"The Spaghetti Incident?"

Untitled

"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth album by hard 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. 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 then-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke replacing Stradlin's guitar tracks. They later decided on making the album a full release and recorded several more tracks for it.

Then-Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan sings on many of the album's tracks and Hanoi Rocks frontman (and Axl Rose's idol) Michael Monroe appears on "Ain't It Fun" as a guest vocalist.

To date, it is the last full-length studio album released by Guns N' Roses.

Album title

The meaning of the album's title was explained by drummer Matt Sorum in a 1994 interview with Much Music and confirmed by Slash in his autobiography, Slash. The title is a reference 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; and Adler's attorney referred to it as "the Spaghetti Incident". It is suggested that the attorney's choice of name for the incident was a reference to the David Bowie movie, The Linguini Incident. Nikki Sixx has stated in his autobiography The Heroin Diaries that the title is taken from an unfortunate incident coming on the tail end of a bet made between himself and fellow Motley Crue bandmate Tommy Lee. The pair had made a bet to see which of them could go the longest without showering while still being able to attract groupies. The bet came to an abrupt end when a woman vomited the remnant of her pasta dinner on Sixx' shoes in the course of fellatio, which came to be known informally amongst Motley Crue and their contemporaries, of which Guns N' Roses were one, as "the spaghetti incident."

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 since early 1991. The vinyl copy of the album was released in clear plastic orange, and the CD was released with colour designs and markings, which would later be changed (in the 1997 reissue) to simply a plain silver coloured 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 his 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. 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. 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.

Track listing

Track number	Title	Time	Writer	Original artist
1.	"Since I Don't Have You"	4:20	Joseph Rock, James Beaumont	The Skyliners
2.	"New Rose"	2:38	Brian James	The Damned
3.	"Down on the Farm"	3:29	Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, Nicholas Garrett	UK Subs
4.	"Human Being"	6:48	Johnny Thunders, David Johansen	New York Dolls
5.	"Raw Power"	3:12	Iggy Pop, James Williamson	The Stooges
6.	"Ain't It Fun"	5:06	Cheetah Chrome, Peter Laughner	The Dead Boys
7.	"Buick Makane"	2:40	Marc Bolan	T.Rex
	"Big Dumb Sex"		Chris Cornell	Soundgarden
8.	"Hair of the Dog"	3:55	Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton, Darrell Sweet	Nazareth
9.	"Attitude"	1:27	Glenn Danzig	The Misfits
10.	"Black Leather"	4:09	Steve Jones	The Professionals
11.	"You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"	3:35	Thunders	Johnny Thunders
12.	"I Don't Care About You"	4:51	Lee Ving	Fear
13.	"Look at Your Game, Girl" (Hidden Track)		Charles Manson	Charles Manson

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1993	Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1

Personnel

• Axl Rose – lead vocals
• Slash – lead guitar, acoustic guitar
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion
• Dizzy Reed – piano, keyboards, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Mike Staggs – additional guitar on "Ain't It Fun"
• Michael Monroe – additional vocals on "Ain't It Fun"
• Mike Fasano – percussion on "Hair of the Dog"
• Richard Duguay – lead guitar on "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"
• Stu Bailey, Eric Mills, Rikki Ratchman, Blake Stanto - backing vocals on "I Don't Care About You"
• Mike Clink – producer