# What set Guns N' Roses apart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2017, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671 "2017-06-23T07:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/61 "2017-06-28T16:27:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Sorry, even after your repost and explanation, it remains incomprehensible to me. They were founded in 1985, and are still playing. Longevity. Lots of tours. Well sorta. Their last tour was 1993, then Axl dicked around with hired hands for the next 22 years. In my view GnR ceased to exist in 1993, and have been doing the old folks reunion thing for the past year or two. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/62 "2017-06-28T18:44:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Sorry, even after your repost and explanation, it remains incomprehensible to me. They were founded in 1985, and are still playing. Longevity. Lots of tours. So you’re not hung up on little things like: breaking up; having the band be one member who owns the name; touring with only one original member; and new material about once every millenium? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/63 "2017-06-28T19:03:13Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > So you’re not hung up on little things like: breaking up; having the band be one member who owns the name; touring with only one original member; and new material about once every millenium? about standard. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/64 "2017-06-28T19:20:18Z")
And what other bands are doing the same thing as described by **drad dog**? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/65 "2017-06-28T21:38:33Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > That all happened my freshman year of college in 1991 / 1992, so I’d say that’s accurate. What I remember of the summer of 1991 was hairbands like Scorpions and Van Halen putting out more “adult contemporary rock” (Winds of Change and Right Now respectively). Alice in Chains had some breakthrough “metal” songs. But it wasn’t until the fall of 1991 when Nevermind and Ten started getting tons of play and “Grunge” was now a thing. > > Let’s also not forget GnR’s contribution on the Terminator 2 soundtrack. You Could Be Mine was like the song of the summer. Another parallel rise to glory that’s quasi-related was the rise of the Chili Peppers. _Mothers Milk_ came out in '88 or '89 and was a **huge** college radio hit. Then _Blood Sugar Sex Magick_ came out in the fall of 1991 and blew up huge for the Chilis (and is one of my favorite albums of all time too, Frusciante is a god). ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/66 "2017-06-28T22:34:07Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > … > Then the image - they came across as authentically dangerous, not cute… They did this especially well with Sweet Child O Mine. This was the peak of the era of metal/rock bands shoving out obligatory ballad glurge. The metal ballad had passed the point of self-parody, and most people just rolled their eyes as producers and MTV forced them into tween demographic sales. SCoM somehow turned the metal ballad upside down. It was like GnR told their label, “A ballad? Here’s your fucking ballad.” It was like Babe Ruth pointing to the upper deck before swatting a home run. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/67 "2017-06-28T23:31:28Z")
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that they had pretty good luck with being an opening act - they were opening for Iron Maiden and Aerosmith, which gave them a lot of exposure, and ended the tour as a bigger name than the headliners. > [@Quintas](#): > > In my view GnR ceased to exist in 1993, and have been doing the old folks reunion thing for the past year or two. Yeah, that’s my view too. They had Appetite For Destruction as their big intro, an ep to keep things going, then the two volume over the top album with November Rain and its absurdly overdone video then… that was it. A lot more than one-hit-wonder, but still a pretty short run. I think that contributes to them having such a good spot in people’s memory, they rocked hard and went over the top and then burned out fast, they didn’t have years of putting out so-so albums and trying to branch into prog rock (or techno etc.), they went big then ceased to be. (Yeah, Axl technically held on to the name, but didn’t do enough with it at first to keep things alive, and by the time he did it was the ‘old folks reunion’ time. Also doesn’t help that his appearance went from ‘sexy, skinny, dangerous singer’ to ‘hey, that’s your uncle singing at the county fair’). ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/68 "2017-06-29T03:29:34Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that they had pretty good luck with being an opening act - they were opening for Iron Maiden and Aerosmith, which gave them a lot of exposure, and ended the tour as a bigger name than the headliners. They’re sharing the bill with The Who for some dates in South America in September. I haven’t seen anything about which band will be the opening act, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was The Who. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/69 "2017-06-29T11:15:15Z")
> [@Reddy\_Mercury](#): > > What, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, would you say set Guns N’ Roses apart from their peers? Why did they become as massively successful as they did? Talent. Rawness. Slash is a very good guitarist. Alex Rose wasn’t the best singer in the world, but he had a unique type of voice and could communicate if effetely. I actually think Rose who was comfortable with himself early on, became unformattable doing his act that made him famous. Them he and Slash hard an argument, over Slash wanting to go a gig with Micheal Jackson. Rose felt he should not based on Jackson’s problem with children. hinting he might had had abuse problems as a child. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/70 "2017-06-29T16:22:22Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Yeah, that’s my view too. They had Appetite For Destruction as their big intro, an ep to keep things going, then the two volume over the top album with November Rain and its absurdly overdone video then… that was it… …and no Izzy Stradlin after 1991, so even 1993 is starting to stretch it. ---
