More Slash On American Idol Preview

Oh man oh man oh man. This is going to be the best week of Idol ever. G-n-R was my first and last band crush. Twenty years ago, every inch of my wall was covered in posters of these sweaty, gnarly grown men. I don’t know what my parents must have thought of all that, but they were wise enough not to interfere.

I’ve spent the morning re-aquainting myself with their catalogue, with an eye towards picking songs that are Idol-worthy. First thought: Use Your Illusion was a really ambitious project. It also came out at the absolute apex of the music video genre. The videos for November Rain and Don’t Cry taken together are a stand alone rock opera.

Sadly, many of G-n-R’s songs don’t have enough vocal range and/or rely too heavily on a world-class guitar soloist to be interesting on this show. The exception is Sweet Child O’ Mine.



Predictions after the jump.

More...

In a perfect world, Adam and Allison would have to arm wrestle over who gets to sing this one. Either of them would absolutely kill with it. But here’s what I think will happen instead:

Kris “What Wife?” Allen will perform “Hey Jealousy” accompanied by a calypso steel drum, completely missing the point of Rock Week entirely. He’ll need a lot of 14 year old girls to save him this week, because he will be by far the worst performance.

Danny “Downy Jr.” Gokey will very competently pound out a power ballad that slyly reminds us all that he lost a young wife. “Faithfully” by Journey would be good, or “When I See Your Smile” by Bad English.

Allison “Reverting to a Brunette” Irahera should cover a male rock singer, but instead will go with a female rocker. She has two choices here. She can bring down the house with Blondie’s “Call Me,” or she can wail through an indifferent Heart song, probably “Alone.” Her track record suggests she’ll take the latter.

Adam “Winner” Lambert is in a bit of a pickle. As mentioned above, he should go with “Sweet Child,” but it doesn’t fit his strategy for two reasons. First, he’s at his best when he chooses interesting arrangements of relatively obscure songs (e.g., “Mad World”). Second, he alternates fast and slow every week, and this is a slow week. It’s hard to guess what he might do, but it will be something like “When the Children Cry” by White Lion.