Why didn't GN'R re-record Civil War?

[Vincent Vega]

Civil War was recorded around April 1990 (It features Dizzy, who joined the band in Feb. 1990 and was debuted live at Farm Aid in April '90). The song's recording went well apparently, except for the drum parts. Due to his drug use, there wasn't a single usable drum track to go with the song, so Mike Clink had to splice the best from 70 takes of the song to create a viable drum track. CW was then released as GN'R's first single of the '90s around June 1990. Steven was fired just a month later on July 11th 1990, and Matt was hired to replace him within a few weeks of his firing.

Why didn't the band re-record Civil War with Matt on drums for UYI II? They were essentially releasing a song that was already released over a year before as a single on their new album with a drummer on the track who wasn't in the band anymore.

I mean consider that for TSI, on the songs Izzy had recorded with the band during the UYI sessions, they erased Izzy's guitar parts and had Gilby play his own. Why didn't they do the same with Adler for Civil War--erase his drum track for the album version and have Matt record a new one?

Edited June 22, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[seely]

I've often wondered this.

[Gun N' Roses]

Civil War was recorded around April 1990 (It features Dizzy, who joined the band in Feb. 1990 and was debuted live at Farm Aid in April '90). The song's recording went well apparently, except for the drum parts. Due to his drug use, there wasn't a single usable drum track to go with the song, so Mike Clink had to splice the best from 70 takes of the song to create a viable drum track. CW was then released as GN'R's first single of the '90s around June 1990. Steven was fired just a month later on July 11th 1990, and Matt was hired to replace him within a few weeks of his firing.

Why didn't the band re-record Civil War with Matt on drums for UYI II? They were essentially releasing a song that was already released over a year before as a single on their new album with a drummer on the track who wasn't in the band anymore.

I mean consider that for TSI, on the songs Izzy had recorded with the band during the UYI sessions, they erased Izzy's guitar parts and had Gilby play his own. Why didn't they do the same with Adler for Civil War--erase his drum track for the album version and have Matt record a new one?

Because they liked Clink's drum parts better...? Too much work, not enough time? Who knows...

Edited June 22, 2013 by Gun N' Roses

[Dariablue]

Maybe it was a time issue? Those albums took forever to do anyway,

[Nosaj Thing]

tl;dr

OT: Because it was a finished product as it is.

[Vincent Vega]

Maybe it was a time issue? Those albums took forever to do anyway,

The albums themselves didn't seem to take that long to do, once the band actually started work on it. From everything I've read, serious recording didn't start until after Matt joined (Summer of 1990). 1989 was a year wherein songs were written and demoed but not fully worked on--No real work was done in making the album.

Izzy recorded his basic tracks and parts relatively quickly in the beginning of the recording sessions, then disappeared totally. The rest of the songs tracks seem to have been recorded between the Fall of 1990 and the Spring of 1991, not long before the UYI tour. It was the overdubs and vocals which really took the longest.

Most of the vocals were probably recorded in 1991, as we have instrumental versions of some UYI songs from late September 1990. The last song recorded I think was Get in the Ring and that was just the vocal track and the crowd overdub, taken from a show on the tour in June 1991.

Axl announced 'the record is done' at a concert in July 1991, then it went into mixing and mastering. This part seems to have taken a bit of time, considering the Bob Clearmountain issue and finding the right engineer/mixer and Slash having to do guitar overdubs for Izzy, who was MIA and had only participated in basic track recordings.

I know it was supposed to come out in the summer of '90, then the fall of '90, Christmas '90, then it was supposed to come out in May '91 (I remember reading it's release was supposed to coincide with the start of the tour), then July '91 (Axl said the album was coming out in July at an early UYI show), then August....But of those missed dates only the '91 dates would've been viable anyway because the recordings didn't seriously begin until mid-late '90.

Edited June 22, 2013 by Vincent Vega

[TombRaider]

Maybe because Mike Clink had already managed to create a viable drum track and re-recording with Matt would've been more expensive and maybe they didn't wanna go over budget?

[Vincent Vega]

Maybe because Mike Clink had already managed to create a viable drum track and re-recording with Matt would've been more expensive and maybe they didn't wanna go over budget?

Since when has "going over budget" ever stopped Axl?

[TombRaider]

I don't know. I was just speculating

[Vincent Vega]

I don't know. I was just speculating

Lol. I love your threads, keep them up You're quickly becoming a name around this forum and I mean that in a good way.

