"The Spaghetti Incident?"

"The Spaghetti Incident?"
Studio album by Guns N' Roses
Released	November 23, 1993
Recorded	A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Rumbo Recorders, CanAm Studios, Sound Techniques, Triad Studios, Conway Studios, and Ocean Way Recording, 1990-1993
Genre	Hard rock, punk rock, glam rock, heavy metal[1]
Length	46:03
Label	Geffen
Producer	Mike Clink Guns N' Roses Duff McKagan Jim Mitchell
Guns N' Roses chronology
The "Civil War" EP (1993) "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) Use Your Illusion (1998)
Singles from The Spaghetti Incident?
"Ain't It Fun" Released: November 20, 1993 (1993-11-20) "Since I Don't Have You" Released: May 1994 (1994-05) "Hair of the Dog" Released: 1994 (1994)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Q	[3]
Robert Christgau	(A-) [4]
Entertainment Weekly	(A-) [5]
Rolling Stone	[6]

"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. The album is unique for the band, consisting entirely of cover versions, mostly of punk and glam rock songs of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Many of the tracks were recorded with original Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin during the Use Your Illusion I and II sessions and then were later re-recorded by Gilby Clarke.^[7] Those tracks were previously intended to be included in a combined Use Your Illusion album, consisting of three (or possibly even four) discs, instead of the two separate discs they ended up being.

In 1992, the band prepared to release the leftover cover tracks as an EP, with Gilby Clarke replacing Stradlin's guitar tracks. They later decided on making the album a full release and recorded several more tracks for it.^[8]

Bassist Duff McKagan sings on many of the album's tracks and Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe appears on "Ain't It Fun" as a guest vocalist.

This was the last Guns N' Roses album to feature lead guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum and the only album to feature Gilby Clarke. It was also their last studio album until exactly 15 years later with Chinese Democracy, and their last album until the live compilation album exactly 6 years later with Live Era: '87-'93

"The Spaghetti Incident?" debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 190,000 albums in its first week of release, significantly less than their previous releases.^[9]

Album title

The title is an inside joke referring to a food fight between Axl Rose and Steven Adler involving spaghetti. Much was made of this food fight during Adler's resolution lawsuit with the band in 1993, in which Adler's attorney referred to it as "the Spaghetti Incident". The meaning was explained by drummer Matt Sorum in a 1994 interview with Much Music and confirmed by Slash in his autobiography, Slash.

During a discussion between Rose, Slash and the album's cover designer in the "Making of Estranged" video, it is made clear that the correct form of the title is within quotation marks and with a question mark.

Original release

The album was released shortly after the conclusion of the Use Your Illusion World Tour which had lasted until mid 1993. The vinyl copy of the album was released in clear plastic orange, and the CD was released with color designs and markings: black concentric rings around the outer edge, and an indigo and blood-red depiction of an evil jack-o-lantern eating spaghetti out of a hollowed-out, decollated head in the center, which would later be changed (in the 1997 reissue) to simply a plain silver colored CD.

Controversy

Despite protests from Rose's bandmates, an unadvertised cover of Charles Manson's song "Look at Your Game, Girl" was included on the album at Rose's request. The CD release gave no track number to the song—it could only be found by listening through the dead air left after the last documented track on the album, on track 12. In early 2000, Rose said that he would remove "Look at Your Game, Girl" from re-issues of the album, citing that critics and popular media misinterpreted his interest in Manson and that a misunderstanding public no longer deserved to hear it.^[10] However, the song is still present on the album, and in recent re-issues, "Look at Your Game, Girl" has been added as a separate, 13th track.

Live

The first track, "Since I Don't Have You", was performed a few times as an intro to songs "Sweet Child o' Mine" or "Paradise City" in 1992 and 1993. "Down on the Farm" was performed once in its full length during the 1990 performance in the Farm Aid IV show. It was also played a few times during the Chinese Democracy Tour in 2006. The band performed "Hair of the Dog" once in 1988, and another time in 1990, during the only known GAK (band featuring members of Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Skid Row) performance. "Attitude" was performed frequently during the Use Your Illusion Tour, and Duff still plays it in Loaded and his solo career. Other songs played live by him are "New Rose", "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" and "Raw Power". The other songs were never played live by Guns N' Roses, but might have been played by some of the members' side projects, like Matt Sorum's supergroup Camp Freddy, that plays cover versions of famous songs.

