The Albums

Appetite for Desrtuction
Appetite for Destruction is the debut studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Released in 1987 (see 1987 in music), it was well received by critics and topped the American Billboard 200 chart. As of September 2008, the album has been certified diamond (plus 18x platinum) by the RIAA, accumulating worldwide sales in excess of twenty-eight million as of October 2008. The album still remains the fastest-selling debut album in history. Appetite for Destruction is considered by many to be one of the greatest hard rock albums of the 20th century.
Origins
Axl Rose stated in 1988 that many of the songs featured on the album had been written while the band had been performing on the Los Angeles club circuit, and a number of songs that would be featured on later Guns N' Roses albums were considered for Appetite for Destruction, such as "Back Off Bitch," "You Could Be Mine," "Don't Cry" and "November Rain."
While the songwriting credits are indiscriminately credited to all five band members, many of the songs began as solo tracks that individual band members wrote separate from the band, only to be completed later. These songs include "It's So Easy" (McKagan) and "Think About You" (Stradlin). "Rocket Queen" was an unfinished Slash/McKagan song that was written from their earlier band Road Crew, whereas Anything Goes, written by Hollywood Rose and included in their compilation album "The Roots of Guns N' Roses", was later re-written for Appetite.
Other songs on the album reflect the band's reaction to the debauchery of the L.A. rock and roll underground, such as "Welcome to the Jungle" (Rose wrote the lyrics while in Seattle about an incident in New York City) and "Out ta Get Me", as well as their assorted female companions, reflected in the songs "Sweet Child o' Mine," "Think About You," "My Michelle," "You're Crazy," and "Rocket Queen."

Album cover
The album's original cover, based on the Robert Williams’s painting "Appetite for Destruction", depicted a robot rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger. After several music retailers refused to stock the album, they compromised and put the controversial cover art inside, replacing it with a cover depicting a cross and skulls of the five current band members (designed by Billy White Jr., originally as a tattoo), each skull representing one member of the band: Izzy Stradlin, top skull; Steven Adler, left skull; Axl Rose, center skull; Duff McKagan, right skull; and Slash, bottom skull. The photographs used for the back of the album and liner notes were taken by Robert John. The cover was supposed to be on the 2008 re-pressing of the vinyl, though the record label replaced it with the skulls cover at the last minute.

Achievements
In 1989 Rolling Stone ranked Appetite for Destruction as the 20th best album of the 1980s.
The same magazine later ranked it at sixty-one on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In 2001, Q magazine named Appetite for Destruction as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.
In 2003, VH1 named Appetite for Destruction the 42nd Greatest Album of All Time.
In 2002, Pitchfork Media ranked Appetite for Destruction 59th on their Top 100 Albums of the 1980s.
It was ranked 18 in Spin magazine's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005".
Kerrang! magazine recently compiled a 100 Greatest Rock Albums Ever list of which Appetite for Destruction was ranked #1.
In 2004 the album was voted number 1 by fans in Metal Hammer magazine's greatest albums of all time list.
Rolling Stone recently devoted their cover to the album's 20th Anniversary, July 2007.
The album was ranked 32 on Rock Hall of Fame's 'definitive 200' album list, developed by the NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers.

G N' R lies
G N' R Lies is the second album by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses in 1988 (see 1988 in music). According to the Recording Industry Association of America, it has sold 5 million copies in the United States and about 12 million copies worldwide to date.
Its first four songs consist of the previously released EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.
The last four songs were recorded with a strong acoustic guitar influence. They were written and recorded in one studio session (with the exception of "You're Crazy", which appeared in an alternate version on Appetite for Destruction), which producer Mike Clink called "one of those magical rock and roll history moments". A Duff sung track "Cornshucker" was dropped from the album, reportedly for excessive profanity.
In later interviews, Axl Rose stated that while he loved how the band sounded on the last four songs, he hated the sound of his voice. Rose recalled that his voice was husky and scratchy from the band's lengthy touring at the time, and if he could he would've re-recorded his vocal tracks in a separate session.
The cover is a parody of tabloid newspapers as are the liner notes. The LP cover art underwent several minor modifications when the title was released on CD. First, in the bottom left corner reading "LIES LIES LIES" originally read "Wife-beating has been around for 10,000 years." Second, instead of "Elephant gives birth to midget", the original headline reads, "Ladies, welcome to the Dark Ages." Third, many copies of the original LP release contained an uncensored picture of a naked model on the inner LP sleeve.
"You're Crazy" had been released previously on the band's debut album, Appetite for Destruction and was now recorded as written originally. "Mama Kin" is an Aerosmith cover, originally recorded on their 1973 debut album. "Nice Boys" is a Rose Tattoo cover.
"Reckless Life" is the opening track and it begins with Duff McKagan saying "hey fuckers, suck on Guns N' Fuckin' Roses!" This song was originally written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin's previous band Hollywood Rose and included in their compilation album The Roots of Guns N' Roses. It can also be found the EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.
During live performances the band would play "Patience" using electric guitars, most notably in Rock in Rio in 1991 which produced the widely used picture of Axl Rose and Slash back-to-back, occurring at the end of the song. "Used to Love Her" would also be performed live with electric guitars.

