1992 Flashback: Aerosmith and Guns n' Roses

Back in 1992, Aerosmith and Guns n' Roses played a show in Paris and did a duet of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and it was glorious. Over the weekend, Hair Nation actually played the live recording and I was reminded of the magic and I had to share it here. This was back in the day when rockstars...were rockstars. Enjoy this memory!

Comments

[Him]

Gotta admit, that was a damn fine performance. I surely miss Axl in his yoga short/hot pants days (for the singing, of course!). And that was some solid swagger from all involved. Amazing that GnR went from their 87' debut, to this, to . .. well, to other things, some of them really expensive. Izzy (not Izzy's, the NW pizza buffet), I miss ya'. Adler, I know they are gonna call. I just know it!

One minor quibble: not sure this is really the era of 'rock stars'. Sure, there were some major bands making major noise around this time. And, sure, we still saw some of the fading lights of the Glam/Strip era hoisting their last leotards on their petards (and, yes, I know what that phrase means since I once read Hamlet and I also get irony).

But . . . the real era of rock stars? Ah, the 70s. Led Zep, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Sabbath, and even crazy (and gross) Uncle Nuge! They seemed to walk on paths we couldn't. Seemed to trample under foot (see what I did there?) mere mortals. And we thanked them for it. There was mystery. There was pomp. There was, granted, a lot of false tales and also a lot of real ones.

The key ingredient? We couldn't see behind the curtain. We couldn't tell the image from the mirage from the reality. And, yes, there were whiffs of that during the 80s (full disclosure: that was when I got those glimpses at the Gods as I was learning what it meant to listen to bands). Bands like the Crue, Slayer, and Lep projected a larger than life vision onto the screens. And, sure, many of them lived the lives we were shown . . . even if we were shown, later on, the fractures and cracks in the facade. Fall of the House of Glam? Nah. Just reality setting in, as it did with some of the idols from the 70s.

I think our current age has stripped a bit of the mystery away. And I don't like it. Then again, I do. I like to know that musicians are people too . . . and cool, and jerks, and frail, and horrid, and compassionate. But the mystery and majesty of the 70s in the zenith. Everything since that point, well, it is not.

But that post points to a great fact that kicks me in the grapes: live is live is live. Cool is cool. Some bands, at least at some point in their careers, kicked butt no matter what was behind the curtain (point in complicated fact: often because of what was behind the curtain).

Thanks for sharing Allyson.

[Metalboy!]

Great comments, HIM, except maybe Nugent ... I saw him point blank 6 times, first when he hit it big with that first solo album and several times in the late 70’s when he took over vocal duties from the superb vocalist, Derek St. Holmes (a man I met numerous times) with limited results (meaning Nugent’s vocals were pretty lousy) as he pretty much unintentionally devolved into a novelty act replete with loin cloth and Tarzan rope.

As great as he was, the man didn’t really make “important” records ... For example, beyond all the other bands you haphazardly (haha!!) equated him with, as cartoon as AC/DC was / is, nearly all of their albums have made much more lasting impact than say, Nugent’s “Free For All” or any of his other sh*t, except maybe the first one, like I said ..,

The rest of the stuff, I agree with and your comments on, “some of the fading lights of the Glam / Strip era hoisting their last ‘leotards on their petards’”, AND your name-checking HAMLET, are PURE classic HIM and yet even further examples of the real reason people need to remember to keep coming back to this site ...

Great posts and great commentary, more often than not, on the great Glam Metal, Hair Metal, 80’s Hard Rock, 70’s Classic & Hard Rock eras to relive for eternity.

And also, more often than not, coming from the inimitable HIM!

[Him]

Thanks, Metalboy!, for the compliments. Appreciated. And you are right about the Nuge. But he was a major draw in those early years (surprisingly so, when you look back at it). But his catalog doesn't even compare to the others. So I probably should have just skipped him.

And you are also right about his vocals vs. St. Holmes. No comparison! Even on a stink-fest like _Nugent_ (1982), the shift from St. Holmes to Nuge was jarring.