Thursday, October 21, 2010

A MAN THAT MADE WEARING A BANDANA AND SPANDEX BIKER SHORTS IN PUBLIC CREDIBLE BY SHEER FORCE OF PERSONALITY:   Steve Hyden waxes klostermaniacally about Axl Rose, the excesses of Use Your Illusion, and Kurt Cobain in an essay worth your time today. Excerpt below the fold:


The dual release of the Use Your Illusion albums was an act of hubris so brazen in its arrogance and yet strangely admirable in its artistic stubbornness that nobody had been fucking crazy enough to try anything like it before, or attempt to copy it in the nearly two decades since. (Yes, there was Bruce Springsteen’s little-loved Human Touch/Lucky Town experiment the following year, and Nelly’s Sweat/Suit dual-release in 2004, but at least those weren’t double albums.) We can debate about the greatness and importance of Nevermind—I’d rather we didn’t, but go ahead if you want—but there’s no arguing against the Use Your Illusion saga being a unique and historical event in rock history; in terms of excess, it planted a flag at the end of the world.

Grandiose piano-based balladry, queasily personal prog-punk epics, STD-ridden blues laments, “joke” songs about bitches lying dead in ditches, sleazy folk numbers denouncing anonymous and not-so-anonymous exes, surprisingly trenchant anti-war songs, furious (and libelous) attacks on journalists, guest vocals from the Blind Melon guy—Use Your Illusion left it all in. All Geffen could do was hope that Rose didn’t decide to unload even more stifling paranoia and motor-mouthed psycho-babble into additional songs, further delaying the release of these overstuffed, twin wooly mammoths into the wild.

4 comments:

  1. slowlylu6:38 PM

    That article has made it to the top of my list for best read of the week. For those who are interested Heather's rant at GoFugYourself re the Glee cover was a close second.

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