Live: Era '87-'93 [Clean] [Edited]

Performer: Guns N' Roses
Artist: Gilby Clarke
Producer: Del James (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Guns N' Roses: W. Axl Rose (vocals); Slash, Izzy Stradlin (guitar); Dizzy Reed (keyboards); Duff McKagan (bass); Steven Adler (drums). Additional personnel: Gilby Clarke (guitar); Matt Sorum (drums); Teddy Zig Zag Anoreadis, Roberta Freeman, Tracey Amos, Cece Worrall, Anne King, Lisa Maxwell. Engineers include: Chuck Reed, Bryan Golder, Eric Caudieux. Recorded live between 1987 and 1993. Audio Mixer: Andy Wallace. Recording information: 1987-1993. Photographers: Marc Canter; Jack Lue; Gene Kirkland; Robert John. The six years these performances represent include all lineups of the band until it broke under the weight of Axl Rose's temper and ego. Guns' unflinchingly rebellious music addressed life on the streets and among the band's most incendiary material were songs about the school of hard knocks ("Welcome to the Jungle"), drugs ("Mr. Brownstone"), and mortality ("Dust n' Bones"). The only time this dangerous edge became worrisome was when the band cut "I Used to Love Her," a catchy number that attracted the ire of many people because of its flip treatment of abuse in a relationship. Much of G N' R's oeuvre may have been fueled by the snarling guitars of Slash and Izzy Stradlin (and later Gilby Clarke), but later songs were impressive epics swept up in passion, including the larger-than-life "November Rain" and the lesser-known but equally impressive "Estranged." Beneath the tattoos and snarls, Guns N' Roses also had a more sensitive side that can be heard on the bittersweet "Yesterdays" and this package's only previously unreleased number, the transformation of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright" into a piano-driven solo piece sang and played by Axl Rose. The double-disc Live: Era '87-'93 was designed to do two things -- satiate die-hard fans longing for old-school GNR and clear the decks for a new studio album. It sounds good in theory, yet it suffers in execution, since it relies on tapes "recorded across the universe between 1987 and 1993." That's not what GNR fans want -- they want the band in its nervy late-'80s prime, when it seemed like they could self-destruct at any second. Live: Era '87-'93 offers the polar opposite with slick, professional tracks that sound pieced together from various performances. Axl's vocals are not only distant -- as though they were sung in a booth, separate from the band -- but also amazingly mannered, sounding for all the world as if they were redone in the studio. Meanwhile, the band's performances are either brushed up or heavily edited, so it's impossible to tell if any of this was recorded during Appetite-era shows. Certainly, much of this derives from the Illusions tour: there are backing vocals, horns, and just what every fan wants -- lots and lots of Dizzy Reed. And if that isn't indicative of Axl's mindset, there is the priceless moment on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," when he shrieks "Gimme some reggae!" and the band collapses in a sunsplash groove. So, this is heavy on Axl pretensions and short on pure, brutal rock & roll. At its best, however, it does come closer to vintage GNR than the Illusions did. [Live: Era '87-'93 was also released in a "clean" version, containing no profanities or vulgarities.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine There was a time that Guns N' Roses seemed like the most vital band in rock & roll -- or maybe that's just the hype talking. There certainly was a time when the L.A. quintet seemed raw, rude, even dangerous -- especially when compared to such righteous rockers as U2 or R.E.M. There was something refreshing about a band that could provoke everything from devotion to hatred, especially since both sides were equally correct. There hadn't been a hard rock band this raw or talented in years, and they were given added weight by Axl Rose's primal rage, the sound of confused, frustrated white trash vying for his piece of the pie. He occasionally slipped into misogyny, bigotry, and pure violence (most notoriously on "One in a Million," where he somehow manage to distill every form of prejudice and hatred into one five-minute tune), but that's what made him fascinating. As the '80s became the '90s, there simply wasn't a more interesting band around, and their long-awaited follow-up to Appetite for Destruction seemed destined to set the pace for the decade to come. As it turned out, that wasn't the case at all. Guns N' Roses released their two-part Use Your Illusion set in September 1991, the same month their label released Nirvana's Nevermind. Use Your Illusion was messy but fascinating, filled with nasty hard rock and art-rock epics -- revealing that the notorious homophobe had aspirations of being a cross between Elton John and Freddie Mercury. It was the furthest thing from Appetite, Vol. 2, as was Nevermind, but that album was like a mirror image of Appetite -- a tortured blast of cathartic hard rock. It made the Illusions seem like indulgent relics, possibly even dating from the '70s. Rose handled the sea change by becoming a dictator, or at least a petty tyrant. His in-concert temper tantrums became legendary, even going so far as inciting a riot in Toronto. By the time the Illusion tour finished, founding member Izzy Stradlin was gone, his replacement, Gilby Clarke, about