Guns N’ Roses, GN’R Lies: Then and Later

Then: Christian Lipski
Later: Michael Small
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Top Five Slang Expressions From My Youth

By Christian Lipski

Rad © Tiffany Ross (aka Syke)

1. Rad: OK, right off the bat you can pinpoint the general area and time I grew up. I went to high school in California during the early-to-mid-80s. Yes, we all said “rad,” but in Northern California no one had a Valley accent, despite the word deriving from surfer lingo. For you youngsters, “rad” is short for “radical” and connotes excellence or a positive reaction. Example: “Dude, Back To The Future was a rad movie!”

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Winger, Winger

By Christian Lipski

I could listen to “Seventeen” a million times, and each time it will take me back to my junior year in college, hanging out at my friends’ houses and watching MTV or The Box. Like all good glam metal, Winger is carefree and lightweight, and makes me believe (if only for three minutes) that the only important things are partying and girls. And at the time, those things were relatively important to me.
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Metallica, Kill ‘Em All

By Christian Lipski

For a brief shining period in my life, this was the hardest music ever. My brother (yet again), acting as the advance scout, returned from the fringes of the music world carrying Metallica’s debut in a thick mesh net. It was like the Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest I had heard, only faster, more aggressive. It sounded like freedom!
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Vixen, Vixen

By Christian Lipski

I will admit that the novelty of an all-female metal band was the initial attraction. Metal was so uniquely associated with the posturing womanizer that it was a great advantage to have a band that inverted the standard. But they could honestly play and more specifically, they could honestly play the kind of music I liked.
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Bon Jovi, New Jersey

By Christian Lipski

I remember buying this CD in college, in a love/hate relationship with Bon Jovi. On the one hand, they were so commercial and inoffensive and harmless (and barely glam metal). On the other, the songs on New Jersey were freakin’ flawless. My friends and I did the “ironic” thing, where we’d like the songs because they were cheesy, but deep down inside (at least for me), there was a real love for them. They’re fun fun songs, and epitomize the arena rock style.
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Megadeth, So Far, So Good. . . So What!

By Christian Lipski

I never actually owned this album until this year, but I’ve listened to it quite a few times. In the summer of 1988 my brother and I had jobs at the same company, so he would come pick me up at my apartment in Lake Merritt (Oakland) and we’d carpool. Since it was his car, it was his music, which was fine, as I liked hearing what he was listening to. That summer it was usually So Far, So Good. . . So What! at peak volume as we smoked and drove to work.
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1988: Perk Up Your Ears

By Latanya

I was only seven in 1983, so I wasn’t as musically aware as I was in 1988. Granted, by 1988 I was 12 and in the seventh grade, and I was much more expressive by this point. Thankfully, my ears were perked up higher so the following albums stuck out
from that year.
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My Summer Songs: Live Grateful Dead

By Christian Lipski

Summer has come in, loud sing cuckoo.
MS Harley 978, British Library

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Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking

By Christian Lipski

Nothing’s Shocking is a great example of an album that I liked more for the individual statement that those specific songs made than the band itself. I didn’t really follow Jane’s Addiction after their debut, and I never felt sad about that. What I do feel sad about is that I looked on my iPod and I do not have this album on it. Okay now I do.
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