Search - Hollywood Rose, La Guns :: Roots of Guns N Roses (Dig)

Must Have For Any Guns N' Roses Fans...

"The Woj" | Downers Grove, IL | 07/23/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, these songs are "demos", yes there is no Slash, and yes Axl's screams on several tracks border on Yoko Ono territory, but they also flat out rock. The album starts with the five orignal "Hollywood Rose" demo tracks, followed by the same 5 tracks remixed by Izzy's replacement Gilby Clarke (how ironic is that?) with some Tracii Guns guitar overdubs on a few tracks and finally the 5 tracks are given over to Cinderella drummer Fred Coury who tightens up the sound and adds some killer double bass drumming. The last five "Coury mixed" tracks are the best. They sound like they could have easily come from the "Appetite For Destruction" sessions. Axl's vocals throughout are very "raw" and at times a little "off" key; but hey, this is rock n' roll.

Axl's attitude, snears and "presence" more than make up for any of his vocal limitations on these very underproduced recordings. Even on these very raw tracks, there is something in Axl's voice that forces you to sit up and take notice. Let's not forget Stradlin. Izzy is one hell of a guitar player. His rhythm and riff work on these tracks are in the classic G N'R, hard rock-punk mode. Lastly, even though there is no Slash, the lead guitarist here is no slouch. His leads and fills are better than most metal players of the day. Heck, these songs are 10 times better than the professional produced, commerical realeased metal from the same era.

"Roots Of Guns N" Roses" is worth purchasing for the last five tracks alone. They will invite repeated listenings by even the most critical G N'R fans, like me.

"

Back To The Future

A. Autrey | 06/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a great pickup this CD was. Hearing the three songs that GNR eventually would record(Reckless Life, Anything Goes, Shadow Of Your Love) in their original form is so cool for any GNR Fan. It gives a real perspective on just how great that Appettite line-up was. The drummer on the original recording didn't have a good sense of how to bring out the dynamics of the song. But even with the sub-par drumming you can tell that Axl and Izzy had something. These songs don't sound like the other hairbands that were on the Strip at the time. You can hear the Punk, the anger in Axl's voice. There's also some metal sounding stuff. The song "Rocker" sounds like a Judas Priest closet classic. It's really cool to hear the metal side of Axl.
As for the 2 sets of remixes, both are cool. The original demos are extremely rough, and it's nice to hear them cleaned up. And Fred Coury fixes the drum track himself so you can actually hear it the way Axl and co. were probably hearing it in their head when they wrote it.
The liner notes are superb. It's like GNR 101. If you like GNR, and have all their albums, you gotta get this or your collection is woefully incomplete."

Reality Check

ID | 04/06/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First off, if anyone says (or reviews) this as a great album, or better than Guns N' Roses, they are either delusional, glam-hair metal fanatics... or Tracii Guns.



Just based on the material I would rate this 2 and a half stars. The songs are demos and were written by a bunch of kids (I think Axl was 17 or 18 at the time) who were just learning how to write music. But the songs also show the origins of one of the most brilliant albums in history: Appetite For Destruction.



Killing Time - The song is mediocre, but it really shows where Axl and Izzy were headed.



Anything Goes - This actually surprised me. This was the weakest song on AFD but I actually dig the punk flavor here. I have no idea why the producer of AFD (Mike Clink) decided to slow it down into an Aerosmith wannabe. I'm more impressed with the song now.



Rocker - This song follows in the same punk-metal style of the others, but it comes across as almost a Judas Priest tribute song; the chorus makes me cringe.



Shadow Of Your Love - A song that's been floating around for a while. It would eventually be turned into Reckless Life.



Reckless Life - True Guns fans know this song. This is just a blue print of what it would become. Still interesting to hear it in its conception stage, which GNR would later record and release on Lies



All in all, not a great record and it was just a way for a few guys to make money off the GNR name. But more than anything else you can hear a very young singer flashing signs of what will become the most distinct voice in Rock N Roll. And you see two tragic/genius/anomalies just finding their songwriting skills. If you love Guns N' Roses its worth having. Even if its just for nostalgia."