Use Your Illusion I
Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was the one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other named Use Your Illusion II, thus they are sometimes seen together as a double album. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II's first week sales of 770,000. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7x platinum by the RIAA. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums columns.

Overview
The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N' Roses. Although they did not abandon the hard rock tendencies vivid in their first album, Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated, for the first time, more or less, elements of blues, classical music, and country. For example, lead singer Axl Rose plays the piano on several tracks of both albums. In addition, with the Use Your Illusion Tour, both the music and stage presence of the band became more theatrical, in the tradition of progressive rock. This fact is evidenced by the numerous music videos produced in conjunction with these albums. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, "November Rain" and "Don't Cry," whose videos are generally held by fans to be a trilogy. The third song, "Estranged," is on Use Your Illusion II.
A number of songs on the album were written in the band's early days, but were not included on Appetite for Destruction but can be found on the popular bootlegged so-called 'Rumbo Tapes', an album of early demo tapes. "Back Off Bitch," "Bad Obsession," "Don't Cry" (referred to by Rose during the ensuing tour as 'the first song [they] ever wrote together'), "November Rain," and "The Garden" are considered part of this group. There is also a cover of "Live and Let Die."
Besides stylistic differences, another new aspect seen in Use Your Illusion I was longer songs. "November Rain," an epic ballad, is nearly 9 minutes long, and "Coma" is more than 10 minutes long. Another change was the presence of tracks sung by other members of the band (even though certain songs from Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies featured other members on duet vocals): lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones," "You Ain't The First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" are performed by rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin (on Use Your Illusion II, Stradlin' sings "14 Years" and bassist Duff McKagan sings "So Fine").
To achieve the final sound of the album, the band had some difficulty, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame.
Slash has stated that most of the material for the album was written on acoustics in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity.

Cover
Raphael, The School of Athens (detail)
The cover art of both "Use Your Illusion" albums is a detail of Raphael's painting "The School of Athens." The highlighted figure, unlike many of those in the painting, has not been identified with any specific philosopher.
The only difference in the artwork between Use Your Illusion I and II is the color scheme used for each album. Use Your Illusion I uses the warm colors red and yellow, and has for the most part an angrier, heavier sound; Use Your Illusion II uses the cool colors blue and purple and has a softer, more bluesy sound

Use Your Illusion II
Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, and as a result the two albums are sometimes seen together as a double album. Bolstered by the lead single "You Could Be Mine," Use Your Illusion II was the slightly more popular of the two albums, selling 770,000 copies in its first week and debuting at #1 on the U.S. charts, ahead of Use Your Illusion I's first week sales of 685,000. Both albums have been certified 7x Platinum by the RIAA. It was also #1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums column.

