Guns N' Roses - GN'R Lies
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
Released on November 29th, 1988, Lies is Guns n’ Roses’ 2nd studio album or “EP”. The difference between EP and LP is that an LP is 'Long Playing' and generally has more than 8 tracks. Whereas, as above an EP has 4-6 tracks. Although there are 8 tracks on Lies, side one is a re-release of the band’s early 1986 live release called Live ?!@ Like a Suicide.
I can remember when this album came out in ’88 and how excited I was. It’s a unique EP because it has two completely separate sides. Why did GNR decide to re-release Live ?!@ Like a Suicide and just add it to this? We’re going to find out!
Side 2 was the last studio recording with drummer Steven Adler. In 1990, Adler, was kicked out of the band for what GNR stated was “excessive drug use”, which in my mind is hypocritical. But I guess despite the rest of the band’s drug abuse, they were at least showing up to rehearsals and performances ready to play. But for Sides 1 and 2, you can hear Steven’s brilliant rock drumming carry many of these tunes.
Side 1, Live ?!@ Like a Suicide kicks off with who I thought was Duff McKagan yelling to a live audience, “Hey F’ers, blank our bleeping blanks you bleeping bleepers!!” Then I thought it was Slash yelling, Hey F’ers, bleep on Guns and F’in Roses. After further research, it turns out it was one of the band’s roadies who yelled this. For 33 years, I did not know this!
The band rips into Reckless Life. This is a PUNK song. More so than anything on Appetite. This is just raw and heavy. Like my previous review of Appetite For Destruction, Kyle Hegarty and I go deep into the punk influences that brought GNR to write and record the music they did, and change the direction of hair metal and hard rock forever.
What I didn’t realize was that the “crowd noise” you hear in the background is a real recording of crowd noise, but it was mixed into the songs. It’s not really from a GNR gig. According to Duff McKagan’s autobiography, it is from a 1970's rock festival called the Texxas Jam. Duff wrote, “We thought it would be funny to put a huge stadium crowd in the background at a time when we were lucky to be playing to a few hundred."
Reckless Life is a “kind of” a cover song. It was originally written by the band Hollywood Rose, which had included all the members of Guns N' Roses except Duff McKagan at one point or another.
Nice Boys is a cover of a song by Rose Tattoo, an Australian rock band band, which formed in Sydney in 1976. This is a swinging rock song if you know what I mean. Sounds like something you’d hear at 2 AM at CBGB’s in the basement. Despite the cover, I think Axl’s voice gives GNR the spark that gave them the individuality and difficulty tagging their genre early on. The original version by Rose Tattoo is a little bit grittier. Definitely a 70s punk song. And many of the punk tracks from that era had the British accent added into them. While researching this album and going back, I forgot…, this is a good track. It’s simple, repetitive chorus is catchy but there’s some grit here.
Move to the City is in some ways, the only “original” GNR song on Side 1. Well again, “sort of”. The track was written by guitarist Izzy Stradlin who famously left GNR at their height, right after the band finished recording their long-awaited Double LP, Use Your Illusion I & II. Move to the City features a horn section, which is unique for a mid 80s hard rock/punk band. This is another strong track. At 3:42, like the other songs, it goes by fast. I had a great time going back and listening to this, as from ’88 until probably ‘90 it played constantly on my AIWA stereo, my Panasonic Boom Box and my Sony Walkman. This experience brought back a lot of great memories when GNR was effectively dominating the background music of my life during that time.
The fourth and final track on side one, Mama Kin is an Aerosmith cover from their very first album, 1973’s self – titled debut, Aerosmith. I must admit, originally, when Lies was released, this was the first time I’d heard this version. For in 1988, the bulk of my knowledge of Aerosmith was Rag Doll, Dude Looks Like a Lady and Angel. Thank you, MTV. I remember a friend telling me this was a cover, and like many experiences listening to covers, liking this version forced me to dig deeper into the Aerosmith catalog. And in 1988, Pump was less than a year from release and Aerosmith at the time would only have one album, Done with Mirrors that wasn’t incredibly phenomenal. Aerosmith is a band Guns N' Roses has cited as one of their major influences. In fact, they were the first major tour GNR would join as an opener in 1987-88.
