by Greg Prato
Here's a little-known glam-metal fact: Phil Lewis was not the first frontman for Sunset Strip favorites L.A. Guns. There were actually a few others who fronted the band before Lewis (Axl Rose was rumored to be an early member), one of whom was a gentleman named Paul Black. The Black-led version of L.A. Guns (which also included Tracii Guns and Mick Cripps, two members who would later appear on the group's recordings with Lewis) managed to demo quite a bit of material during their short tenure together, which serves as the basis for 2005's Black List. As expected, these '80s-era demos are not exactly up to snuff sonically with the eventual studio albums by the group, but for hardcore fans, there are a few areas of interest. Tops on the list would be early versions of a pair of tracks that would later turn up on the group's self-titled 1988 debut, &Show No Mercy& and &One More Reason to Die,& while the rest of the tracks never appeared on any L.A. Guns releases. As evidenced by such tracks as &Love and Hate,& Black's vocals were reminiscent at times to those of W.A.S.P.'s Blackie Lawless, while the album-opening &Stranded in L.A.& shows that the group was harder edged than the local competition at the time (Poison, Warrant, etc.).