"Hey fuckers, suck on Guns and fucking Roses!"
These are the opening words of Guns N' Roses' Live?!*@ Like A Suicide which was their debut EP, released in December of 1986. The word live in the title is said in the sense of a concert performance, rather than 'to live one's life'.
The number of copies was limited to 10,000 and the record became an overnight collectors item as it sent a shock wave through the underground scene of mid-eighties Los Angeles. The 'live' recording sounded sleazy, dangerous and as hard as the streets the band were still living on. However this EP wasn't all that it seemed to be...
"The EP's a piece of shit compared to the album... that's the most contrived piece of shit we've done yet. It ain't a live record - if you think it is you're crazy. What we did was go into a room, record ourselves and put 50,000 screaming people on top"
- Axl Rose
The Live?!*@ Like A Suicide EP was an effort by their record company, Geffen Records, to curb the impulse of the band to record their first full abum. Instead Geffen allowed them to record the EP, perhaps with a view to starting a solid fanbase, but primarily to allow the band to mature before they began recording in earnest. Geffen's desire to see the band improve before they stuck their name on a record was reflected in Live?!*@ Like A Suicide's release by the Uzi Suicide Record Comapny - the bands own psuedo-independant label created by Geffen. Recorded by Hanspeter Heuber and mixed by Hanspeter Heuber and Alan Niven, with production by Guns N' Roses, the EP was available as a record and cassette.
Track Listing
- Reckless Life
- Nice Boys - a Rose Tattoo cover.
- Move To The City
- Mama Kin - an Aerosmith cover.
The songs from this album would reappear the third Guns N' Roses release,
GN'R Lies, in 1988, since the band wanted all the fans to have access to the material without paying excessive amounts for an original or paying for bad
copies.
Sources:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com
Personal knowledge from many and varied sources.
The @ in the name 'Live?!*@ Like A Suicide' is not strictly accurate. Instead of the @ there is meant to be a spiral, but the @ is as close to the real thing as I could manage.