I wanted to again dig deeper into the fact that in the 1980s, I was drawn to music that represented strife and teenage angst. As I noted in our “Appetite” reviews, the moment I heard and saw musicians who symbolized rule breaking, torment and adversity to compliance, a “tractor beam” pulled me towards ALL of it! And I never looked back. I never believed I “chose” this kind of thinking. It really chose me. In a weird way, it had always been a part of me. I won’t torture the listeners by turning this into a therapy session, but I think it’s important to discuss. While many of our friends “didn’t get it” when they listened to this music, we were drawn to it, almost without self-control. For this music was and still is my therapy.
For those of you with children nearing or in their teenage years, I find it incredibly challenging but very educational and humbling to experience it now from the other side. Watching your child go from an innocent toddler to someone who is forming their own strong opinions, having trouble with your opinions, and needing you less and less, is hard! There is also that reality that in many ways they no longer understand you or relate to you. I believe these things shall pass; however, it is difficult from both sides to experience. We need to give credit where credit is due – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince weren’t kidding when they noted, “Parents Just Don’t Understand”. Because of my days as a GNR fanatic, I think now I can understand where my kids are coming from when their world is full of confusion. They are just trying to navigate what the hell is going on each day. For each day brings them a brand-new experience. Whereas for us?.... Hell, we’ve been there done that!
What can I say about Side 2 of Lies? Before we dive back in, I can remember the album cover looking like a newspaper with 30-40 different breaking stories, all of which were about GNR. The word “Lies” appears several times on this cover. In the bottom left, it appears three times together, which many may recall confused young kids and pre-teens, making some think the EP title was “Lies, Lies, Lies”. To add to that, I can remember a classmate of mine thinking Fleetwood Mac’s song, Little Lies, (ya know – “Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies”?) was by GNR and on this album. That would always crack me up. If you’ve ever heard the Fleetwood Mac song I’m referring to, it is quite different from anything GNR ever put out.
Side 2 kicks off with the ever-so-famous, Patience. The gold staple of the EP. The chart-topping single. The overly played music video. The first real GNR “ballad”. This song shocked me when I first heard it. I never thought my favorite band at the time would write an acoustic ballad. Withing the pop charts, this song BLEW UP. It was huge. It was everywhere. And within about one year of the release of “Appetite”, Guns had another mammoth hit on their hands. They were the biggest band on the planet.
I don’t know where to start with this. There are conflicting stories out there as to who wrote this. Some say lead singer, Axl Rose wrote it. Some say rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin did. Either way, it is a masterpiece. Why? WHY, YOU SAY? Although the band has played it live as an electrical version with drums constantly since it’s ’88 release, the album version is void of any drums or percussion. It consists of just three straight acoustic guitars. This one, brings back so many memories for me. SO Many.
Going to middle school dances sticks out immediately. Hearing White Lion’s When the Children Cry, Poison’s Every Rose Has its Thorn and then this. These were the three staples on the late 80s middle school dance circuit. Back then, that was my ticket into the social world and my first opportunity to locate what some would consider at that age, a “girlfriend”.
At 4 minutes and 12 seconds in, Patience seems as if it’s coming to a stop. It then takes a different shape when Slash changes the rhythm and starts that solid strum. This leads Axl to his famous vocals, “I’ve been walking the streets at night….”
The video for Patience was shot in The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, which opened in 1921 and was made famous when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated there in 1968. The hotel closed in 1988 and was later demolished in 2006.
As I mentioned, Patience was a huge song. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts in 1989 and stayed on the charts for almost a year.
Here’s where Lies gets interesting. The next track, Used to Love Her is another acoustic track. Much different from Side 1 and all of “Appetite”, the track is catchy, well written but perhaps here’s where the controversy starts to bubble to the surface a bit.
