The five most ridiculous Guns N’ Roses songs of all time
The greats are usually recognised as such for a reason. The Beatles and Nirvana delivered game-changing rhetorics with every vibrating note that left their instruments. Vibrations that would change music and culture at large. But it has long been a trend that some of the world’s most prominent commercial artists have dubious cultural standings. One of the most famous exhibits of this is Guns N’ Roses, and they have long been one of the most controversial acts in the business due to both their behaviour and their output.
While the Los Angeles band broke out with what was described as a refreshing and aggressive blend of hard rock, punk and metal in the late 1980s, with their debut album, 1987’s Appetite for Destruction, a worldwide hit, it’s safe to say that record was their peak. In the wake of its tremendous success, the group’s hard living hit incredible levels, with drummer Steven Adler and lead guitarist Slash heavily using heroin and the other members also pushing their bodies and lives to the brink.
To be fair to the band, they quickly followed up their debut with the following year’s G N’ R Lies, another big hit, but as they moved into the new decade, their lifestyles took their toll and inner-band problems arose. Naturally, their music also took a hit, losing the concerted force of their early days, regardless of how divisive their sound was even back then. Frontman Axl Rose embodied the archetypal egocentric rockstar, and the music reflected this, becoming truly ridiculous in almost every imaginable facet.
Demonstrating their inflated egos and overconfidence in their abilities, in 1991, Guns N’ Roses simultaneously released Use You Illusion I and II, which would be their last original bodies of work until 2008’s Chinese Democracy. Of course, they trudged on through the 1990s and remarkably continued with Rose steering the ship amid changing lineups. Still, it’s safe to say that the group has more terrible material than that quality, with their status highly questionable because of it.
The five most ridiculous Guns N’ Roses songs:
5. ‘November Rain’
The third and final single from Use Your Illusion I, the piano-led ballad ‘November Rain’ is one of the clearest examples on the record that Guns N’ Roses had changed for the worse. An extensive and melodramatic number with plenty of cheesy moments, ranging from the orchestral textures to Slash’s overdriven solo, like the rest of this list, it ranks among the worst moments in rock history.
Everything about it is ridiculous. While Rose excels in this department, from his lyrics and vocals to his display in the video, there’s nothing to save the song from being a hilarious display of egomaniacal 1990s rock. The theatrical closing section is absolutely symptomatic of this: “Don’t ya think that you need somebody? Don’t ya think that you need someone? / Everybody needs somebody”.
4. ‘Live and Let Die’
Paul McCartney and Wings are one band who don’t deserve the grief they seem to encourage at every turn. The band were far more innovative than people give them credit for. Yes, the searing symphonic rock of ‘Live and Let Die’ was aptly ridiculous to mirror the nature of the James Bond film of the same name that it was soundtracking, but it was very of its era. It was 1973, for god’s sake, and only in this decade could a somewhat lighthearted fusion of orchestral flecks, cheesy rock and reggae go down a treat.
Fast-forward to 1991. When an irritating band, lost in their own heads, decide to bring a cover to life that loses all of Macca’s typical good humour, ramping up the ridiculous aspects to the max, from the guitar tone to the string section, it does not wash. It still doesn’t.
3. ‘My World’
If you’re looking for moments when the band jumped the musical shark, here’s one: Guns N’ Roses go industrial. While people often concentrate on their personal problems during the early 1990s and the fact that their music entered the truly ridiculous realms, they forget the strange closer of Use You Illusion II, ‘My World’ saw them experiment with industrial.
Featuring a blaring arpeggio, a whole load of strange Cool World-esque sound effects, sexual noises, and a comically bad angry rap from Rose, this one-minute-24-second oddity, features serious lines such as “You wanna talk to me? (You ain’t been mindfucked yet)” and “Let’s do it”. It’s crazy to think this was the last piece of original material the band released for 17 years.
2. ‘Estranged’
It is truly mind-boggling that ‘Estranged’ isn’t even the worst Guns N’ Roses song. Far more ludicrous, obnoxious, and self-serious than any of the other many cuts on Use Your Illusion II – a tremendous feat – it’s another piano-heavy number featuring Slash’s incessant, overdriven soloing. In many respects, you can take it as a sister track to ‘November Rain’.
It is so overblown, and watching the video only heightens this sentiment. I particularly loathe Slash’s constant playing throughout most of the song, Matt Sorum’s fill-heavy, pseudo-epic drumming and his obvious use of a march-like rhythm. The jazzy bridge section, which segues into a dream-like realm for Rose, is nothing short of a parody. The 1990s were truly wild.
1. ‘One in a Million’
It just had to be this at number one. While it is ostensibly an acoustic rock song featuring some of the band’s typical strokes of hard rock, primarily in the guitars, what stands out is its stark juxtaposition. Although G N’ Lies was a massive hit, the closing track put an unavoidable blight on the whole thing, in it being one of the most offensive songs of all time, with Rose openly racist and homophobic throughout.
Not only is it mind-boggling that he was allowed to make the song, let alone release it, given that Slash’s mother was Black, but the vitriolic and openly hateful essence of the lyrics is still disgusting all these years later. They strike a really sinister tone stacked against the acoustic instrumentation. It’s very weird, highly preposterous, and yet another reason that Rose and his band are some of the worst in rock.
