The Worst of the Best Podcast

Guns 'N' Roses.m4a
Welcome to the worst of the best podcast.
You wanted the best.
Well, they didn't freaking make it.
So here's what you get from Canada, Ryan and Ruben.
You wanted the best.
But they didn't make it.
So here's what you get from Hollywood.
Guns and Roses.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Huge.
How many times have you seen them live?
I've seen them live three times.
I saw them with...
Oh, I got you beat.
Not surprising.
I saw them in 1991, two months before they released the Usual Illusion album.
So I saw the original lineup, Minus Adler.
It was Matt Sarm on the drums.
He was a new member at the time.
Saw them with Izzy Stradlin.
Amazing.
They played the Usual Illusion songs.
I heard them for the first time live on stage.
It blew me away.
It was an amazing concert.
Skid Row opened.
Tacoma.
Then I saw them again in 93, the same tour.
That's where I got this t-shirt.
1993.
And this was in Vancouver.
I can't remember who opened for them.
What is it?
The Brian May Band.
Thank you.
It was Brian May.
From Queen.
Oh, is that where he's from?
Well, as some people might not know.
Yes, Brian May.
He did a great job, by the way.
Yeah, yeah.
Great job.
He did.
I just forgot.
It wasn't because it wasn't good.
I just forgot.
That was a great show.
Do you remember when they were at pizza?
Yeah.
In the middle of the show, they had an acoustic set.
That's right.
He has some couches out.
The pizza guy comes out, and he's like, I'm on stage with Guns N' Roses.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
And then you and I had tickets with our brother Jason to see him in Vancouver.
But then there was a riot.
Yeah.
That didn't happen.
And then I saw them the next time in Seattle.
And then I saw them in Calgary in 2006 with my brother Jason.
And then saw them with you.
No, were you there?
No, I saw them with you in September 2017.
That's the last time I saw them.
Yeah.
So it was three times for me.
Yeah.
You've gone to multiple times for reasons.
Because they put on an incredible show.
They played three plus hours of music from six albums.
It's amazing.
They only have six albums.
Over 100 million albums sold worldwide.
It's incredible.
Yeah.
As big as fans as we are of Guns N' Roses, each one of their albums seems to have a dud or a wilted rose, if you may.
And we're here to take that out of the garden and keep this bouquet fresh.
Okay.
Pretty good.
Okay.
Pretty cheesy.
I know.
It was a little better than what I had.
Okay.
What was yours?
Nothing.
Okay.
So it was better.
That said, yeah, songs that for me have stood the test of time.
So we're going to work.
Backwards.
Yeah.
We're going to work backwards.
We're going to start with their 2008 release, Chinese Democracy, basically known as the Axel Rose Project.
And we're going to work backwards from that album to Appetite for Destruction.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Chinese Democracy, first off, I love it.
It's a great album.
I think it's a great album.
It is.
It's a very good album.
There was a time.
That's a song from the album, by the way.
Yes.
So there was a time when this album, when it came out, I remember saying to myself, I wish Axel maybe released this album under the Axel Rose name.
Like, just call this an Axel Rose.
Now, I stand corrected.
He has proven me wrong because Guns N' Roses play songs now from that album on stage with Slash and Duff.
Chinese Democracy they play.
They play There Was a Time.
They play Prostitute.
They play a missing song.
Oh, Better.
Better is fantastic.
Yeah.
So they've played from that album, which is a Guns N' Roses album.
I don't know if Axel had the foresight or what.
He has stuck by this band, even though by himself and Dizzy Reed, mind you.
Yes.
They have stuck by this band.
Now they're playing those songs live, and Slash and Duff seem to really be digging playing those songs.
Yeah.
But Ruben, there is a song on this album that just for me is not the best.
In fact, it is the worst song.
Myself as well.
We have to preface, we love almost everything they do.
Now this doesn't make this a bad song.
Just the worst one on the album.
That's right.
That's what we're saying.
Even Jason would have to pick a song that's the worst.
I know he would have a hard time doing this.
Our brother Jason is the largest GNR fan in the world.
