Hollywood Rose
The Roots of Guns N’ Roses
Deadline Music
Why did I bother with this CD? Oh, I know why! I was a HUGE Gunner back in the day. I absolutely devoured everything I could get from the band. I loved the raw energy present on the Live… Like a Suicide tracks they included on G N’ R Lies. So I thought, maybe, this trip into the past would yield some heretofore unknown treasures from the early ’80s. Boy was I wrong.
What we have here is a five-song demo recorded by Axl, Izzy & crew, when they were known as Hollywood Rose, before Tracii Guns came along and added his ammunition to the mix. There is definitely energy; a glimmer of the band that would eventually gel. But these five songs are a curiosity, and nothing more. And to have the same five songs remixed twice (once by ex-Gunner Gilby Clarke with a couple of guitar overdubs by Tracii Guns and once by Cinderella drummer Fred Coury) to fill out a 15-track CD is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Diehard Guns fans will want this disc for their collection. Curious listeners should give it a listen to hear Axl doing good amateur impressions of Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson before he found out how his own voice worked. However, if Guns N’ Roses was never your thing to begin with, you can just move along.
