L.A. Guns (Official Thread)

[opera races]

Official Website

1988 L.A. Guns
1989 Cocked & Loaded
1991 Hollywood Vampires
1994 Vicious Circle
1996 American Hardcore
1999 Shrinking Violet
2001 Man in the Moon
2002 Waking the Dead
2005 Tales from the Strip



L.A. Guns has a very long and convoluted history ... I will attempt to keep things simple and focus on the music. It took me awhile to decide where to put this thread and I decided on 80's because:

- L.A. Guns formed in the 80's and their best known work as far as the general public is concerned is from the 80's
- L.A. Guns is not purely one genre of rock; e.g. "metal". On their Facebook page they describe themselves as rock/metal/80's ... another hit on the "80's" ID so that works for me! L.A. Guns have also been described as sleaze rock, glam rock, hard rock, and as Phil Lewis has said himself, "dirty rock and roll". L.A. Guns also got lumped in with the 80's "hair bands" although upon further study IMO they do not fit neatly into that pigeon hole. IMO they are pretty much their own category and off the top of my had I can't think of any other at least reasonably well known band I would say L.A. Guns are similar to.

Even though I was more than old enough in the late 80's to be aware of L.A. Guns ... I wasn't. I didn't come to know L.A. Guns until around 2004. Someone I know from another small private message board relating to music kept mentioning Tracii Guns a lot as one of his favorite guitar players until I became curious enough to do some research on my own. By that point Tracii had left the band. I started buying up the recommended albums ... one thing led to another ... I did go see the band lineup that was performing in 2005, have seen that version of the band two other times, expect to see them again in December, and also saw Tracii play in 2006 in a band which at the time was called the Tracii Guns band ... now he also tours with a band he bills as L.A. Guns. Are we confused yet? So are a lot of people.

Back to the 80's, the "classic" L.A. Guns lineup and their first album, the self-titled L.A. Guns released in 1988:



Phil Lewis - Lead vocals (formerly of the English glam metal band Girl and former band mate of Phil Collen also formerly of Girl)
Tracii Guns - Lead Guitar (the original "Guns" of Guns N Roses another long story for now lol)
Mick Cripps - Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Kelly Nickels - Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Whistle, Backing Vocals (formerly of the New York band Sweet Pain and a brief tenure with Faster Pussycat)
Steve Riley - Drums (formerly of W.A.S.P., among others)

Track Listing:

No Mercy
Sex Action
One More Reason
Electric Gypsy
Nothing To Lose
Bitch Is Back
Cry No More
One Way Ticket
Hollywood Tease
Shoot For Thrills
Down In The City

Hollywood Tease was originally a Girl tune and Kelly Nickels originally wrote Shoot For Thrills for Sweet Pain.

One More Reason



Electric Gypsy



No Mercy



Sex Action



Bitch Is Back



Cry No More (Instrumental - includes interview with Tracii Guns at the end)



Shoot For Thrills



Down In The City



to be continued ...

 

[METALPRIEST]

I still really like the first three releases!!

Electric Gypsy is a cool song and one of my favorite vids from them.

 

[LOU/REALM]

I agree with MP . The first few LA GUNS albums were top dollar releases.....and they made great videos aswell ! After that?.....
There was a spell when the Guns were HUGE . I felt so pleased for English singer PHIL LEWIS and the success they were having. Pointing 2 fingers at the people who disregarded his excellent previous band GIRL. They were hounded and spat at when they supported KISS ......NO BAND deserves that!!!
As you say Opera LA GUNS lost their way a bit , they seem to be a band who have had a few fallouts . I saw them a few years back and I know Phil Lewiss LA GUNS version have played local fairly recently which i sadly missed.
You are right LA GUNS were more than just glam metal with "The ballad of Jayne" up there with POISONs "every rose has its thorn" in the quality ballad stakes.

 

[METALPRIEST]

I didn't know they were treated so bad by fans on tour with KISS.

I like this tune alot from Hollywood Vampires

Some Lie For Love

 

[opera races]

Oh dear ...

I guess there are actually TWO "official" L.A. Guns web sites right now. I hadn't checked out Tracii's in awhile.

This site is for the current touring version of L.A. Guns with Steve Riley and Phil Lewis:

The Official Website of L.A. Guns

I'm not going to comment on the situation. I am seriously trying not to get stuck in the middle and get into any arguments with anyone over this. At times I've even had to dissociate myself emotionally and as a fan because I couldn't deal with the *DRAMA*. So again, I don't want to discuss it and my focus in this thread as far as what I share and my comments will initially be focused on the "old stuff" with the "classic" lineup which I don't see much discussion on in other places and on official releases with the label "L.A. Guns".

Yes MP, the official video for Electric Gypsies is very cool. Being in the MTV era when that channel played actual music videos most of the time L.A. Guns did a lot of interesting/fun/cool videos for their first two albums. They were packaged into two releases on VHS: One More Reason (the s/t album) and Love, Peace & Geese (from the Cocked & Loaded album). As far as I know they still have not been made available on DVD. Any DVD collections you might see are probably bootlegs.

