"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.

This was the last Guns N' Roses album to feature lead guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum as well as the only album to feature Gilby Clarke.

"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.

Album title

The title is an in-joke referring 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 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 early 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, decapitated 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 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, on track 12. 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

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Since I Don't Have You" (by The Skyliners)	Joseph Rock, James Beaumont	4:20
2.	"New Rose" (by The Damned)	Brian James	2:38
3.	"Down on the Farm" (by U.K. Subs)	Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, Nicholas Garrett	3:29
4.	"Human Being" (by New York Dolls)	Johnny Thunders, David Johansen	6:48
5.	"Raw Power" (by The Stooges)	Iggy Pop, James Williamson	3:12
6.	"Ain't It Fun" (by The Dead Boys)	Cheetah Chrome, Peter Laughner	5:06
7.	"Buick Makane" (by T. Rex) "Big Dumb Sex" (by Soundgarden)	Marc Bolan Chris Cornell	2:40
8.	"Hair of the Dog" (by Nazareth)	Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton, Darrell Sweet	3:55
9.	"Attitude" (by The Misfits)	Glenn Danzig	1:27
10.	"Black Leather" (by The Professionals)	Steve Jones, Paul Cook	4:09
11.	"You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" (by Johnny Thunders)	Johnny Thunders	3:35
12.	"I Don't Care About You" (by Fear) "Look at Your Game, Girl" (hidden track)	Lee Ving Charles Manson	4:51

In the end of "Hair of the Dog" one can hear the refrain of the Beatles song "Day Tripper" being played.

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1993	Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1
1993	United States Billboard 200	4

Personnel

• Slash – lead & rhythm guitars (all tracks except 11 and 13), lead vocals (track 7), backing vocals (tracks 9, 12)
• Axl Rose – lead vocals (all tracks except 2, 9, 11), keyboards (track 1), kazoo (track 4)
• Duff McKagan – bass (all tracks except 13), lead vocals (tracks 2, 5, 9, 11), backing vocals (track 11), acoustic guitar (track 11), drums (track 11)
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar (all tracks except 6, 11 and 13)
• Matt Sorum – drums (all tracks except 11 and 13), percussion (track 8), backing vocals (track 9)
• Dizzy Reed – piano (track 1), keyboards (tracks 4, 5 and 8), backing vocals (track 11), percussion (track 13)

Additional personnel

• Michael Monroe - lead vocals (track 6)
• Mike Staggs – additional guitar (track 6)
• Mike Fasano – percussion (track 8)
• Richard Duguay – lead & rhythm guitars (track 11)
• Eddie Huletz – backing vocals (track 11)
• Stu Bailey, Eric Mills, Rikki Ratchman, Blake Stanton – backing vocals (track 12)
• Carlos Booy – acoustic guitar (track 13)
• Mike Clink – producer