But this song, both Ruben and I both agree that this is the worst song on this album.
Am I lost to Ruben?
My apologies.
I forget.
I forget.
So we're just going to play a little snippet so Facebook doesn't take us down.
Are you recording on your...
I am, brother.
Okay.
That part's cool.
It is.
That part's cool.
But it doesn't stay cool the whole...
It's a rockin' song.
It's very rockin'.
It's a rockin' song.
Again, this album, I love Chinese Democracy.
It's a great album.
It's multiple layers.
It's got...
It's...
Anyways, it's an incredible album.
A lot of talent on this album.
Buckethead and what have you.
But this song, it's just not unique enough.
There's other songs that are very unique on this song.
Like Shackler's Revenge, Sorry, Better, There Was a Time, Prostitute, just to name a few.
Those songs are just...
They just seem to be more epic and more layered and just...
This is just a good old-fashioned punch-in-the-gut rock-and-roll song.
Not a bad song, but my pick for the worst of this album.
Mine too.
Okay.
You're the worst, Riyadh and the Beduans.
Oh, yeah.
Sorry.
We should tell our listeners who might not know this album very well.
Yes.
That was Riyadh and the Beduans.
I always had Guns and Roses.
Yeah, but it's Riyadh and...
Maybe this was their alternate name.
Because Slash and Izzy were like, all right, we got Guns and Roses or Riyadh and the Beduans.
Anyways.
So there's that one.
Hey, if you're looking to start a tribute band to that era of Guns and Roses.
Yeah, good idea, Rue.
Yes, thank you.
So the next album that they released was...
We're going backwards.
They did the cover album in...
Actually, I don't have these years ready.
In 1993.
This was released in November 23rd, 1993.
So this was 24 years ago.
I love this album.
It's a great album.
This album, Ruben, is called...
Spaghetti Incident.
And it's taken from what, Riyadh?
Oh.
Court Case with Stephen Adler.
That's right.
Stephen Adler got upset or he was high as a kite or whatever.
Stephen?
Oh, that's weird.
Yeah.
He threw a big bowl of spaghetti.
That's awesome.
Yeah, right here.
The title is an inside joke referring to a food fight between Axl Rose and Stephen.
Much was made of this food fight during Adler's lawsuit against the band in 93, in which Adler's
attorney referred to as the spaghetti incident.
The meaning was explained by drummer Matt Sorum in a 94 interview with a bunch of music and
confirmed by Slash in his autobiography, Slash.
Great book, by the way.
Yeah, it's a good read.
It's a good read.
So, poor Stephen.
I mean, that was 24 years ago, 23 years ago.
But however, it's called The Spaghetti Incident?
It's a question mark.
Yeah, it is.
Okay.
So is this The Spaghetti Incident?
It is.
It's the fifth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses.
And it's an album composed of covers of older punk rock and hard rock songs.
However...
There is an exception.
There is an exception to that cover.
And there is one original song on the album, Rubin.
There is.
Do you know what that song is called?
Take a look at your game girl.
That's right.
So this caused some controversy.
The name of the song is Look at Your Game Girl.
And it was a hidden track at the end.
The track was kept secret, including not being on the advanced tapes sent out to reviewers.
The reason for that is because this song was written by none other than May He Rest in Pieces.
Charles Manson wrote this song.
What was he thinking?
Axl Rose?
Yeah.
This was 24 years ago.
He was in his 20s, late 20s.
Axl has always been kind of a weird person.
I don't mean that eccentric, controversial.
He loves controversy.
I think he kind of surrounds himself.
The name of the album is based on a food fight he had with somebody.
Yeah.
Said in a courtroom.
Well, he has a reason.
And Rose claimed the reason we didn't list that song on our album is we wanted to downplay it.
We don't want to give any credit to Charles Manson on the album.
It's like a hidden bonus track.
What a weird bonus.
The band considered removing the song from new pressings of the album with David Geffen stating,
In a phone interview, I would hope that if Axl Rose had realized how offensive people would find this, he would not have ever recorded the song in the first place.