Reception

The album has seen mixed reviews since its release. Rolling Stone magazine gave the album a 3.5 out of 5 stars.^[11] Allmusic said "As punk albums go, The Spaghetti Incident? lacks righteous anger and rage. As Guns N' Roses albums go, it's a complete delight, returning to the ferocious, hard-rocking days of Appetite for Destruction".

Rhapsody praised the album, calling it one of their favorite cover albums.^[12]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Original artist	Length
1.	"Since I Don't Have You"	Joseph Rock, James Beaumont	The Skyliners	4:20
2.	"New Rose"	Brian James	The Damned	2:38
3.	"Down on the Farm"	Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, Nicholas Garrett	U.K. Subs	3:29
4.	"Human Being"	Johnny Thunders, David Johansen	New York Dolls	6:48
5.	"Raw Power"	Iggy Pop, James Williamson	The Stooges	3:12
6.	"Ain't It Fun" (featuring Michael Monroe)	Cheetah Chrome, Peter Laughner	Dead Boys	5:06
7.	"Buick Mackane (Big Dumb Sex)"	Marc Bolan Chris Cornell	T. Rex Soundgarden	2:40
8.	"Hair of the Dog"	Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton, Darrell Sweet	Nazareth	3:55
9.	"Attitude"	Glenn Danzig	The Misfits	1:27
10.	"Black Leather"	Steve Jones, Paul Cook	The Professionals	4:09
11.	"You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"	Johnny Thunders	Johnny Thunders	3:35
12.	"I Don't Care About You"	Lee Ving	Fear	2:07
13.	"Look at Your Game, Girl" (hidden track starting at 2:17 in "I Don't Care About You")	Charles Manson	Charles Manson	2:34
Total length:				46:03

• In the end of "Hair of the Dog" one can hear the refrain of The Beatles song "Day Tripper" being played.
• Because of the hidden track, track 12's total length is 4:51.
• On very initial pressings, "Look at Your Game, Girl" was at track 99, with tracks 13-98 all being short silent "songs" with a total playing time of six minutes.

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1993	Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1
	United States Billboard 200	4

Personnel

Guns N' Roses

• W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, keyboards on "Since I Don't Have You", kazoo on "Human Being"
• Slash – lead guitar, co-lead vocals on "Buick Mackane (Big Dumb Sex)", backing vocals
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, lead vocals and drums on "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", lead vocals on "New Rose" and "Attitude", co-lead vocals on "Raw Power"
• Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano, backing vocals
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar

Additional personnel

Michael Monroe – co-lead vocals on track 6 Mike Staggs – additional guitar on track 6 Mike Fasano – percussion on track 8 Richard Duguay – lead and rhythm guitars on track 11 Eddie Huletz – backing vocals on track 11 Blake Stanton – backing vocals on track 12

Eric Mills – backing vocals on track 12 Rikki Rachtman – backing vocals on track 12 Stuart Bailey – backing vocals on track 12 Mike Clink – production on all tracks except 1 and 11 Jim Mitchell – production on track 11 Bill Price – mixing

George Marino – mastering Kevin Reagan – art direction; graphic design Dennis Keeley, Gene Kirkland & Robert John – photography

References

• Christe, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-380-81127-8

Notes

1. ^ Christe (2003), pg. 318
2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r188450/review
3. ^ (02/01/1994)
4. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=1471
5. ^ (11/26/1993)
6. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/gunsnroses/albums/album/137829/review/5943780/the_spaghetti_incident
7. ^ "GN'R Recording Sessions". Here Today... Gone To Hell!. Archived from the original on 2010-01-16. http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/misc/recordingsessions.html. Retrieved 2010-11-11. 
8. ^ "The Spaghetti Incident?". GnRsource. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20080822205030/http://gnrsource.com/songinfo/tsi.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
9. ^ Hasty, Katie. "Kanye Edges GNR, Ludacris For No. 1 Debut". billboard.com. Dec 3, 2008. Archived 16 January 2010 at WebCite
10. ^ "Guns N' Roses in Manson flap - Entertainment News, Music News, Media - Variety". December 2, 1993. Archived from the original on 2009-05-04. http://www.variety.com/article/VR116266.html?categoryid=16&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-05-01. 
11. ^ Gold, Jonathan. "Guns N' Roses: The Spaghetti Incident? Review". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-spaghetti-incident-19931209. Retrieved 29 June 2011. 
12. ^ Rhapsody’s Favorite Covers Albums Referenced August 1, 2010

Preceded by So Far So Good by Bryan Adams

Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album December 5–11, 1993

Succeeded by Superunknown by Soundgarden