**Author:** ![Theodore\_Striker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Theodore\_Striker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theodore_Striker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/71 "2017-06-29T16:43:17Z")
I catch a lot of hell for this at times, but I think if G’n’R could have kept their shit together, they could have been the next Led Zeppelin (the kings of the genre). They could do pretty(Sweet child), they could do fast (Mr. Brownstone), they could do the semi-ballad (Patience), and they could just get nasty. The hair bands were about the show, and G’n’R could put on the show, but they also had that visceral energy and grittiness, so they crossed subgenres. They also had some damn fine playing and singing by their members. Watching the video of Paradise City gets me amped every time, and it has to be played at the appropriate volume in the car any time it comes on. Unfortunately, they became a parody of themselves by the time Use Your Illusion came around, but Appetite is a beast of an album, and Lies was no slouch. unfortunately, that’s when it all went off the rails. ---
**Author:** ![Theodore\_Striker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Theodore\_Striker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theodore_Striker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/72 "2017-06-29T16:52:40Z")
And if IIRC, Duff was from the Seattle area, but moved down to LA before grunge exploded. It would have been interesting to see his career arc if he would have stuck around the NW. When I was 13, I would have given my left testicle to be Slash, he was the coolest motherfucker on the planet in 1989. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/73 "2017-06-29T16:58:57Z")
> [@Theodore\_Striker](#): > > And if IIRC, Duff was from the Seattle area, but moved down to LA before grunge exploded. It would have been interesting to see his career arc if he would have stuck around the NW. Yes. In fact, he drummed for the Fastbacks for a spell. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/74 "2017-06-29T17:06:56Z")
> [@Theodore\_Striker](#): > > I catch a lot of hell for this at times, but I think if G’n’R could have kept their shit together, they could have been the next Led Zeppelin (the kings of the genre). They could do pretty(Sweet child), they could do fast (Mr. Brownstone), they could do the semi-ballad (Patience), and they could just get nasty. The hair bands were about the show, and G’n’R could put on the show, but they also had that visceral energy and grittiness, so they crossed subgenres. They also had some damn fine playing and singing by their members. Watching the video of Paradise City gets me amped every time, and it has to be played at the appropriate volume in the car any time it comes on. > > Unfortunately, they became a parody of themselves by the time Use Your Illusion came around, but Appetite is a beast of an album, and Lies was no slouch. unfortunately, that’s when it all went off the rails. I don’t know about catching hell but I don’t know if I agree. I think they are more the Aerosmith of their era, bounded by the same blues/rock/ballads limits. They didn’t have studio aces like Page and JPJ who were very comfortable with different music genres and branching out Zep’s playing. I don’t even envision GnR doing rock with off times like Black Dog. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/75 "2017-06-29T17:13:29Z")
I’ve never tried counting all of it out, but parts of GnR’s “Locomotive” does seem to wander a bit, time signature-wise. ---
**Author:** ![Theodore\_Striker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Theodore\_Striker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theodore_Striker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/76 "2017-06-29T20:29:53Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I don’t know about catching hell but I don’t know if I agree. I think they are more the Aerosmith of their era, bounded by the same blues/rock/ballads limits. They didn’t have studio aces like Page and JPJ who were very comfortable with different music genres and branching out Zep’s playing. I don’t even envision GnR doing rock with off times like Black Dog. That’s fair in terms of virtuosity and breadth, Zep covered so much territory in that regard, it’s not fair to compare many bands to them that way. I am referring more towards the power and rawness they brought… they had that tight but loose combustibility… And **Wordman** , I really appreciate your insight and views in the music threads,every time you comment, you bring something new to the table. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/77 "2017-06-29T21:16:03Z")
I dunno. I personally think they were branching out quite nicely with Use Your Illusion I & II, and more than just a regular ol’ blues-based rock band, with songs like the aforementioned “Locomotive,” as well as “Estranged” and “Pretty Tied Up.” I really wish they would have kept it together for a bit longer to see what they could have come up with. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/78 "2017-06-29T22:18:43Z")
> [@Theodore\_Striker](#): > > That’s fair in terms of virtuosity and breadth, Zep covered so much territory in that regard, it’s not fair to compare many bands to them that way. I am referring more towards the power and rawness they brought… they had that tight but loose combustibility… > > And **Wordman** , I really appreciate your insight and views in the music threads,every time you comment, you bring something new to the table. Hey thank you! I appreciate it. And **pulykamell** , you may be right, I have t dug into Locomotive but will give it another listen. But I don’t think of November Rain and Kashmir as similar 😉 (not that you do; just the represent each band stretching out.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/79 "2017-06-29T22:23:58Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Hey thank you! I appreciate it. > > And **pulykamell** , you may be right, I have t dug into Locomotive but will give it another listen. But I don’t think of November Rain and Kashmir as similar 😉 (not that you do; just the represent each band stretching out.) Well, Zep had about an extra 3 albums or so under their belt before they got to that level. That’s what I mean by wishing that GnR had kept it together to see what they could have come up with. Use Your Illusion I & II weren’t the solid albums Zeps had by this point in their career, but I think it showed promise. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/80 "2017-06-30T11:26:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, Zep had about an extra 3 albums or so under their belt before they got to that level. That’s what I mean by wishing that GnR had kept it together to see what they could have come up with. Use Your Illusion I & II weren’t the solid albums Zeps had by this point in their career, but I think it showed promise. Yeah, you need that 4th album statement song. Bohemian Rhapsody. Stairway. Aerosmith had Rocks, a full-album statement. GnR were capable of it, and Axl dithered with Chinese Democracy like it could be that type of statement, but it was merely a decent album. GnR just had too much trainwreck in their mix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671.md?page=3)