The fact that Charles Manson would be earning money based on the fame he derived committing one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century is unthinkable to me.
All right.
All right.
All right.
So moving on.
No, I mean, we're doing fine here.
Yeah, we're doing good.
So this song, where is it?
We're going to have to find it for our audience.
Yeah, it's right here.
You're right there.
You're there, brother.
Oh, OK.
So this is Look at Your Game Girl, written by none other than Charles Manson, sung by Axl Rose.
So I don't think Slash is on this.
I forget who records this.
Yeah, I don't think Slash is on the track.
OK.
So Look at Your Game Girl, our pick for worst song, the only original song on the album, Look at Your Game Girl, as written by Charles Manson.
OK.
All right.
So now we're going backwards in time still.
We're on User Illusion 2.
Yes.
This album, too.
So good.
Oh, yeah.
Such a good album.
Oh, yeah.
My apologies.
Let's do a little shout-out.
My apologies to User Illusion 2.
This is an incredible album.
The fourth studio album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released in 1991.
Do you remember that day?
Yes.
It's one of those days of my childhood I remember.
Talk about it.
OK.
Well, you and Jay bought the tapes and the CDs for it, one for the Walkman.
The Sony Walkman, the yellow thing that are for the stereo CDs.
Blume my mind.
I love how epic the songs were.
Yeah.
So this is 1991.
And this was our young listeners, like Ethan, our nephew, who just chimed in.
Ethan likes that song, We'll Hear Your Game Grow.
That's awesome, buddy.
You're your father's son.
You're your father's son.
Again, the worst song on the album.
It doesn't make it a bad song.
It's just the worst song on the album.
We have to pick.
And please, by all means, our listeners, you can play along with us.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris, Ethan.
Tell us what your worst of the song is for each album that we've covered so far.
So we've covered Chinese Democracy, The Spaghetti Incident.
And now we're on Use Illusion 2.
So chime in, by all means, and give us your pick of the worst song from each album.
So Ruben and I and our friends, we took the day off school.
We got permission from our parents to skip school because it was a Tuesday.
You're skipping it anyways.
Well, yeah.
Well, we did it honestly and openly.
We didn't have to lie.
Because we were going to do it anyways.
We got the blessing from our parents.
Go thy way, my child, and by you, you're in a cot skipping school.
No, I was a very good skipper of schools.
I would forge my parents' signature on the absentee form.
Then they stapled to the report card.
You just take it off, and then the parents would never see it.
But in grade 11, on the first Thursday of school, I had a doctor's appointment.
So I went to the office.
I'm like, hey, I got a doctor's appointment.
Okay, sure.
The next Thursday, I had to go to the principal's office for something, or the office.
And the secretary goes, oh, that's right.
You got a doctor's appointment on Thursdays.
I said, that's right.
Yes, I do.
Every Thursday.
Nice.
That was your ticket.
The ticket.
Yeah, I miss Socials 11, though.
I don't know a lot about Canada's history.
We don't have one.
We've always been here.
We skipped school.
We waited in line, bought the CDs, took them home, put them in our stereo.
And kids won't understand this anymore.
But, you know, like, you couldn't stream this.
We opened up the package.
We put the CD in.
You read the liner notes.
We read the liner notes.
Everything.
Thank you.
Who wrote this song?
Who wrote this song?
And we're like, oh, yeah, I remember listening to this at the concert.
And then we sat.
And we just listened to music.
We're just like, and just listened.
And we just kept listening to it.
And the other band that we did that for was Metallica for the Black Album.
We did the same thing.
We brought it home.
We listened to it.
So Ethan said he missed our Chinese Democracy pick.
But I would have picked The World or Riyadh and the Bedouins.
We did pick, Ethan, Riyadh and the Bedouins.
And The World, good second choice.
It's okay.
You're not saying you don't like the songs.
They're just the worst of the best.
I like it with The World.
I like it kind of background music.
It's kind of funky.
It has, like, other countries.
Other world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Well, speaking of world.
What is the worst song on Easy Illusion 2, brother?