As a young pre-teen, I immediately realized this song’s lyrics were dark and disturbed. For it opens with, “I used to love her, but I had to kill her”. I had to put her, 6 feet under and I can still hear her complain”. I remember turning the volume down because I didn’t want my parents to hear. My impression was, “wow this is dark!”. Since GNR was so huge at the time, I quickly learned on the playground it was actually written about Axl’s dog. I can remember being relieved but then thinking, “Wait! That’s still kind of disturbing”. In the end, the band noted it was written as a joke. They found the lyrics comical, and decided to record the song for the EP.
The controversy starts here where religious rights groups and the PMRC (or Parents Music Resource Center) jumped all over this album! In the late 80s, the PMRC was an organization co-founded by former 2nd lady to the White House, Tipper Gore. Its intentions were to increase parental awareness of music marketed to the youth that was considered to have violent, drug-related, or sexual themes. They created the ever so famous Parental Advisory sticker, which was usually placed over the cellophane wrapper in the bottom left corner of the cassette, vinyl or CD. Did it work? Maybe a little. I can’t recall ever getting denied when trying to buy an album at the record store.
The song Used to Love Her put GNR on the PMRC’s radar. But the final track on Lies, One in a Millionmade every parent in the country develop a hate campaign for GNR. I will never forget this. Before we talk about One in a Million, I don’t want to forget about the track that follows Used to Love Her, the acoustic version of You’re Crazy. I mentioned this song during my “Appetite” review because it also appears in a heavier, faster form on that record.
This version is slowed down, acoustic and a bit “bluesy”, I think. I support my previous statement that I feel this is the better version.
The story goes this was written as a response to the many groupies GNR were meeting as they grew a little in fame each month. It almost sounds like an Alanis Morrisette song, “You don’t want my love. You want a piece of the action”.
According to many interviews with the band, You’re Crazy would first be recorded in electric form, but legend has it the acoustic version was the original version. The electric version, which again appears on “Appetite” was, “sped up about 20 beats per minute from its original state,” according to guitarist Slash in his autobiography, titled Slash.
In an interview with Guitar Edge Magazine, Slash stated, “It was originally a slow acoustic song that we wrote while sitting in the living room one night,” Then Axl, Izzy, Duff and I went down to a rehearsal studio that we were working out of and, of course, turned everything up to 12. Suddenly, it took on this real breakneck speed. Axl actually enjoyed making the adjustment.”
I found an interview that Axl did with a music newsletter in 1988 called Rock Scene where he said, "The original way You're Crazy was written was without the curse words. They didn't come in until it came on full electric, in front of a crowd with some girl trying to hit me with a beer bottle, and I started directing the words directly at her. That's where the curses happened. I stamped her head with the bottom of my mic stand, and she kept coming at me! I didn't even know her -- nobody in the band knew her. She hit Duff with a beer bottle.
That leads us to the minor tangent I wanted to go on here which is Axl’s reputation in the 1980s and early 90s when the band was bigger than anyone. Axl to me was known as the baddest dude on the planet. And as many crazy things he did, many kids like me were drawn to him. Now I must say, today I have changed my mind and realized, also after reading Slash’s autobiography that he was a crazy narcissist who in my opinion took down the band. I’d love to know what he’s like today. Has he been calm and a “team player” during the last two to three comeback tours?
I can remember his tirade in St. Louis in 1990 that caused a huge riot and got them band from the entire state of Missouri. Then there was the famous incident in Montreal in 1992 when, while co-headlining with Metallica, singer/rhythm guitarist, James Hetfield got his arm seriously burned by a pyro technic on stage during their intro to their hit song, One. Metallica had to cut their set way short as James was rushed to the hospital with severe burns all over his arm. All GNR had to do to save the day was to come out and complete a rockin’ set. But no, a few mins into the show, Axl grew frustrated with the sound quality from his monitors, threw his microphone down and stormed off the stage. The entire stadium rioted, and parts of Montreal burned that night. Even as a generally angry teenager already, this infuriated me. That was when my love for Axl began to unravel. Then to top it off, when it came time for me to see this tour (after the Montreal incident originally postponed it), Axl sat on the drum riser for about 50% of the show singing in a fairly monotone voice and not standing until the show was over. I was convinced he was bringing down my favorite band.
