Heavy Metal Book Report!

It's 1987 and I'm about nine and I'm blastin' the new Guns N' Roses album-Appetite for Destruction-in my shitty little Walkman. I can't remember how I paid for it, but something tells me it was a stealth commando run across town, on my bike, to Coconuts Music with a bunch of stuffed singles in my sock. And I know it wasn't one of my usual cassette lifts from KMART cause they were refusing to carry it due to their allegiance to that twat,Tipper Gore.

So in no

thanks to the above mentioned, my own mother(mind you, a child of the 60's and a musician herself), got in on the action of censoring everything in my life at this time. Hence, the commando sty

le of living I had to endure to protect my young, juvenile treasure of Heavy Metal, illegal fireworks, porn and just about anything else a nine year old should not have in his grasp.

So there I am completely s

ubmersed in this raw, hard-groovin', foul mouthed masterpiece and I just can not get enough. Now at this time as well, I'm still on an adrenaline rush from the recent, Master of Puppets by Metallica, no

t to mention, a slew of other bands that are blowing my mind at this time. It was treasure to me and it was all mine! This though...this was different. This was dangerous and everyone k

new it.

I had never heard such an onslaught of the word "Fuck". Granted, I had heard it a million times from my parents, friends, television, and even my grandparents from time to

time but not like this. The emphasis on the word that Axl W. Rose put on it brought it to a whole new level. It was vile, angry, purely venomous and absolutely non-apologetic. I loved it! Specia

lly songs like "Night train", "So easy" and the ever so cutthroat "Out to get me". The latter of the three I could relate to and in many ways would become my inner anthem for the next several years to come.

Ok, so now on

to this...

"Watch You Bleed: The saga of Guns N' Roses" - by Stephen Davis is a book I picked up not long ago that I ended up reading really, really quick. Now normally I'm not one to do a book report but I figured I would just give a little something on it more so because of how much i am a fan of this music, this era and of course Guns N' Roses.

This Stephen Davis guy I don't think is that great. He supposedly is some great rock-journalist-god that's been around forever, according to little snippets across the board about him, but I really don't think so. The book is well paced and moves in chronological order but on a very mechanical level. In fact, ( as many other's who have read the book before me put it) it is almost word for word from the Behind the Music that was done on Guns N' Roses. More over, this, if anything, would be a complete extension of just that.

The book is pretty much 3rd party accounts that most the time remain anonymous and vague. Though, there is a good amount of depth that is covered in the bands own individualism; one can't help but wonder what is real and what is hype. I purely state this due to the fact that, this particular book seems to be something the record label may have spewed out with great haste, and for whatever reason is unknown.

Again, the author seems to be re-telling a story he had no interest in, in the first place. He does his best to come off sympathetic in telling a story he has (supposedly) vested in but fails miserably when he boasts his use of such words as "ubiquitous", "serendipitous" and the uber favorite, "trepidation". C'mon, asshole! This is a book about probably the worlds - last greatest arena rock band - and he incases their experiences using words that belong in some Woody Allen movie - and that's stretching it.

Now there is a somewhat nicely painted back-drop to the world of Guns N' Roses. The humble beginings of Axl and Izzy to the young friendship of Slash and Steven Adler. The trial and error of making it in a band in Hollywood, to the addition of Duff and from there, their short comings and self destructive behaviour that almost ended Guns N' Roses before it even started.

There are many accounts and quotes from anonymous contributors who give insight into the chaos that ensued with Road Mangers, Girlfriends, Junkies, Crew, Record Executives and others fortunate or unfortunate to be in the shit storm that made Guns N' Roses. A cycle of continuous chaos that seemed to only grow larger as the bands success and subsequently, egos as well.

I don't want to go to much further for fear I may start to deter anyone from reading it as well as, I care not to spoil it. It is a good book to read on the go if this is something of interest but of course take it with a grain of salt. It is, as I said before very well pasted together from numerous other publications and accounts over the years but that's about it. I think even now, you can find the book used for around 7 bucks.

Oh, and one last thing. When my mother discovered my hidden Appetite for Destruction album, she scoffed in disgust at the jackets inner image and of course lyrical content. I thought for sure i would never see it again. Instead, she took me over to the record store and bought me Beethoven's 5th(I think). She told me that for every hour I listen to Guns N' Roses, or Heavy Metal for that matter, I had to listen to an hour of Beethoven. It was a fair trade and a good one at that. Little did she know though that Beethoven would slowly be the precursor into my indulgence a few years later into Blackmetal.

Thanks mom!