Okay.
This one we also agreed on, Rue.
You want to step into my world.
It's a socialized podcast.
Damn.
You've been related to the real world.
How many times have you hit and missed?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Let me do it.
I'll take care of it.
Jesus.
Sorry, we're all yelling at everybody's ears.
All right.
All right.
Post-production that we're all level out.
Probably not.
Probably not.
Okay, so.
Trying to keep a PG-13 there.
Yeah, we're just trying to keep a little PG-13.
Okay, yeah.
So, my world.
Axl attempting to rap.
I'm not sure what's going on there.
Well, we stepped into his world, and I did not agree with it.
One of the things I like about Axl is he seems to have artistic integrity.
Like, he'll go and do something, whether all the stupid songs that we mentioned that we think are the worst.
But he did explore into rap.
Good for him.
Swore in different textures and layers.
He did it, too, for Rocket Queen during the 90s there, too.
Yeah, he did.
During the Rocket Queen song, he would...
Very colorful language rap that you would do during the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
He's just the two best girlfriends.
And I lie in my mouth and put a hand in the wind.
Then I pick it in.
I pull it out.
I grab your face and then I burn your mouth.
It's in a case, girl.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
I'm a fan of the Rocket Queen.
Rocket Queen.
Okay.
Moving on to Use Illusion 1.
Just for the record, people should know this.
Of course, Use Illusion 1 and 2 were released on the same day.
Which one was the number one album, though?
Two was.
Are you right?
Yeah.
I remember that.
I remember kind of feeling bad for one.
I don't know why.
Somebody has to...
But I always find it interesting that whoever bought two didn't buy one.
I don't like the orange.
Yeah.
They only have six albums.
Right.
But there's orange on two to three of them.
I think G&R Lies has orange on it.
Like apple.
Get it?
Orange and apples.
Okay.
Orange and apples?
Yeah.
I don't know.
You're talking about orange.
I just thought of fruit and then I'm wearing it.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
It just seems such an off-putting color orange can be.
Chris has chimed in.
He goes, I'm with you guys on your picks thus far.
I don't want to read.
I don't...
No, it's okay.
Does it mention Use Illusion 1 yet?
Yeah, but he picks one that we didn't pick.
Oh, okay.
So he says, I would have gone with Garden of Eden.
That was a close contender.
Interesting.
I like it, though.
I just don't like Alice Cooper.
No, you know, you think of the Garden.
Oh.
Yeah.
No, Garden of Eden.
I love that song.
All right.
Chris, you're the one you're talking about.
Hey.
Hey.
Easy on the guy.
Oh, my gosh.
He's a lot of half the worst.
He's a big boy.
He can take my criticism.
Yeah, he's a big boy, all right.
All right.
So, Ethan.
I'm not sure what that means.
Ethan, our nephew, picked bad apples.
Come on.
I'm wearing the shirt, man.
Ethan.
Ethan, you're wrong.
Bad apples?
I think Ethan and Chris are bad apples.
Oh, man.
You guys are bad apples.
They're supporting this whole.
Oh, man.
Well, since this is our show.
Yeah.
Since this is our show.
So, it's our pick that matters.
Not our listeners.
Okay.
So, this is what we picked.
I think we picked the same one for Use Lision 1.
Did we not?
Yeah.
I believe so.
Okay.
It's right here.
You ain't the first.
You ain't the first.
Oh, I just came through to you.
Your head's so far.
Was it just a come along, honey?
It was meant to last.
I forgot where we were in the song.
Okay.
I think you're welcome, Warren.
Sorry, Ethan.
Yeah.
There's a time I knew every song.
When I was Ethan's age.
You know, Duff has his fingerprints all over the song.
All right.
You ain't the first.
All right.
So, what song would you rather listen to?
You ain't the first or The Garden, Chris?
Yeah.
Like, that's a good question.
You picked bad apples there, Ethan.
Are you serious?
You'd rather listen to You Ain't.
That's how you have to measure these songs, Ethan.
And as you have to say, you're going to rock out to You Ain't the First over Bad Apples?