Back to Lies, things get REAL interesting with the final track, One in A Million. I am going to keep this podcast as clean as possible, so I won’t repeat exactly what some of the song’s lyrics were, but let’s just say, if this song was released today, Axl, GNR and anyone even remotely associated with the band would be cancelled. And rightfully so. They lyrics are shocking.
In a few sentences, Axl Rose proceeds to insult homosexuals, African Americans, police officers and immigrants. It was beyond the trifecta of insults. He managed to alienate every minority group out. But what was his motivation? I can remember hearing this as a kid and being like, “Whoa….what’s going on with Axl”? I can remember my love for him taking another hit indeed. The main question is (and there are many conflicting stories out there), why did Axl write this and why didn’t the band or the record company, Geffen Records stop him?
Perhaps because in the final verse Axl sings, “Radicals and Racists, don’t point your finger at me. I’m a small-town white boy, just trying to make ends meet. Don’t need your religion, don’t watch that much TV. Just making a living baby, well that’s enough for me”, the media looked at this as his excuse or explanation in the actual song as to why he wrote it this way.
Many critics said the only reason they put these lyrics on the record was because it would cause controversy, leading the band to sell millions of albums. GNR vehemently denied this claim, and still does to this day.
The cover of the GN'R Lies EP, which as I mentioned earlier was designed as a mock tabloid newspaper, contained an advance apology for the song. I suppose the band knew it would quickly provoke controversy. On the cover, there is a small article above the “Lies, Lies, Lies”, entitled "One in a Million". The song is credited to Rose and the “fake article ends with, "This song is very simple and extremely generic or generalized, my apologies to those who may take offense”.
In his final public comments about "One in a Million" in 1992, Rose stated, "It was a way for me to express my anger at how vulnerable I felt in certain situations that had gone down in my life”.
Before the release of the EP, other members of the band desperately tried to convince Axl to drop the track from the record, which again leaves me thinking Axl had a lot more power than we all originally thought. Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, whose mother is black, noted that he did not overlook the song but did not slam his bandmate for writing it and putting it on the EP. In a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Slash says, "When Axl first came up with the song and really wanted to do it, I said I didn't think it was very cool... I don't regret doing 'One in a Million', I just regret what we've been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings”.
In 1988, Izzy Stradlin told another rock magazine that the “lyrics simply reflected the poor race relations of inner-city Los Angeles”. In a 2019 interview, bassist Duff McKagan said "One in a Million" was misinterpreted. He said:
"One thing about Axl is if you’re going to try to compete with him intellectually, you’ve lost, because he’s a super smart guy... He’s a super sensitive dude who does his studies. When we did that song, I was still drinking but he was way ahead of us with his vision of, ‘Something’s gotta be said.’ That was the most hardcore way to say it. So flash-forward to now. So many people have misinterpreted that song that we removed it ... Nobody got it.”
Duff was referring to the box-set reissue of Appetite for Destruction in 2018 which included the Lies EP as a bonus. This time around, they left the song off. Probably a smart thing to do in today’s day and age.
The album Lies reached number two on the US Billboard Top 200 Chart and according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the album has shipped over five million copies in the United States.
Notwithstanding its controversy, the music on Lies is superb. I enjoyed going through this record again and reliving it. For it has probably been close to 25 or 30 years since I had listened to the whole thing front to back. It really brought me back to being a kid, sitting in my bedroom staring out into the woods behind my house, listening to this and just thinking about my life and what direction it would be going. For back then, everything was unknown. And even though I am VERY happy with how my life has turned out, sometimes I miss that uncertainty. It breeds imagination and creativity.
