Licorice Pizza: .44 Caliber Horticulture

9/07/2006

.44 Caliber Horticulture

That's gotta be the coolest album name ever. I almost called this blog ".44 Caliber Horticulture," the name's so great.

At one point, Guns n' Roses was the greatest band ever. They epitomized everything rock and roll should be: loud, ugly, unpredictable, and always on the verge of self-destruction. They were the missing link between punk rock and heavy metal. Unfortunately, the band only released three studio albums before they finally imploded. But, as always, there are a few other recordings floating around.

The sleeve for ".44 Caliber Horticulture" indicates the tracks are from "the band's studio practice sessions." The only thing I could find on the Interweb about this album says it was recorded in 1986 at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles. The Gunners couldn't afford to buy the master tapes, so the studio kept them as collateral. From what I understand, they laid down a couple of disks worth of the material that would later make up "Appetite for Destruction," as well as a bunch of cover versions of other songs.

The disk I have is Volume 1 of ".44 Caliber Horticulture." I don't have Volume 2, and don't know much about it. ".44 Caliber Horticulture - Vol. 1" includes demo versions of about half of the songs on "Appetite." There are also versions of "Reckless Life, "Move To the City," and "You're Crazy," which were all staples of the early Guns n' Roses shows, and would later appear on the "Gn'R Lies" disk. There are also two versions of "November Rain," one acoustic and version two, which features the more familiar piano accompaniment.