to leave, and Slash and Duff McKagan had solo projects in the works. Rose had GNR, and decided to go into seclusion. He didn't do a damn thing for years except tinker in the studio. Within a few years, Slash and Duff had also flown the coup, amid rumors that Rose was heading in a decidedly Nine Inch Nails-influenced direction. Those rumors were confirmed in November 1999 -- a full eight years after the Illusions -- when the sludgy industrial metal "Oh My God" slipped out on the End of Days soundtrack. Fans had been waiting for new Guns N' Roses material for years, but they weren't awaiting any new music -- they wanted another Appetite for Destruction. Aware of this, Rose did two things: he recorded a new version of Appetite with his new band (purportedly for rehearsal purposes, but it may eventually be released), and he assembled the double-disc set Live: Era '87-'93. Live: Era was designed to satiate the appetites of die-hard fans, longing for some old-school GNR, while also setting the stage for the 2000 comeback with the brand-new studio album Chinese Democracy. In practice, it may have set the stage, but it doesn't deliver the real rock, since it suffers from nearly as much hubris as the Illusions. The first bad sign is that the credits say Live: Era was "recorded across the universe between 1987 and 1993." That's not what GNR fans want -- they want recordings of the band in its late-'80s prime, when it seemed like they could self-destruct at any second. Sure, their performances were scatter-shot, but they were nervy and unpredictable, which results in the best concerts and live albums. In contrast, Live: Era is slick and professional, with each note in place. As a matter of fact, nearly every cut on the album sounds like a composite track, pieced together from various performances given at various venues across the universe. As soon as "Nighttrain" kicks off the album, it sounds as if Axl was in a separate, secluded booth from the rest of the band. Throughout the album, his vocals are not only removed from the band, but amazingly mannered, suggesting that they were redone in the studio. If the rest of the band wasn't around for re-recording, their performances were at least brushed-up, so even if portions of the album were taken from vintage Appetite performances, it's impossible to tell. However, it's likely those tapes were rarely touched -- much of the album was clearly recorded on the Illusions tour, since there are backing vocals, horns and what every GNR fan wants to hear: lots and lots of Dizzy Reed. Thanks to a three-minute introduction to "November Rain," plus several extended solos scattered throughout the album, it seems like there's more Reed than Slash here. And if that isn't indicative of Rose's mind-frame for Live: Era, there is the priceless moment on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" when he shrieks "Gimme some reggae!" and the band collapses in a sunsplash groove. In short, there's very little of what legions of Gunners fans want: pure, brutal rock & roll. There are a few moments, here and there, but each cut is way too clean and even some of the performances are subpar -- "You're Crazy" is very, very slow, "Rocket Queen" never takes off. In short, there's too much of Axl's pretentions and not enough Slash or Izzy Stradlin -- it comes closer to being vintage GNR than the Illusions did, but the missing ingredients are all too apparent and, in this context, their absence is all the more painful. [Live: Era '87-'93 was also released in a "clean" version, containing no profanities or vulgarities.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (1/20/00, p.56) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...visceral evidence of a time when Guns n' Roses ruled the Earth and every show was 'A Rock N Roll Bash Where Everyone's Smashed'." Q (1/00, p.138) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...leans on the more credible hellfire days of 1987's APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION and 1989's G'N'R LIES....tightly wound moshpit napalm as 'Nightrain', 'Welcome To The Jungle', and 'Mr Brownstone'..." CMJ (12/27/99, p.22) - "...an orgy of raunchy, sweaty, ferocious rock....proves that Guns N' Roses, at its peak, actually lived up to its still-snowballing legend..." Mojo (Publisher) (1/00, p.98) - "...captures the raw, heady rush of their zenith with goosebump-raising live versions of classics 'Nightrain', 'Mr. Brownstone', and 'Welcome To The Jungle'....a surprisingly welcome whiff of patchouli..."

While the 1980s Los Angeles rock scene will forever be associated with pretty-boy glam metal, it also spawned Guns N' Roses, one of the most in-your-face, streetwise, and controversial bands of the era. Axl Rose, Slash, & company's roots lay in The Stones, Aerosmith, and The New York Dolls, with a gentle touch of pop-metal edge. The act ruled critics' minds, the pop charts, and MTV in 1988 with the still revered APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, which included the oft-covered #1 hit "Sweet Child O' Mine." The double-album USE YOUR ILLUSION continued their reign. The original band was slowly replaced, and by the late '90s only Rose remained to annually promise CHINESE DEMOCRACY, which he delivered in 2008, and while it received some critical raves, the album failed to live up to the almost impossible sales expectations.

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