Probably somewhere around 10 PM on September 16, 1991, a few friends and I hopped in my car to travel to a record store about forty-five miles away.
Why?
At midnight, they were going to begin selling Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, the latest albums by Guns N' Roses.
It was an EVENT. There were hundreds of fans there by the time we got there. A radio station was broadcasting live from the store. Several news crews were in the parking lot, interviewing people as they entered the store.
Little did I know that those CDs would be the last original music released by Guns N' Roses for seventeen years.
I called the local Best Buy (the only place where you can buy Chinese Democracy besides iTunes) yesterday afternoon to see if they were planning on doing anything special to mark the occasion of Chinese Democracy's release.
Me: Are you opening at midnight tonight?
Teenaged Best Buy Representative: Um. No. Why?
Me: To sell Chinese Democracy.
Teenaged Best Buy Representative: What's that?
Me: The new Guns N' Roses album. And yes, I said album. Between that and me talking about Guns N' Roses, the kid probably thought I was speaking a foreign language.
Teenaged Best Buy Representative: You can buy it tomorrow morning when we open.
And after that conversation, this dinosaur slinked off to the tar pits.
Song of the day: Detachable Penis by King Missile
Has It Really Been Seventeen Years?