All right.
That's your call, man.
But this is our show.
We're going with You Ain't the First.
So, moving on.
Where are we now?
We are.
We're now on Gene R. Lies.
Boy, this album caused controversy when this album came out.
I know.
I know.
One of my favorite...
I saw Aerosmith there.
One of my favorite Guns N' Roses songs of all time is actually one of their most controversial.
And when we'll get into the song, you can Google it yourself.
It was one in a million.
Love that song.
The acoustic, the electric behind the acoustic guitar.
Axel's raw, raspy, unhinged voice.
You remember my Panasonic clock radio with the tape player?
It was silver, gray, green, LED or whatever.
Yeah.
I'd listen to that every morning.
One morning, I won't mention who, but mom.
They came in and took the tape out.
She got sick of me listening to it.
It wasn't like unhinged or anything like that.
But just like, ah, this song again.
Right.
Which one?
One in a million?
One in a million.
Yeah, it's a great song.
I love it.
It's a fantastic song.
To me, it's got a Bruce Springsteen vibe to it.
That yearning, that wanting to do something with your life.
Small-time white boy, man.
Yeah.
Just trying to make ends meet.
Don't need your religion.
Don't watch that much TV.
Just making my living, baby.
That's enough for me.
You're one in a million.
Yeah, that's what you are.
You're one in a million, babe.
You're a shooting star.
Maybe still never see you.
Before you make us cry.
Yeah.
You know we tried to read you.
But you are much too high.
That's a great, yeah, it's an incredible song.
But that's not, that's our best.
That's if we had a podcast.
This isn't the best of the worst.
You're right.
This is, or the best of the best.
This is the worst of the best.
Yeah.
And we do have a song that I think we, we disagreed on this one.
This is our first disagreement.
Okay.
Okay.
I think this one should have been split in two, by the way.
Okay.
So Ruben's going to argue right off the bat.
I think you're going to say the first side A of the tape was their.
It's an EP.
Extended play.
What was it called again?
Extended play.
I thought the album had a title.
It was live.
Yeah.
GR live or something like that.
And it had four songs.
Move to the city, Mama Ken, Nice Boys, and Reckless Life.
Okay.
So if you want to divide up GR, GR lives is their smallest album.
It's causing the biggest debate here.
The first four songs were live and they were already released before Appetite.
Yeah.
The next four songs were original songs.
And one of them itself was a cover of a song they already just released on Appetite,
which is kind of like, how do you want to do it, Ruben?
I'm just going to call it an album.
So it's the worst song on the album.
It's released as an album officially.
You can't buy their first album anymore.
It comes out on GNR Wise.
All right.
Okay.
You picked, did we pick the same one?
No.
I picked Used to Lover.
Okay.
Where is that?
Oh, there it is.
Okay.
So this was Ruben's pick.
Everyone knows this.
Ruben picked Used to Lover.
I know.
I'll let the fans get angry.
But here we go.
No one's going to get angry.
I used to love her.
But I had to kill her.
I used to love her.
But I had to kill her.
It's got two things that songs shouldn't have.
Oh, Jason just joined us.
Boy, here we go.
Jason, our brother, the biggest Guns N' Roses fan, just joined the conversation.
So Jason, our brother, he is picking for the worst song on GNR Lies, Used to Lover.
Continue.
All right.
I'll mention the first worst thing first.
Not what was the worst, but.
Sure.
One of your reasons why you picked it as the worst.
Humor.
It's another dog, apparently.
That's what they say.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Still.
There lies the joke.
All right.
All right.
Sure.
It's animal cruelty or it's murder.
One or the other.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Either way, they killed something.
Well, that's the second part.
Now, of course, the second part doesn't count because, you know, it's a joke.
And so it's just like.
It's tongue in cheek.
It's absolutely tongue in cheek.
I guess it's funny.
I'm actually a big lyric guy.
I love lyrics of songs.
Uh-huh.
Like I actually love.
So why didn't you pick that one then?
It's because this is one of the exceptions actually for me where the groove of the song
I enjoy.
