and self-indulgence. During the band's current tour, which resumes in mid-October, Mr. Rose has started shows two hours late, ranted on stage about his perceived enemies, inadvertently sparked a riot in St. Louis by cutting a show short, and intimidated the Los Angeles Police Department out of giving his chauffeur a traffic ticket by threatening to cancel a concert.

For all their supposed iconoclasm, Guns 'n' Roses have played along with MTV, lately with a live performance and a contest giving away Mr. Rose's former apartment. And for a band professing "we built a world out of anarchy," it is virtually paranoid about controlling its image. One reason Mr. Rose stopped the St. Louis concert was that he spotted an unauthorized camera in the audience. And early this year the band demanded that interviewers sign a contract that gave them copyright ownership and approval of whatever was published. (The contract was withdrawn after embarrassing publicity.)

Still, Guns 'n' Roses haven't followed show-business schedules. By releasing the new albums three months after they were originally planned, they derailed the promotional juggernaut that was supposed to link a summer tour and "You Could Be Mine," the single heard briefly in "Terminator 2" that has already sold 800,000 copies.

Not that the delay is likely to hurt album sales. By Tuesday, the release date for "Use Your Illusion," Geffen will have distributed a remarkable two million copies of each album to retailers. A slumping music business is counting on "Use Your Illusion" I and II to draw people back into stores.

"Appetite for Destruction" was made by a virtually unknown band. It linked crunching Led Zeppelin-like riffs to a brutal vision of street life. The songs were harsh, jaded and death-haunted; in them, drugs ("Mr. Brownstone") and sex ("Anything Goes") offered temporary thrills, but any long-term prospects were summed up in "Welcome to the Jungle": "Watch it bring you to your knees." The singer clung to his own self-respect ("I'm innocent/ They won't break me") while respecting no one else -- the epitome of Reagan-era individualism, plus a personal streak of misogyny.

With "One in a Million" on "G 'n' R Lies," the band tailored its image to appeal to white, heterosexual, nativist prejudices, denouncing blacks, immigrants and gays while coyly apologizing "to those who may take offense" in the album notes. Criticism only made the band dig in its heels. In the new "Don't Damn Me," Mr. Rose spits out his rejoinder: "I said what I meant and I never pretended" and "My words may disturb but at least there's a reaction." Apparently he still thinks sincerity excuses anything, except a sincere disagreement with him.