[DieselDaisy]

I have often wondered that myself.

Also, by putting out Adler's Civil War, they were giving Adler some mechanical royalties. Adler was already suing them when Illusion was released.

[TombRaider]

I don't know. I was just speculating

Lol. I love your threads, keep them up You're quickly becoming a name around this forum and I mean that in a good way.

Am I now? What do you mean?

[trqster]

Civil War recorded with the UYI lineup would have kicked some serious ass - a shame really, but still a great song nevertheless.

[themadcaplaughs]

Already recorded, decent drum track created (even if it was completely created from scratch), and why re record a song that had already been released?

[TombRaider]

Do you guys actually hear the difference between drum styles in Civil War and the rest of the tracks on the UYI albums?

[Vincent Vega]

Do you guys actually hear the difference between drum styles in Civil War and the rest of the tracks on the UYI albums?

No. I've sometimes thought the drums was actually done by Matt and that Steven was given a credit anyway, because it does seriously sound like Matt drumming, it even has similar fills.

But then, the other guys wrote the UYI drum parts, so the drums were going to sound the same no matter who played them.

[axlsalinger]

Because the song was recorded for the Nobody's Child soundtrack and already released publicly.

http://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Child-Romanian-Various-Artists/dp/B000008IZT

[TombRaider]

Do you guys actually hear the difference between drum styles in Civil War and the rest of the tracks on the UYI albums?

No. I've sometimes thought the drums was actually done by Matt and that Steven was given a credit anyway, because it does seriously sound like Matt drumming, it even has similar fills.

But then, the other guys wrote the UYI drum parts, so the drums were going to sound the same no matter who played them.

I don't hear the difference either

Edited June 22, 2013 by TombRaider

[DieselDaisy]

Because the song was recorded for the Nobody's Child soundtrack and already released publicly.

http://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Child-Romanian-Various-Artists/dp/B000008IZT

True but that does not necessarily prohibit the release of a re-recorded ’Civil War’ for Use Your Illusion 2. More of Adler's mechanical royalties were always going to come from Use Your Illusion 2 rather than Nobody’s Child. My own belief is that they had just written a line under 'Civil War': 'done and dusted, time to move on.'

[jimb0]

I'm glad they kept him on. I like his feel better, even if it's from 70 takes.

[Vincent Vega]

It would've been nice if they could've gotten another take where Izzy is actually on the song.

[themadcaplaughs]

I'd guess the reason you cannot get the distinct Steven feel from it is because it was so scraped together. Cutting together drum takes like that truly sucks the soul out of any drum performance.

[Ace Nova]

Civil War was recorded around April 1990 (It features Dizzy, who joined the band in Feb. 1990 and was debuted live at Farm Aid in April '90). The song's recording went well apparently, except for the drum parts. Due to his drug use, there wasn't a single usable drum track to go with the song, so Mike Clink had to splice the best from 70 takes of the song to create a viable drum track. CW was then released as GN'R's first single of the '90s around June 1990. Steven was fired just a month later on July 11th 1990, and Matt was hired to replace him within a few weeks of his firing.

Why didn't the band re-record Civil War with Matt on drums for UYI II? They were essentially releasing a song that was already released over a year before as a single on their new album with a drummer on the track who wasn't in the band anymore.

I mean consider that for TSI, on the songs Izzy had recorded with the band during the UYI sessions, they erased Izzy's guitar parts and had Gilby play his own. Why didn't they do the same with Adler for Civil War--erase his drum track for the album version and have Matt record a new one?

Because they liked Clink's drum parts better...? Too much work, not enough time? Who knows...

This. I think it was amazing enough that they got Axl along with the rest of them to record over 30 songs as it was....getting all of them back in the studio to re-record one track probably wasn't even possible, considering the fact that they were already touring.

[gunsfanoldie]

Do you guys actually hear the difference between drum styles in Civil War and the rest of the tracks on the UYI albums?

Personally I don't, but it is weird and sort of funny that there's one track on both albums that Sorum doesn't play on. You'd think just for uniformity they'd want to re-record it with him. Again, it came out excellent so who cares, but it is odd there's one track different than the rest of Illusion.

[rocker rockstar]

Civil War sounds great just the way it is. I wonder more of what UYIs would have sounded if Steven did all the drums. Would it have sounded completely different? Would it sounded more like AFD? Would it have been better?