Duff McKagan’s favourite albums of all time
When Guns N’ Roses came along, they made music with the intention of rebelling against the stagnation in rock caused by hair metal bands.
It wasn’t necessarily that hair metal bands make bad music; as far as escapism is concerned, there’s nothing better, as the songs were often silly and talked about how much fun it is to party. All in all, it can be viewed as a pretty feel-good genre (give or take some of the more problematic songs within it).
The reason why so many people hated hair metal wasn’t just the sound (granted, the sound did play a pretty big part), but it was because the whole thing revolved around having style over substance. Looking good and partying were always important in the world of rock, but hair metal bands made it an absolute priority, and this rubbed a lot of musicians the wrong way.
Slash was never afraid to talk about how much he despised the scene and how happy he was that Guns N’ Roses (despite the manic hairstyles) were viewed as the counterargument to hair metal. “I fucking hated the whole scene, man […] In Los Angeles, it was just bullshit. And we were coming up in the midst of all that,” he said. “Everybody was fucking converting to the industry standard to get a record deal and get girls, this whole thing. Where our band was coming from was the antithesis of all that, and it’s something I’m really proud of.”
You can hear this rebellion against hair metal on their debut album, Appetite for Destruction, as the band breaks rock music back down to its essence. The whole thing is aggressive, backed with hard-hitting riffs, screeching vocals, and the same amount of energy that is packed into a shaken-up can of Red Bull.
It would have been easy for Guns N’ Roses to keep making this kind of heavy-handed rock music, as there was evidently a market for it. They were injecting venom back into the LA music scene, and fans of classic rock suddenly had a new band that they could turn to for their daily dose of distortion; however, the members of Guns N’ Roses wanted to try something different.
Granted, the Use Your Illusion albums can still be classified as rock records, but there was more to them than just the heavy riffs and scratchy vocals that they played around with on their debut. Now, you had elongated ballads which were both layered and experimental. Songs like ‘Coma’, ‘November Rain’ and ‘Estranged’ were all close to ten minutes long, and with that time, Guns N’ Roses explored a range of different recording techniques and musical styles.
The versatility of the band and the people who make it up is evident when you listen to the different kinds of music they play around with on their albums. While they only released a select few LPs, there is no escaping the fact that the band wanted to push the boat out as much as possible with each and every song.
As such, when you consider bassist Duff McKagan’s favourite albums, it’s hardly a surprise that there is a healthy variety of music on there. Rock features a lot, sure, but some of the records he mentions touch upon punk, soul, funk and pop. The bassist was always destined to work with multiple genres, and it’s good that he found a band where he could do so.
“If I said Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades… I guess I could sleep at night,” he confessed, “So many good records… Led Zeppelin II or Sly & The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits? Refused’s The Shape Of Punk To Come? Exile On Main St? 1999? And on and on!”
Arguably, you can hear every one of these albums embedded somewhere in the work of Guns N’ Roses.
