Welcome to another edition of Today in Boston ROCK, where I, Adam 12, spotlight Very Important Days In Rock History. September 17th is one.
1991
September 17, 1991: Guns N' Roses releases Use Your Illusion I. Clocking in at a whopping 76 minutes, you wouldn't think the band would need to release another album for, say, a few years. But wait! They released another album THE VERY SAME DAY!!! Before we get into that, let's get into how many songs from the album ended up on our ranking of all 87 GNR tunes. And let's also celebrate the best song on the album, "Don't Cry," a.k.a. the song where you see Axl's ass at the end of the video (YouTube cropped it out. Bastards.)
1991
September 17, 1991: Guns N' Roses releases Use Your Illusion II. 30 years on, and it's still mindblowing that Guns N' Roses didn't release a double album, but released TWO SEPARATE ALBUMS ON THE SAME DAY. That's an important distinction. Over two-and-a-half hours of music, and what some would argue was the peak of their career, creatively. To mark the 30th anniversary, we made this fantasy tracklisting based on the two albums. It kicks off with what I believe to be the best song on either album, due mainly to the amazing work of drummer Matt Sorum.
1991
September 17, 1991: Ozzy Osbourne releases his sixth studio album, No More Tears. No one remembers this because of the whole "Gun N' Roses just released two albums on the same day holy crap!" thing, but No More Tears is a ripper. Ozzy co-wrote songs with Lemmy and was backed by Zakk Wylde and Randy Castillo. The title track is the standout, in my opinion. "THE LIGHT IN THE WINDOW IS A CRACK IN THE SKYYYYY..."
2021
September 17, 2021: Violent Femmes and Flogging Molly headline Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston. Did you win tickets to the show on ROCK 92.9? Congrats! Enjoy! And before you head down, listen to my interview with Femmes frontman Gordon Gano.