In my first post I hesitated posting the official video for the song One More Reason because it is a bit over the top as far as being quite bloody and violent and if I remember correctly wasn't aired on MTV so be forewarned. Also I was wanting readers and listeners to focus on the music, the band's performance of the songs and not the crazy video! Note: The original drummer (before Steve Riley) Nickey "Beat" Alexander is in this video.



I don't think Sex Action was originally shown on MTV either but I didn't see anything too out of the way in it and I get the original intent so I posted that version already.

Bitch Is Back looks like that should have been the one used for Sex Action and again be forewarned! I know these videos have since been shown on VH-1 Classic, etc. but "opera races" is trying to be respectful to this forum and about members' sensibilities!

 

[opera races]

Ah-ha! MP, I think I know what Lou is referring to as far as opening for Kiss!

First of all I think opening for Kiss must be a tough gig for any band on all levels!

It was Phil Lewis' former band Girl who opened for Kiss and after what happened with that I seriously doubt L.A. Guns or any band with Phil Lewis or any other members of Girl would open for Kiss again! Girl did a cover of the Kiss tune Do You Love Me:



Kiss was aware of this and Girl was specifically told not to play Do You Love Me when they opened for Kiss. They did anyway which was quite a cheeky thing to do and that ended Girl's association with Kiss right there.

I have a copy of Girl's Sheer Greed on vinyl

I saw a sort of split version of Ballad of Jayne live less than three weeks apart in 2006: First the Tracii Guns Band (which had not yet started billing themselves as L.A. Guns) with Tracii playing the guitar part beautifully as ever. I am so glad I got to go see this show and see Tracii play guitar but Jayne was kinda weird without Phil (though I didn't get to see the classic lineup play live) and the singer at the time wasn't the best. Then Phil's L.A. Guns with Phil singing Jayne as well as ever but kinda weird without Tracii on guitar though the current guitar player in that band does a good job with it.

 

[METALPRIEST]

I'm aware of GIRL and have one album but was not aware of the KISS cover ordeal.

Pretty wild stuff

 

[LOU/REALM]

@ Opera ....The story of the fact that GIRL werent allowed to play "Do you love me? " doesnt surprise me .I saw them support KISS on the "Unmasked" tour....[ KISS were out of this world !!] When they played it KISS fans were going ballistic [ er not in a nice way and aggravated them more ] My theory for most of these years was that GIRL werent liked by the UK Rockscene at the time....they were pre 80sGlam in a NWOBHM market. As it happened thank god for MOTLEY CRUE,POISON and of course LA GUNS........then British bands eg TIGERTAILZ, WRATHCHILD got more accepted

 

[opera races]

Wow Lou, that's really cool hearing from someone who was there for the Kiss/Girl shows!

I'm looking back on all this in hindsight since I wasn't into a lot of these bands "back in the day" (though by all rights I should have been!) but it does strike me that Girl wasn't like any of the other rock bands at the time and didn't fit neatly into any pigeon hole or label people wanted to apply. Why does a band not easily being labeled cause such frustration? Just listen to the music and make up your own mind! Personally I find not bothering with labels a lot more fun when exploring music! I've also been quite surprised to discover later on what slot others have tried to shove certain bands I've come to like into!

 

[opera races]

Since I am planning on seeing L.A. Guns (Phil's) in December, I am boning up on L.A. Guns music and it's about time I quit neglecting this thread and get busy again!

Next up is what is probably L.A. Guns' biggest and best known album, Cocked & Loaded (hey and the title doesn't get censored on this forum! )



1. Letting Go
2. Slap In The Face
3. Rip and Tear
4. Sleazy Come Easy Go
5. Never Enough
6. Malaria
7. The Ballad of Jayne
8. Magdalaine
9. Give A Little
10. I'm Addicted (Guitar Solo)
11. 17 Crash
12. Showdown (Riot On Sunset)
13. Wheels On Fire
14. I Wanna Be Your Man

Yes, The Ballad of Jayne is an excellent song and became L.A. Guns' signature song. Phil is amazing on the vocals and Tracii is amazing on the guitar part and plays with so much feeling. You almost can't have one without the other on this song (although that's what happens these days). To this day L.A. Guns pretty much can't play a live set without including Jayne.

I still wonder who portrays "Jayne" in the video but have not found or gotten an answer!

Yay! I found an old live "back in the day" version!



Several videos were made for the songs on Cocked and Loaded and compiled onto a video (VHS) called Love, Peace & Geese. As far as I know it still hasn't been released on DVD. It's a fun video. Phil discusses and introduces each video while flying around Los Angeles in an old airplane! There's also snippets of what appears to be outakes from video interviews at the time but most are a bit silly to me.



Rip and Tear



Never Enough

Yes, it's based on the concept of being on an old TV show like Ed Sullivan. Note how Phil's hat keeps appearing and disappearing! And a few other small "howlers". I get the impression the video was filmed over more than one day! Great tune though. Another tune with some amazing guitar playing. I was listening to this CD during my walk yesterday evening and really I think Tracii sounds amazing throughout the entire album.



I Wanna Be Your Man

Shot at Denver city hall ...



Malaria



to be continued ...