In Chuck Klosterman’s classic book Fargo Rock City there is a chapter in which he reviews some of his favorite hair metal albums. As part of the reviews he also establishes something called “The Jack Factor” for each, which is, in essence, the amount of money you would need to pay Chuck to permanently purge this album from his collection and never seek out any kind of opportunity to hear any of the songs on it ever again. A bit of a song could still get played at a sporting event and he wouldn’t need to run from the building, but he couldn’t, for example, choose to go to see them live, or even a cover band, because he’d be likely to hear at least some of those songs. The lowest Jack Factor value of the reviewed albums is $66 for Van Halen’s 1984. The highest is for Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction, which he has regularly described as his favorite album. To it he assigns a Jack Factor of $5,001.1
Why is this important? Because for a lot of folks Appetite For Destruction is a seminal record. Personally I’ve never been a GNR superfan – I have owned Appetite and Lies in the past, but that’s it. I never bought the Illusion albums or anything that came after. Don’t get me wrong – Appetite is an excellent record with five bonafide hits on it, and “Nightrain” might be their very best song IMO. So with that in mind, I almost didn’t buy this record when I saw it in a Rome record store called, ironically, Welcome To The Jungle. Do I really need alternate versions of all the songs on this album? Would the sound quality be any good? At the end of the day there are a lot of bangers on Appetite, plus I always liked the album’s original cover which is used here, so I gave it a shot.
There are multiple versions of this record, many of which came out in the early to mid 2010s. Discogs lists a few versions from as far back as 1987, but it seems a bit odd to think this would have first come out the same year as the actual release. Mine is from 2014 and on clear vinyl – so I can’t vouch for the quality of other versions.
The album opens, of course, with “Welcome To The Jungle,” and it’s definitely slower than the version we’re all familiar with, giving it a heavier and bluesier feeling. Axl enunciates the lyrics more clearly and the slower pace provides him more space, almost a bit too much at times – you can feel him stretching out some lines instead of having to hyper-compress them as he does in the album version. “Nightrain” feels a bit closer to the original, the sound more electric and tempo faster than “Welcome To The Jungle”, though with a very heavy dose of cowbell (was there this much cowbell on Appetite For Destruction? I may have to go back and re-listen.). The acoustic intro to “Mr. Brownstone”, supported only by tambourine and some kind of box percussion, is a significant departure from what we’re used to – there’s a bit of applause early on, so I suspect this is a live recording. “Paradise City” closes out the A side with another track that is very close to the studio song – the pacing, the riffs, and Axl’s delivery are all on point. The same is true of the B side track I’m most familiar with, “You’re Crazy”, which is pretty close to the final product.
I’m impressed with the sound quality on Appetite For Destruction Alternative Album. Sure, it’s not studio caliber. But we’re also not being served up muffled garbage that sounds like it was recorded on a Walkman inside someone’s pocket from fifty feet away (“Anything Goes” is the sonic low point, and it’s pretty rough). If you’re a GNR fan this one might be worthwhile if you can track down a copy – Discogs won’t allow it to be sold due to its “unofficial” status, so your best bet is probably eBay where it looks like copies have run in the $40-100 range over the last couple of years.
- I don’t know what my personal Jack Factor would be for Appetite For Destruction. I like, but don’t love, the album, so while I’d permanently ban Steely Dan’s Aja from my life forever for a draft beer (domestic), I’d need more for Appetite. But how much more? Probably not as much as Chuck. Maybe $250 or so. ↩︎