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Liner Note Author: Michael Heatley. AC/DC were not the only Australia-based rock band that specialized in boogie-based hard rock and tales of hard living -- as evidenced by the underrated Rose Tattoo. While Rose Tattoo enjoyed success in their homeland and in Europe, the group -- fronted by a chrome-domed chap named Angry Anderson -- barely managed to cause a blip on the rock & roll radar stateside. But thanks to Guns N' Roses covering one of their best songs, "Nice Boys" on their Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP (later reissued on G N' R Lies), many rock fans are unknowingly already familiar with at least one Rose Tattoo tune. And for those wanting to expand their knowledge of the band a bit further, the hefty 20-track strong compilation The Best of Rose Tattoo is a fine starting point. With many of the group's vintage albums hard to find, this collection is readily available, and contains all the group's standouts. Picture (rather unsurprisingly) an amalgamation of Bon Scott-era AC/DC and Appetite for Destruction-era Guns N' Roses, and you're not far off from the style/approach that Rose Tattoo specialize in. A case in point is the original version of the aforementioned "Nice Boys," as well as the slow grind of "The Butcher and Fast Eddie," the punk rock-like "All the Lessons," and a tune known for its inadvertently hilarious video, "Branded" (which received a few spins on MTV's heavy metal-based specialty shows back in the day). As evidenced by the material collected on The Best of Rose Tattoo, the group certainly had what it took in the song department to score with the metalhead set back in the day. ~ Greg Prato
