"The Spaghetti Incident?"

"The Spaghetti Incident?"
Studio album of cover songs by Guns N' Roses
Released	November 23, 1993
Recorded	1992–93 at A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Rumbo Recorders, CanAm Studios, Sound Techniques, Triad Studios, Conway Recording Studios and Ocean Way Recording[citation needed]
Genre	Punk rock, hard rock[1]
Length	46:03
Label	Geffen
Producer	Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses, Duff McKagan, Jim Mitchell
Guns N' Roses chronology
Use Your Illusion II (1991) "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) Chinese Democracy (2008)
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]
Robert Christgau	A−[3]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[4]
NME	7/10[5]
Q	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Spin	positive[8]
Piero Scaruffi	(4/10)[9]

"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album comprises covers of older punk rock and hard rock songs,^[1] and is the last to feature guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum. "The Spaghetti Incident?" is the only studio album to feature rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke.

Background

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 with Gilby Clarke.^[10] 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.^[11] 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, drummer Matt Sorum, and the only album to feature Gilby Clarke. It was also the band's last studio album until 15 years later with Chinese Democracy, and its last album until the live compilation album six years later with Live Era: '87-'93.

During studio sessions the band recorded a cover of "A Beer and a Cigarette" from Hanoi Rocks but the song never came out.^[12]

On the bottom of the cover art of the album, there is a code written with the Zodiac Killer's symbols, which has been deciphered as "fuck'em all".^[13]

Album title

The title is an inside joke referring to a food fight between Axl Rose and Steven Adler. Much was made of this food fight during Adler's lawsuit against 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, at the end of which Rose says, "thanks, Chas". The CD release gave no track number to the song and could only be found by listening through the silence after the final documented track on the album. 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.^[14] 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 performances

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 again in 1990, during the only known "The 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 McKagan 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, as well as Neurotic Outsiders, the supergroup Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were part of.

Reception

"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.^[15]

In his review for Allmusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that, "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".^[2]

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

See also

• List of number-one albums in Australia during the 1990s

References

Further reading

• Sullivan, Jim (November 26, 1993). '+Roses+dips+into+history&pqatl=google "Guns N' Roses dips into history". The Boston Globe. Living section, p. 79. 

External links

• "The Spaghetti Incident?" at Discogs (list of releases)