Guns N' Roses

槍炮與玫瑰樂隊（常縮寫為槍花、G N' R或GnR）是一支1985年成立于好萊塢的美國硬搖滾樂隊，樂隊共發(fā)行了五張錄音室大碟、兩張EP以及一張Live專輯，經(jīng)歷了大量樂隊人事變動后，Axl是樂隊僅存的創(chuàng)始成員。他們至今仍保持全美音樂史上處子專輯最高的銷售記錄（3300萬張以上），在美國本土和世界上已經(jīng)分別擁有4600萬和1.1億的專輯總銷量以及兩張專輯同時成為Billboard200排行榜冠亞軍的神話。槍花在80年代中期至90年代早期這一巔峰時期，有評論認為：“他們帶來了一個極端享樂主義的叛逆并復(fù)興了硬搖樂界的朋克態(tài)度，讓人想起早期的滾石。”
1988正是美國流行金屬的黃金年代，槍炮玫瑰樂隊的音樂是布魯斯硬搖滾，是當時盛行的流行金屬的一種，同時具有骯臟、暴力、頹廢的SLEAZE ROCK特征。而他們的音樂則具有喧囂出色的旋律，同時擁有旋律非常出色的樂器演奏，特別是主音吉他手Slash和節(jié)奏吉他手兼樂隊的核心創(chuàng)作者Izzy Stradlin的吉他演奏，無論是riff段還是Slash的solo都成為歌迷們追捧的對象，而主唱Axl Rose華麗的外形，以及高亢至極的嗓音更是為樂隊征服了無數(shù)女歌迷的心，再加上長相帥氣十足但個性特例獨行的貝司手Duff McKagan以及放縱不羈的鼓手Steven Adler，正是這些綜合的元素才讓這支原本不為人知的樂隊迅速的走紅全世界，隨著之后樂隊成功的商業(yè)化包裝，更是成為了世界流行金屬界在80年代末最具標志性的樂隊之一。
十年過去了，盡管槍炮玫瑰樂隊發(fā)生了許多的變化，樂隊人員幾乎全部更換了新人，只剩下一個Axl Rose依然憑借高亢的聲音在支撐著，但是盡管如此，在世界上的每個熱愛搖滾樂的角落里，只要出現(xiàn)槍炮玫瑰名義的唱片那就一定會成為唱片店最搶手的商品。這張槍炮玫瑰的精選輯雖然遭到了樂隊原始成員及Axl Rose的一致抵制，但是畢竟是樂隊第一張精選輯，而槍炮玫瑰樂隊在十年之后依然在全世界范圍內(nèi)保持著非常強大的號召力，在美國發(fā)行首周就售出了16萬9千張，成為了Billboard 200排行榜的季軍，這是槍炮玫瑰樂隊的專輯自從1992年以來首次進入排行榜三甲。而在世界其他地方，這張專輯同樣非常受歡迎，專輯銷售不到一周就已經(jīng)成為了包括歐洲一些國家專輯排行榜的冠軍。
At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child O' Mine," showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful. Guns N' Roses' music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest — everything that good hard rock and heavy metal should be. There was something refreshing about a band who could provoke everything from devotion to hatred, especially since both sides were equally right. There hadn't been a hard rock band this raw or talented in years, and they were given added weight by Rose's primal rage, the sound of confused, frustrated white trash vying for his piece of the pie. As the '80s became the '90s, there simply wasn't a more interesting band around, but owing to intra-band friction and the emergence of alternative rock, Rose's supporting cast gradually disintegrated, as he spent years in seclusion.
Guns N' Roses released their first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen; the following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. They started to build a following with their numerous live shows, but the album didn't start selling until almost a year later, when MTV started playing "Sweet Child O' Mine." Soon, both the album and single shot to number one, and Guns N' Roses became one of the biggest bands in the world. Their debut single, "Welcome to the Jungle," was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and "Paradise City" followed in its footsteps. By the end of 1988, they released G N' R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit "Patience") with their first EP. G N' R Lies' inflammatory closer, "One in a Million," sparked intense controversy, as Rose slipped into misogyny, bigotry, and pure violence; essentially, he somehow managed to distill every form of prejudice and hatred into one five-minute tune.