The Use Your Illusion albums were a stylistic turning point for Guns N' Roses (see Use Your Illusion I for discussion). In addition, Use Your Illusion II is more political than most of their previous work, with songs like "Civil War," a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and "Get in the Ring" dealing respectively with the topics of violence, law enforcement, and media bias. The thematic material deals less with drug use than previous Guns N' Roses albums. Use Your Illusion I featured mostly songs pre-Appetite For Destruction (with notable exceptions) while Use Your Illusion II featured more tracks written during and after Appetite For Destruction.
The band's cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" had been released almost a year earlier on the Days of Thunder soundtrack. "Civil War" was debuted at the 1990 Farm Aid concert. That concert also featured Guns N' Roses playing a cover of the U.K. Subs song "Down on the Farm." "Civil War" was released as a B-side to "You Could Be Mine." The song was also released on a charity album called Nobody's Child. The album was a fund-raising compilation for Romanian orphans.
The first single, "You Could Be Mine," was released in July 1991 and is featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The song was not released on the actual T2 soundtrack. The band also filmed a video featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in character as the Terminator, and a loose plot featuring Axl Rose himself as its "target." The original subject matter of the song dealt with Izzy Stradlin's failed relationship with his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti.
The Use Your Illusion albums can be taken as a single cohesive work, and certain elements of Use Your Illusion II underscore this intent. For instance, both albums have a version of the song "Don't Cry." Both albums also have one cover song; "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney (Use Your Illusion I) and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan (Use Your Illusion II). Each of them also has at least one track sung by other members of the band: lead vocals on "So Fine" are performed by bassist Duff McKagan and the song was dedicated to Johnny Thunders, who passed away from a drug overdose before the recording of the album. Lead vocals on "14 Years" are performed by Izzy Stradlin (Izzy also sings "Dust N' Bones," "You Ain't The First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" on Use Your Illusion I).
The song "Get in the Ring" finds the band lashing out at a career's worth of critics and enemies. Among those referred to by name are editors of several entertainment magazines.
"My World," the final track, was a surprise to a few members of the band. The track was essentially an Axl Rose solo, and most of the members did not even know it existed until the album was released.
To achieve the final mix of the album, the band had some difficulty, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame.
Slash has stated that most of the material for the album was written on acoustics in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity

The Spaghetti Incident
"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album is unique for the band, consisting entirely of cover versions, mostly of punk and glam rock songs of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Many of the tracks were recorded with original Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin during the Use Your Illusion I and II sessions. Those tracks were previously intended to be included in a combined Use Your Illusion album, consisting of three (or possibly even four) discs, instead of the two separate discs they ended up being.
In 1992, the band prepared to release the leftover cover tracks as an EP, with then-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke replacing Stradlin's guitar tracks. They later decided on making the album a full release and recorded several more tracks for it.
Then-Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan sings on many of the album's tracks and Hanoi Rocks frontman (and Axl Rose's idol) Michael Monroe appears on "Ain't It Fun" as a guest vocalist.
This was the last Guns N' Roses album to feature lead guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum as well as the only album to feature Gilby Clarke.
"The Spaghetti Incident?" debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 190,000 albums in its first week of release, significantly less than their previous releases.

Album title
The title is an in-joke referring to a food fight between Axl Rose and Steven Adler involving spaghetti. Much was made of this food fight during Adler's resolution lawsuit with the band in 1993, in which Adler's attorney referred to it as "the Spaghetti Incident". The meaning was explained by drummer Matt Sorum in a 1994 interview with Much Music and confirmed by Slash in his autobiography, Slash.
During a discussion between Rose, Slash and the album's cover designer in the "Making of Estranged" video, it is made clear that the correct form of the title is within quotation marks and with a question mark.

Original release
The album was released shortly after the conclusion of the Use Your Illusion World Tour which had lasted until early 1993. The vinyl copy of the album was released in clear plastic orange, and the CD was released with color designs and markings: black concentric rings around the outer edge, and an indigo and blood-red depiction of an evil jack-o-lantern eating spaghetti out of a hollowed-out, decapitated head in the center, which would later be changed (in the 1997 reissue) to simply a plain silver colored CD.

Controversy
Despite protests from Rose's bandmates, an unadvertised cover of Charles Manson's song "Look at Your Game, Girl" was included on the album at his request. The CD release gave no track number to the song - it could only be found by listening through the dead air left after the last documented track on the album, on track 12. In early 2000, Rose said that he would remove "Look at Your Game, Girl" from re-issues of the album, citing that critics and popular media misinterpreted his interest in Manson and that a misunderstanding public no longer deserved to hear it.[citation needed] However, the song is still present on the album, and in recent re-issues, "Look at Your Game, Girl" has been added as a separate, 13th track.

Live era
Live Era: '87-'93 is a double live album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 1999. The album was the first official Guns N' Roses release since "The Spaghetti Incident?" in 1993. Former guitarist Slash notes that the album is "not pretty and there are a lot of mistakes, but this is Guns N' Roses, not the fucking Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's as honest as it gets.
Album
The dates and locations of the tracks are not revealed in the liner notes, and are only referred to simply as being "Recorded across the universe between 1987 and 1993". However, the majority of the tracks on the two CDs are believed to be sourced from the extensive Use Your Illusion Tour of 1991-1993.
Axl Rose is alleged to have communicated with former Guns N' Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan, through intermediaries only, in selecting the track list. In an interview Slash stated that "the live album was one of the easiest projects we all worked on. I didn't actually see Axl, but we communicated via the powers that be."
Matt Sorum, the band's drummer from 1990-1997, is not credited as a band member in the liner notes, but as an "additional musician". It is suspected that Sorum is not credited as a "main band member" due to his sour departure from Axl Rose and the band. Original drummer Steven Adler, who plays sporadically on the album, is credited as a "main band member", instead.
Two popular live songs "Live and Let Die" and "Civil War" which were both played heavily during the Use Your Illusion Tour are omitted from this release, while songs that were played to a much lesser extent on the tour ("Pretty Tied Up" and "Move to the City") are included.
The Japanese and vinyl versions of the album contain a rare performance of "Coma", Guns N' Roses' longest song to date.

