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SW-User
AC/DC up until the point that it became Axl/DC. G’n’R made one great record and then a few mediocre records over the course of their 4-year implosion. Had that one record not been such a standout, they would have faded into obscurity. They’ve really been coasting on that one record for over 30 years now. Meanwhile, AC/DC managed a sustained career over multiple decades in spite of tragically losing their lead singer at the absolute worst time. In my book, it’s not even a contest between AC/DC and what is essentially a one hit wonder.
UnsureForNow · 41-45, M
SW-User
@UnsureForNow Appetite was a great album. Lies was decent for a slapped together amalgamation of acoustic tracks and a rehashing of their “Live Like a Suicide” EP. The Illusion albums were self-indulgent and mediocre and probably could have been better with some consolidation of the best material down to a single album. “Civil War” was probably the best track, but even that was a reissue as the song had already been released on the “Nobody’s Child” compilation a year earlier. Then, they finished up with the dreadful “Spaghetti Incident” before Axl blew everything up and took more than a decade to cobble together the underwhelming “Chinese Democracy”. I’ve always seen G’n’R as a one hit wonder, because nothing they did after Appetite would have even registered had it not been for that success.
UnsureForNow · 41-45, M
SW-User
@SW-User Agreed that they have some great ones, but they all pretty much come off of one album. In my opinion, “Civil War” is the only track they did after Appetite that is comparable to that album. Everything else is markedly less than. I know people will point to “November Rain”, but I had a live bootleg from 1988 where they played that song as a straight up acoustic/piano number, which was so much more powerful than the overproduced version that ended up on Illusion. (This is all just opinion, obviously, and I know most people disagree with me when it comes to G’n’R. But....I’d much rather discuss and debate this sort of thing than politics any day. 🤣)
SW-User
The bootleg was from a show at CBGB’s. Some of that material was so new that Axl kept pulling out lyric sheets, because they had just written some of it that week. I have the cassette buried in my basement storage somewhere, and who knows what that sounds like now. @SW-User
SW-User
When I saw that November Rain was going to be on the new album(s), I couldn’t wait, because I was expecting something like that. What I loved about Appetite and even Lies was the rawness and grit, which we just weren’t getting from other bands in the late 80’s. When Illusion came out so polished, I was just very disappointed in it, because I wanted grease and grime instead of lavish production quality, which could be found virtually everywhere else in the late 80’s and early 90’s. @SW-User