The Legacy of Millions of Air Guitarists and Aunty Rose's Gefilte Fish...

I've unearthed a real gem the other week..."CIVIL WAR" by Guns 'n Roses. The first track featured on their USE YOUR ILLUSION II album.

Not only do we find Slash grinding out some fantastic guitar riffs but we hear a more sombre, mature songwriting moment from a band who are more used to singing "Get in the ring, motherfucker!" or "Suck my motherfucking dick".

The lyrics to this song talk about the sacrifices great people (like Martin Luther King) have made and yet to this day, wars are still the way so many countries resolve their differences and how precious the word "peace" really is.

I would summise that CIVIL WAR is a protest song and it's really not that hard to figure out why...

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

I think this is a very special song attributed by a band which I'm not entirely sure deserves the hype but rather ought to be reserved for a particular member of the band. More about that later...

Guns 'n Roses came along at a time when Rock 'n Roll for me was still relatively new at the tender age of 14 (1987). I knew of Bon Jovi (didn't really warm to them). I knew very little of Whitesnake. And U2 had only just released their JOSHUA TREE album. I was too young at the time to appreciate the immense impact this album would have on the band. (Gefilte fish was already known to me though. We used to go to Aunty Rose and Uncle Ruben on a Friday evening after Schul and tuck into this fine Jewish food. Indeed, it would be fair enough to say that she left a legacy all of her own with this particular meal. But look, I'm digressing here...)

Back to my storyline...

With the release of APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, G 'n R blew the opposition away, didn't they? Hard, loud, raucous guitar riffs. A snarling Axl Rose on lead vocals and some dude with long hair covering most of his face with just a cigarette sticking out underneath it all, named Slash. But oy va voy, could he play guitar?!

I mean the guy rocked!

Indeed, according to a poll in 2004, Total Guitar magazine readers rated Sweet Child o' Mine as having the greatest guitar riff (the famous D-flat based riff) of all time. You needn't be a guitarist or a great lover of Rock 'n Roll to pick up your air guitar, arch your back slightly...and strum. Such is the catchy hook and sound of Slash's Les Paul (guitar) as he sends your air guitar into all directions and your fingertips into a frenzy.

Thing is though, looking back on Guns 'n Roses' discography, I cannot really recall a standout album apart from APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION?

LIES featured Patience which is achingly poignant and enough to make any grown man cry and reminisce about a loved one past or present. USE YOUR ILLUSION I & II featured a handful of songs which granted, still features on many radio playlists to this day (Knocking on Heaven's Door; Live and Let Die and of course the epic November Rain being the most obvious). And finally, THE SPAGHETTI INCIDENT went by largely unnoticed. So the underlying reason for writing this particular blog, though I listen to CIVIL WAR time and again and have memorised the following words...

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land

...is this:

Why the hype?

Aren't we mostly in awe of Guns 'n Roses because in fact it was Slash who really created the G 'n R sound (not overlooking Axl Rose's vocal input)?

Is it in fact the case that G 'n R weren't ever really all that good as a songwriting band in the way you would associate (in my opinion) Pink Floyd, U2, Dylan and even Counting Crows?

Is G 'n R in fact really not all about Slash?

Am I stirring a hornet's nest? Opening a can of worms?

Is it his legacy which remains the rock solid (pardon the pun) reason why air guitarists all over the world from Gringley On The Hill in Yorkshire to Gongyizhuang in Beijing still get their Fender air Stratocasters and Gibson air Les Pauls out submitting epic air guitar solo renditions of Sweet Child 'O Mine and November Rain?

Are we therefore focusing on the musical ability of a band member who came...saw...and left a legacy of air guitarists in his wake? Filling tens of millions of people's eardrums with a sound so crisp, you're left realising that your eyes were actually closed and you need to open them up to get back with reality? A man only known by a few as Saul Hudson. Born in Hampstead, London to a Jewish (purely coincidental) English father. A man whom us mere (air) guitar mortals commonly refer to as...Slash.

Peace!

JK