Greatst Hits
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on March 23, 2004. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and number three on the Billboard 200 chart. Despite some criticisms towards the track listing by fans, and by Axl Rose and ex-Guns N' Roses members, who filed a joint lawsuit to try to prevent the release of the album, the album has proven a popular seller, selling 4 million copies in the United States to date. Greatest Hits became Guns N' Roses' second-longest charting album in their homeland (after Appetite for Destruction), finally dropping out of the chart in November 2006 following a 138-week stay. Universal Records' response to Rose's opposition to the record was that he had been given adequate time to supply them with a record but had failed to do so, and so they had produced their own Guns N' Roses record instead.
Critics of the compilation were somewhat disappointed, as many other popular songs from Appetite for Destruction were neglected from this release, namely "Mr. Brownstone", "It's So Easy" and "Nightrain", as well as the G N' R Lies track "Used to Love Her". Also notable is the exclusion of the Use Your Illusion II single "Estranged"

Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 23, 2008, worldwide, except in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. It is the band's first studio album since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since the simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion I and II in September 1991. Retail store chain Best Buy is the exclusive retailer of the album in the United States.

Background
Guns N' Roses began to write and record new music in 1994. Ex-bassist Duff McKagan is quoted as saying, "[the] band was so splintered at that point that nothing got started". Slash has criticized Rose for making the band seem "like a dictatorship". Slash quit the band in 1996, with drummer Matt Sorum and McKagan both leaving soon afterwards. Slash was replaced by Nine Inch Nails touring guitarist Robin Finck, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson replaced McKagan, and Josh Freese joined as the drummer. In early 1998, the band — which comprised Rose, Finck, Stinson and Freese along with long-time Guns N' Roses associate Paul Tobias, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman — began recording at Rumbo Recorders, a state-of-the-art studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns N' Roses had partially recorded parts for their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. During this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to try to finish the album, with a further $1 million if he handed it in to them by March 1, 1999.
In 2000, Rose hired avant-garde metal guitarist Buckethead, and drummer Bryan "Brain Mantia to replace the departed Freese. Later on in 2000, Finck rejoined the band as the third guitarist. On January 1, 2001, Guns N' Roses played their first concert in over seven years at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was followed by their headlining performance at Rock in Rio III on January 14, 2001 in front of 190,000 people. On August 29, 2002, the band made a surprise visit to the MTV Video Music Awards, playing old songs along with a new "Madagascar" to an ecstatic New York crowd.

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal replaced the departed guitarist Buckethead and touring resumed in May 2006, with Bumblefoot adding guitar tracks to the album between legs of touring throughout the year. Drummer Frank Ferrer replaced departed Brain in July and added his drum tracks to the album. On December 14, 2006, Rose published an open letter to the band's fans on their website, claiming that remaining tour's shows were taking up time the band needed to finish recording Chinese Democracy. Rose also revealed that the band had parted company with their manager Merck Mercuriadis, implying that the reason the album was not released in 2006 was Mercuriadis's fault (many times throughout 2006, Rose had said the album would be released that year). In the letter, Rose announced a tentative release date of March 6, 2007 for the album; however, the album was once again delayed.
On February 22, 2007, the band's road manager, Del James, announced that all recording for the album had been completed and it was in the mixing process, James stated that there was no release date for the album but that things appeared to be moving on after a number of delays.
On September 14, 2008, "Shackler's Revenge" was released on the music video game Rock Band 2, making it the band's first official release of new material since 1999's "Oh My God". "Shackler's Revenge" was shortly followed by another release, "If the World", which, according to Rolling Stone, plays during the closing credits of Body of Lies. A firm release date was announced by Billboard in October, 2008, set for November 23. In the US, the retail release is sold exclusively through Best Buy. The first single from the album, "Chinese Democracy", was released on October 22, 2008. In February 2009, Rose and video game developer Harmonix confirmed that the album would be released as downloadable content for the Rock Band series, joining the previously released "Shackler's Revenge