Last night I got a surprise visit from an old college friend who happened to be on a road trip out West from Athens, Ohio — the hometown of our alma mater Ohio University (Go Bobcats!). I asked him what the current crop of students was like, secretly hoping he would confirm my suspicion that nobody to attend the school since my departure has been as cool. His response needed no explanation: "Dude, do you realize this year’s incoming freshman class wasn’t even born when Appetite for Destruction came out?" After the years of thoughtful discussion with this kid about the history of student movements and the possibilities of a true Marxist revolution in the post-Industrial era, this was the most insightful thing I’d ever heard him say. It was also a relief because although those new freshman have youth on their side, they were truly deprived to have not been around to see the birth of Guns N’ Roses. Many beers later, my friend and our small posse found ourselves at a joint that had Appetite on the jukebox, which led us to play it at top volume and discuss its significance. (Oddly, this was before we realized it was on the cover of Rolling Stone.) What we realized was that when we used to blast that record and dance on the bar at The Union in college, it was already nostalgic. We were really remembering how dangerous it sounded to our young, impressionable minds and how rebellious we felt hiding it from our parents after getting one of the "older kids" to dub it for us. Now we were revisiting it again. And it still rocks just has hard. Every Slash-and-Izzy dueling-guitar moment is just as potent. Every Axl Rose shriek is just as hair-raising. And it still makes me want to order a G N’ R patch from the back of a metal magazine to put on my leather jacket. I could reminisce for hours, or go all Chuck Klosterman up in here, but I’d rather just remember the good times — back before hair metal has-beens had reality shows (oh won’t you please take me home?). New Web-video kid My Damn Channel has a cool series of interviews with Slash and Duff McKagan (my fave below), so kick back and remember the good ol’ days. It’s hard to believe that as of July 21st Appetite is 20 years old, but it’s true. I’m not an official on these matters but I’m pretty sure that means that it can qualify as a classic. But where do we go, oooh, where do we go now?
Appetite for Deconstruction
