The next Guns N’ Roses album that we look at for #GnRWeek is “The Spaghetti Incident?”. Released in 1993, it’s a compilation of cover versions of older punk or hard rock songs. Duff is listed as a producer on this album, which is cool. Coming from a punk background I can imagine he enjoyed having that level of enjoyment.
The title refers to an incident involving Axl and Steven Adler. Having read the three autobiographies there seems to be slightly different opinions about it. One says it was an actual spaghetti food fight between Axl and Steven and the other seems to state that ‘spaghetti’ is code for drugs. I certainly think it’s about something Axl threw at Steven anyway, and the term ‘The Spaghetti Incident’ was referenced a lot by Steven’s lawyers throughout his legal battles with the band. When used as the title of the album the correct format is with quotation marks and a question mark.
I’m not a massive fan of punk but I can still recognise that this as a very good album. It’s obviously not the Guns N’ Roses that we all knew at that point, but it was a quick way for them to get another album out, at a time when it was going to be hard for them all to get together and write. Several tracks on the album could be more classified as hard rock and are reminiscent of their Appetite days.
One controversial thing about this album was that they put a hidden track at the end which is a cover of Charles Manson’s song “Look At Your Game, Girl”. There was outrage that Manson would be receiving royalties whilst in prison. The band gave all their royalties from the song to Manson victim’s charities and the track remained on the album despite a lot of complaints.
There’s a few tracks on this album where Axl does a few different things with his voice. Singing in a deeper rougher tone for example. I find that quite interesting to hear, and it’s something he would revisit in places in Chinese Democracy, playing about with his vocal instrument.
The album isn’t totally my cup of tea, and it’s not one that I play regularly but there are still some good tracks on there. See my rankings below.
13. Look At Your Game, Girl – ‘Interesting’ move on the band’s part to cover a song by Charles Manson which would end up giving him royalties. And it’s not that great a song either.
12. Human Being – Bit of a scratchy song from Axl. The keyboards help to make the song less monotone and a bit funkier in places.
11. Attitude – This is a big Duff song. One he sang regularly with Loaded, and I think he sang this in the Illusions tour too. I find it a little bit too basic and repetitive though.
10. Down On The Farm – I assume this is Axl singing in a British accent? That’s quite funny. It’s actually a pretty good song.
9. New Rose – I really do like songs where Duff sings. This one’s good although a bit repetitive in places.
8. Black Leather – Good song. Nothing special but it’s got everything you need. Feels a bit like a song that might have just missed getting on the Illusions albums if they had written it.
7. Since I Don’t Have You – Three songs from the album were released as singles but this is arguably the main one given the airplay it got on MTV. Part of me likes it but part of me finds bits of it annoying. Maybe I just didn’t like Gary Oldman’s character in the video.
6. You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory – Definitely one of Duff’s best songs. I really like this one.
5. Raw Power – It’s got a vibe of Double Talkin’ Jive. Sounds very GnR. Very fast paced. I like it. I quite like how the vocals aren’t too overbearing. It’s almost like the backing vocals are throughout the song or Axl has a double layer of his own vocals.
4. Buick Makane / Big Dumb Sex – Actually sounds a bit like Kasabian in places. Sounds great musically but the vocals aren’t as strong
3. Hair of the Dog – Bits of it sound it could have been on the Use Your Illusion I album. Really good song.
2. I Don’t Care About You – Is that Axl singing from the start? Hardly recognised his voice. But I like it! Very rough round the edge raw song and it totally works! Love it.
1. Ain’t It Fun – I really like this one. It’s got atmosphere and it’s a bit different. Kind of reminds me of Civil War and You Could Be Mine in places for some reason. Strong bass line throughout it too. Interesting hearing Axl do a duet too, with Michael Monroe.