Roses

Leaving Atlantic Records after the sales disaster of Ringo the 4th, Ringo Starr signed to CBS's Portrait label and returned to the record racks after only seven months with Bad Boy…

Once Appetite for Destruction finally became a hit in 1988, Guns N' Roses bought some time by delivering the half-old/half-new LP G N' R Lies as a follow-up. Constructed as a double EP, with the "indie" debut Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide coming first and four new acoustic-based songs following on the second side, G N' R Lies is where the band metamorphosed from genuine threat to joke. Neither recorded live nor released by an indie label, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide is competent bar band boogie, without the energy or danger of Appetite for Destruction. The new songs are considerably more problematic. "Patience" is Guns N' Roses at their prettiest and their sappiest, the most direct song they recorded to date. Its emotional directness makes the misogyny of "Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)" and the pitiful slanders of "One in a Million" sound genuine…

The last official studio recording of the 1990s for Guns N' Roses was 1993's THE SPAGHETTI INCIDENT?. This collection of mostly punk covers was released at a time when G N' R was reeling from both internal dissension (founding member Izzy Stradlin left after the release of USE YOUR ILLUSION I & II) and the great grunge explosion of 1991 that made the band seem passe. Rather than jumping on any bandwagons, the California quintet instead paid homage to heroes overlooked by kids caught up in buying the right kind of flannel…