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Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses
written by Stephen Davis
Studio : Gotham
by Gotham
Publisher : Gotham
Released : 2008-08-26
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781592403776
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 12 reviews)
List Price : $27.50
Our Price : $15.45
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Product Description |
From the New York Times bestselling author, the complete story of the last rock supergroup— from their drugfueled blast-off in the 1980s to the turbulent life of legendary singer Axl Rose and his fifteen-year, multi-million dollar effort to make the perfect hardrock album.
With 90 million of the band’s records sold worldwide since 1987, Guns N’ Roses prolonged rock music past its sell-by date with controversial albums and immense, often riotous world tours. But the band’s complete story has never been fully told—until now. In his sixth major rock biography, Stephen Davis details the riveting story of a band that originated in the gutters of Sunset Strip and went on to set attendance records on the biggest stadiums on the planet.
Watch You Bleed documents the improbable story of W. Axl Rose, the biggest rock star of his generation. Taken from an abusive father in his infancy, he was raised as “Bill Bailey” in a strictly religious Indiana household by a stepfather who beat him for playing Led Zeppelin songs on the family piano. After quitting high school, and on the run from the police in his hometown, Axl arrived in Los Angeles in the midst of the street battles for supremacy among the top music genres of the eighties—post-punk, thrash, hair metal, and glam. The book also charts the backgrounds of every band member, especially Slash, a Hollywood street kid whose designer mother dated David Bowie.
Davis brilliantly captures the birth of Guns’ raw power, which—despite rape charges, drug-induced rampages, and a general appetite for destruction— launched the band into the pantheon of rock gods such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. With a wealth of detail, Davis looks at Axl’s unrelenting quest to release the long-awaited, mystery-shrouded Chinese Democracy album, as well as the further adventures of some of the Gunners under the banner of the hard-rocking band Velvet Revolver. For the first time, millions of Guns N’ Roses fans will learn the whole truth—sometimes funny, sometimes tragic—about the last of the great rock bands. |
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So many factual errors, it's hard to take seriously |
There are real serious issues with this one;
1) Multiple Factual Errors: Stephen Davis' fact checking is poor and he missed what I consider to be common knowledge for a crowd that would read this book....he refers to Paul Stanley as the "bass player of Kiss"; He's 2 months off of John Lennon's death date; "Slippery When Wet" is noted as Bon Jovi's debut album; He notes "In Through The Outdoor" as "Led Zeppelin's masterpiece", when it is almost unanimously viewed as their most unfocused album. All these were within 20 pages. Davis really has some shocking errors throughout the book and while I'm not an expert on Rock Trivia, I figure if a luddite like me can easily find those errors, there's probably a heap more. At least twice he actually misquotes some GNR lyrics that he should have had handy because they are included with each album. All in all it makes me question the entire book.
2) Too Much Editorializing: This book has several portions where the author feels the urge to go beyond just telling a story and provides his opinions. For instance, there's a section where he does a track-by-track analysis of the "Appetite" album, and his descriptions, likely meant to be flamboyant and show off his rock n roll street-cred, come off as laughable. He should stick with writing a biography and present the facts.
3) Tabloid journalism: He really presents the worst of Guns N Roses. While I'm sure they had their issues, Davis concentrates on the tabloid fodder. If they were truly as bad as he makes them out to be, there is no way they could have produced the music they did.
"Watch You Bleed" is less of a biography than a long comic book with no pictures and only partial basis in reality. It's still entertaining, but how much you want to believe is up to you. I think the author has done a great job of providing a book he thinks people want to read rather than to do proper research and give us the true story. |
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Lots of Factual Errors |
I agree with those who say that this book is littered with factual errors. It's an entertaining read, but Davis lost me when he wrote that Axl's voice gave out, and the June 1988 Sacramento had to cancelled at the last minute.
That gave me a start because I distinctly remember attending that concert, and I didn't think I had hallucinated it. I researched the 1988 concert schedule myself, and discovered that it was the next concert after Sacramento (in Irvine) that was cancelled. GNR didn't tour with Iron Maiden again after that.
It's a bit odd, because I've read other works by Mr. Davis, and his research skills have always seemed impeccable in the past. This one definitely should have been edited more thoroughly. |
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Very good biography |
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Well, as you may know, there a not worthy Gn'R biographies. There are some "fake" ones (which all of us have purchased some time ago...), but this isn't like the others. It hasn't been a very easy band, so to research all this information it is a very good job indeed. I trust in Stephen Davis and I believe this is a very good book (if you are a Gn'R fan). The worst of this book is that it's been eclipsed by Slash autobiography (well, nobody's perfect...). Anyway, if you want to know how this band "really" was explained from the outside, definitely, this is the book. If you are looking for something else, just buy slash's autobiography. |
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Unbelievable Factual Errors |
Davis' book is passably written but marred by factual errors that even a 13 year old rock fan would pick out. Jimi Hendrix is described as lighting his Les Paul on fire (he played a Strat 99% of the time), Paul Stanley is apparently Kiss' bass player (even my mother knows Gene Simmons plays bass), Joe Perry and Brad Whitford typify a kind of guitar playing known as 'flash' (never heard of it) and didn't play on Get Your Wings, Slash showed up at the studio to record Appetite with the 'original strings on his guitar.' (absolutley unbelievable). Davis attempts a fly on the wall approach that never lets the truth get in the way of a good story...Axl apparently arrives in NYC where an old black wino yells "do you know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby! And you're going to die!" And on and on and on...
Having said that, the Guns' saga is too filthy and compelling to not read. Too bad a better writer willing to do the proper research (never mind a publisher that employs a fact-checker) hasn't picked up the ball yet. |
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yadda-yadda-yadda |
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Book is filled with insight into the personal lives of the band before and during their hay-day. It covers a little post original GnR. I don't know if there was that much new material, but it's always entertaining to hear the stories of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll...not withstanding Axl Rose's prima-donna persona...They were a band that somehow made one of the greatest rock albums ever! |
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