It's got a little bit of Rolling Stones.
It's a bit of a Rolling Stones.
It's kind of bluesy rock.
So I think the song, the way it sounds.
See what Jason wrote?
I know.
Jason agrees with Ruben.
That's fantastic.
Well, you both are going to disagree with me.
But both Christopher and Goff and myself picked this one.
That's cool.
Now, again, I like the song, but it's the worst.
I would actually rather listen to Use the Lover.
You know why?
Because Nice Boys is one of the weakest songs because the chorus sounds very – it's not
the band that – like Use the Lover is more G&R today than Reckless Life is today,
if that makes sense.
Reckless Life sounds very 1985, very like a troubadour type.
To me, it sounds like a juvenile song.
Nice Boys, don't play rock.
That's where the lyrics lose me.
The Nice Boys don't play rock and roll.
Like they're bad boys.
Leave that to Motley Crue.
This is Guns N' Roses.
That's my pick for worse.
All right.
Are we related?
We are related.
All right.
Yeah, Jay, I agree.
Look, it's my show, man.
But you're absolutely right.
Nice Boys would probably be more fun to watch live.
Use the Lover is not a very good song live.
With you, I agree on that.
Oh, Ethan.
Ethan's joined in.
He said a good point about Bad Apples.
He'd rather listen to Bad Apples.
One in a Million is an incredible song.
Definitely my favorite of the album.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
So we're moving on.
That was the only one we've disagreed on so far, I think, isn't it?
I think so, brother.
Okay.
We can move on.
Are we good?
Uh-huh.
We okay?
We okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can let it go.
Okay.
I think because we agree on the last song.
So we're now going to Appetite for Destruction.
Appetite for Destruction, probably a near-perfect album.
Every single song.
No filler.
All killer.
But even back in 1987, when I listened to this album, there was a song that I wasn't that crazy about.
Okay.
When you say near-perfect, you take the song out, you got a perfect album.
Yeah.
I think if this song didn't exist, you would be hard, very hard-pressed to find the worst song.
It lowers the bar.
It really does lower the bar.
This is that juvenile thing I was talking about.
I think this song is definitely speaking to that juvenile.
But even back when I was a teenager, it was like, again, yeah, here we go.
So I'm just going to play the song.
And you tell me, listening audience, if you agree with Ruben.
And we both agree with his choice as the worst song on their best album.
All right.
We'll stop it there, everybody, for the lyrics kicking.
Yeah.
Anything goes.
Everybody agrees.
Yeah.
But you know what's funny?
If that's playing on the radio, I'll never turn it off.
It's not a boring song.
You're not listening.
You're not bored.
The lyrics ruin the song.
Yeah.
We all agree.
We all agree.
We're all united in this one cause.
I would be very hard-pressed to find somebody picking another song over this one worse than
anything goes.
That's what I'm saying.
It's probably just somebody living at home with a low IQ.
Yeah.
And someone's like, that's me.
Why would you say that about me?
Are you living at home?
Yeah.
Yeah, there you go.
So anyways, there we go, Ruben.
We've tackled Guns N' Roses, the biggest band in the world today again.
Crazy.
They're touring the world, number one tour in the world.
They're beating out bands like U2 right now.
U2, Coldplay, Metallica.
It's amazing.
So good for them.
Yeah.
They've been around for 30 years as a band since their first release.
Now, obviously, you've got talent going for them.
And the other thing that they have going for them is they're able to bury the hatchet and
move forward.
They did.
Bury the hatchet and move forward.
That's our lesson.
So remember, I've been a while since I've seen it.
What's it?
Oh, yeah.
In front of every silver lining, there's a cloud.
You usually say more to that.
That's it.
No, that's what it is.
Oh.
Jason, I live at home.
Well, I hope so.
You're not homeless.
Remember, in front of every silver lining, there's a cloud.
And we're here to help you find it.
All right.
Cheers.
We're going to do one more episode.
If you want to listen, we're doing one more.
It's not as fun as this one.
It's not as fun as this one.
you
you
you
Thank you.