Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Appetite for Destruction (1987). This is a truly great rock 'n' roll song. The funny thing is, I didn't always think so. When Guns 'n' Roses hit the scene in 1987, I was in graduate school in Tucson. I had heard a song or two from the first album and told my friends that I didn't like the band. There was something vaguely frightening about Axl Rose (the vocalist) and Slash (the top-hatted guitarist). I was used to bizarre musicians, having grown up idolizing Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, the New York Dolls, Kiss, and Led Zeppelin; but this was different. Axl Rose wasn't like the rest. He had tattoos and wore a bandanna. He moved differently. (Look at the video at 3:44, for example.) There was something almost criminal about him. He didn't seem to be putting on a show, like the others. Looking back after 22 years, it's no longer frightening. In fact, it's pretty funny. Guns 'n' Roses was different, to be sure, but it was a difference of degree, not kind. Rock 'n' roll was simply evolving.