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Best use of Dizzy's piano in a Use Your Illusion song?


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My friend and I used to always laugh at the live in Tokyo vids where Dizzy plays the tambourine or something... It's like.. the guy's gotta earn his full day rate.

However, I do think the end of Locomotive is pretty awesome. Nov. Rain and Estranged def required piano. I have to say, the piano in the live version of Don't Cry (tokyo 92 live era mix) made it so good... especially the bridge right after the solo. I liked the piano in Move to the City in Tokyo a lot too.. Dizzy was really good there. Piano IMO wasn't needed anywhere else.

Don't Cry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA5cvaVuSbc#t=3m04s

But very specifically under 3:12 - 3:20 is gorgeous piano playing - simple, but so melodic.

Edited by zepsun
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to each their own, but i really think what makes the Illusion albums special is the piano parts throughout. They made THEIR brand of rock n roll and they did it with a piano and i love every track that has it included. If you were wanting Appetite Volume 2 then i guess you got dissapointe

Best? Nonsense! Dizzy and Axl's over use of piano on those records are completely unnecessary. Do we need piano on KOHD, So Fine, PTU? No, we don't. Civil War is another one. I really would like to hear someone make their own mix and strip the piano parts out of all but the Axl songs and see how they sound. I know some of the demos are better, particularly Civil War so I bet it would be awesome.

"They"? Who was this? Because I'm pretty sure Duff, Slash and Izzy didn't want those on there and they were all put on post production via Axl. As far as I'm concerned, apart from the Axl songs, the real version is the version without all the piano because 4 of the 5 members didn't want it on the record.

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My friend and I used to always laugh at the live in Tokyo vids where Dizzy plays the tambourine or something... It's like.. the guy's gotta earn his full day rate.

However, I do think the end of Locomotive is pretty awesome. Nov. Rain and Estranged def required piano. I have to say, the piano in the live version of Don't Cry (tokyo 92 live era mix) made it so good... especially the bridge right after the solo. I liked the piano in Move to the City in Tokyo a lot too.. Dizzy was really good there. Piano IMO wasn't needed anywhere else.

Don't Cry:

But very specifically under 3:12 - 3:20 is gorgeous piano playing - simple, but so melodic.

His MTTC solo is definitely great, makes me "air-piano" everytime :D
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I understand that fans of the classic line-up (or Slash-era I should say) likes to shit on Dizzy, probably because he chose to stay with Axl after the rest of the original members left.

I also understand that if you ONLY like AFD and dislike the way GnR evolved in UYI, it's normal that you dislike Dizzy's contributions to the GnR sound.

But the addition of piano and synths is what makes both UYI sound what it sounds like. I listened to both albums today, and I can't tell a song in which I felt that the piano ruined it.

There are songs I think are pretty weak (Breakdown, So fine...), and they would have been weak without piano too.

There are songs with no piano in them (RNDTH, Perfect Crime, YATF, Back off bitch, DTJ, Don't Damn Me, Dead Horse, Coma, GITR, YCBM, My world, The Garden, garden of Eden...) too.

I think it's very needed on some songs like Don't cry, LALD, KOHD & both epics NR & Estranged.

It adds a lot of flavour, rhythm and groove to classic Rock n' Roll songs like Dust n' Bones, Bad Obsession, Bad Apples, Civil War, 14 Years, Yesterdays, Shotgun Blues, PTU & the AWESOME outro of Locomotive.

There is a lot of hate towards Dizzy but the guy helped building the sound that most of you would have loved GnR to evolve in instead of breaking up and turning into what you call a cover band.

I'm not saying that he was a KEY FACTOR, but he was an official member of the UYI line-up, played on a lot of songs and was a great live addition. Therefore I loved his contribution.

Edited by Laparka
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  • 5 months later...

Guitar covers aren't the same as demos of course, but they give an amazing idea of what a raw, stripped down UYIs would've sounded like, with Izzy amped up into the mix. Listen with headphones:

Don't Damn Me (sans Dizzy's organ parts)

Bad Obsession (sans the harmonica):

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Didn't Axl write all the parts?

No. Part of the reason Dizzy was hired was he was rehearsing with them in the studio and added piano parts on his own to songs they hadn't even been considering using piano on. "Heavy metal piano" Axl called it. This impressed Axl and was a part of why he was hired.

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Guitar covers aren't the same as demos of course, but they give an amazing idea of what a raw, stripped down UYIs would've sounded like, with Izzy amped up into the mix. Listen with headphones:

Don't Damn Me (sans Dizzy's organ parts)

Bad Obsession (sans the harmonica):

There's no organ on Don't Damn Me and Izzy can be heard easily on both of those songs, especially the former.
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Guitar covers aren't the same as demos of course, but they give an amazing idea of what a raw, stripped down UYIs would've sounded like, with Izzy amped up into the mix. Listen with headphones:

Don't Damn Me (sans Dizzy's organ parts)

Bad Obsession (sans the harmonica):

There's no organ on Don't Damn Me and Izzy can be heard easily on both of those songs, especially the former.

There is organ on DDM, check your booklet:

Drums: Matt
Bass: Duff
Lead and Rhythm Guitars: Slash
Rhythm Guitar: Izzy
Organ: Dizzy
Vocals: Axl
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Locomotive outro could not be the same without Dizzy's piano parts.

Literally all he was ever needed for in this band and yet he's still there 25 years later.

:lol:

I think Locomotive outro is the entire band's finest hour. One of those things you can listen to for years and still get goosebumps for.

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It lacks Pitman.

Those were dark times. I like Dizzy and his keys. His personality doesn't really fit Guns imo. Just think Gilby. He had the right one, but without the talent to be in Gn'R. :heart:

Edited by Rovim
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