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Written by Marc Cantor with Jason Porath and additional
photographs by Jack Lue.
The domination of the hard rock scene in the late eighties
by heavy metal hair bands sparked a backlash from back-to-basics hard rock bands
who wanted to capture the spirit of their live shows on record.
Leading the pack
from Los Angeles, where the slick blond
hair-dyed job look originated, was Guns N' Roses, a band whose first record
Appetite for Destruction, made a slow climb up the charts. Now twenty years
later, one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time is getting both a
fitting tribute and compelling documentation in Reckless
Road: Guns N’ Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction.
Guns N’ Roses were an amalgamation of two Los
Angeles rock bands, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Roses, that would lead to the band whose lead guitarist labeled "destructive but profitable." In
1976 author Mark Cantor, close friend of that guitarist "Slash" since grade school,
vowed to document his friend’s career from an eager high school to seasoned
virtuoso guitar God. Cantor follows the story of an album through nights of
debauchery, breathlessly energetic live shows, frustrated A&R people through
members of the band and those who were close to them.
The book is chock full with hundreds of photos that Cantor shot
himself, along with scans of school notebook drawings, concert tickets,
artwork, exhaustive interviews and detailed commentary. Reckless Road
is a scrapbook told with affection from multiple points of view which is
divided into three sections: the pre-history of the band, the making of the
band and the creation of the record beginning with their sixth record deal with
Geffen records. The result is both a cohesive and seamless book that gets
better and better as it leads to its inevitable conclusion of world tour and
record deal but it’s the getting there that makes this a worthy addition to
a book collection.
The story of how the A&R guy Tom Zataut got the album promoted is a whole book in and of itself. The band’s reputation as ‘out-of-control drug addicts’
was taking its toll and MTV even went so far as to refuse to ever play any of their
videos despite increasing word-of-mouth sales. Zataut got David Geffen to call the head of MTV who owed him a favor.
There’s even a map of downtown L.A. clubs they’ve played and
a historical diagram of the band members leading up to the joining of the band, and
a cast of characters including managers, public relations and record company
people, friends and family. No one is excluded from the proceedings as Cantor wisely makes
sure everyone gets their say on the historical accounts. Those looking for a
warmed-over rock biography told from a single point of view or a tabloid sleaze
will be disappointed as Cantor lets the players in this epic tell their own
stories.
Cantor is not a professional photographer but he does have a
good eye which makes perusing through this exceptional photo album of never-before-seen snapshots of the band a joy. Owners of the book have a chance to download video, audio
and other exclusive material from the website at www.recklessroad.com. This is a
must-own for fans of Guns N’ Roses, as well as anyone who ever hummed along to “Sweet
Child of Mine".
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