Guns N' Roses began work on the long-awaited follow-up to Appetite for Destruction at the end of 1990. In October of that year, the band fired Adler, claiming that his drug dependency caused him to play poorly; he was replaced by Matt Sorum from the Cult. During recording, the band added Dizzy Reed on keyboards. By the time the sessions were finished, the new album had become two new albums. After being delayed for nearly a year, the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were released in September 1991. Messy but fascinating, the albums showcased a more ambitious band; while there were still a fair number of full-throttle guitar rockers, there were stabs at Elton John-style balladry, acoustic blues, horn sections, female backup singers, ten-minute art rock epics with several different sections, and a good number of introspective, soul-searching lyrics. In short, they were now making art; amazingly, they were successful at it. The albums sold very well initially, but while they had seemed destined to set the pace for the decade to come, that turned out not to be the case at all.
Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in early 1992, suddenly making Guns N' Roses — with all of their pretensions, impressionistic videos, models, and rock star excesses — seem very uncool. Rose handled the change by becoming a dictator, or at least a petty tyrant; his in-concert temper tantrums became legendary, even going so far as to incite a riot in Montreal. Stradlin left by the end of 1991, and with his departure the band lost their best songwriter; he was replaced by ex-Kills for Thrills guitarist Gilby Clarke. The band didn't fully grasp the shift in hard rock until 1993, when they released an album of punk covers, The Spaghetti Incident?; it received some good reviews, but the band failed to capture the reckless spirit of not only the original versions, but their own Appetite for Destruction. By the middle of 1994, there were rumors flying that the band was about to break up, since Rose wanted to pursue a new, more industrial direction and Slash wanted to stick with their blues-inflected hard rock. The band remained in limbo for several more years, and Slash resurfaced in 1995 with the side project Slash's Snakepit and an LP, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.
Rose remained out of the spotlight, becoming a virtual recluse and doing nothing but tinkering in the studio; he also recruited various musicians — including Dave Navarro, Tommy Stinson, and ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck — for informal jam sessions. Remaining members were infuriated by Rose's inclusion of childhood friend Paul Huge in the new sessions when both Stradlin and Clarke were excluded from rejoining the band. And a remake of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" was essentially the straw that broke the camel's back, as Rose cut out some of the other member's contributions and pasted Huge over the song without consulting anyone else. By 1996, Slash was officially out of Guns N' Roses, leaving Rose the lone remaining survivor from the group's heyday; rumors continued to swirl, and still no new material was forthcoming, though Rose did re-record Appetite for Destruction with a new lineup for rehearsal purposes. The first new original GNR song in eight years, the industrial metal sludge of "Oh My God" finally appeared on the soundtrack to the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. Soon after, Geffen issued the two-disc Live Era: '87-'93.
2000 brought the addition of guitarists Robin Finck (of Nine Inch Nails) and Buckethead. 2001 was greeted with Guns N' Roses' first live dates in nearly seven years, as the band (who consisted of Rose plus guitarists Finck, Buckethead, bassist Stinson, former Primus drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia, childhood friend and guitarist Paul Huge, and longtime GNR keyboardist Dizzy Reed) played a show on New Years Eve 2000 in Las Vegas, playing as well at the mammoth Rock in Rio festival the following month. On New Years Eve 2001, the band played almost the exact same set as the year before.
An appearance at MTV's 2002 Video Music Awards helped garner interest in the new lineup, but a rusty performance from Rose and an interview where he said his new album wasn't coming out anytime soon didn't do much to further their cause. That summer, the band started on their first tour in almost eight years, and they managed to fulfill all of their commitments in Europe and Asia. Sadly, they caused a violent and destructive riot in Vancouver when Rose failed to show up for the first date of their North American tour. While he was up to his old shenanigans with the retooled lineup, former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland, Slash, Sorum, and McKagan formed the successful Velvet Revolver in spring 2002.
And so years passed and still no new GNR album, to the point where it became a joke to many. The album was long billed as Chinese Democracy, and occasionally session recordings would leak and make their way onto Internet file-sharing networks. A fascinating article written by Jeff Leeds for The New York Times, published March 2005, revealed how tangled and costly the making of the album had become. According to the article, titled "The Most Expensive Album Never Released," Rose began work on the album in 1994 and racked up production costs of at least 13 million dollars. Producers involved with the album at one time or another include Mike Clink, Youth, Sean Beavan, and even Roy Thomas Baker. (Curiously, Moby claimed to have been offered the job as well.) Marco Beltrami and Paul Buckmaster were allegedly brought in for orchestral arrangements, and there was a revolving door of guitarists. In 2006, the album seemed closer to release, as Rose began surfacing in public and even took his band on the road for some shows.