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Here’s Why I’d Hate A Guns N’ Roses Reunion


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This essay is brilliant: http://www.stereogum.com/1844250/heres-why-id-hate-a-guns-n-roses-reunion/franchises/essay/

Particularly these ending paragraphs:

Most disheartening of all, though, is what this reunion would mean for Axl Rose’s legacy: He’d be downgrading from “paranoid, perfectionistic, and tyrannical” to “acquisitive, avaricious, and cynical.” He’d be evolving from “genuine eccentric” to “just another middle-aged musician trading on nostalgia, trying to cash in while cash is still on the table.” He’d be dismissing the goodwill of every fan who dedicated serious time to Chinese Democracy, every fan who heard that spoken-sung Count Chocula accent and wondered, How and why the holy hell did he come up with THAT? After spending more than 11 years and $13 million on Chinese Democracy, he’d be disowning the thing. His magnum opus, disavowed. More than a decade of his life, tossed aside in favor of rehashing songs he co-wrote when he was 23 years old, when Ronald Reagan was in office. He’d be betraying us a little bit, but he’d be betraying himself a whole lot more.

Axl has been “just another middle-aged musician trading on nostalgia, trying to cash in while cash is still on the table” since about 2011.

but Axl Rose rarely puts his name on anything that’s not at least pretty good and inherently interesting.

Corrected.

an artist uninterested in making a profit or pleasing anyone.

Axl-Rose-Budweiser-20141.jpg

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Pretty dumb article. If gnr wasn't a nostalgia act right now they'd at least would have played new music. No the general, no silkworms, no oh my god, no atlas.. NOTHING. If all they're ever going to do is keep playing the old songs, might as well have the guys who wrote and performed them to be playing them.

This was wrote by that psycho fan with the ADHD medication that just wants to rebel and go against the crowd thinking they'll prove a point going against the mass.. Aka a 40 year old living in their moms basement.

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"He’d also be shutting the door on those Chinese Democracy sequels. In the case of the remix album, that’s probably a good thing. Nobody wants that. I’m not even sure anybody would release that. But I, for one, was sincerely and eagerly looking forward to hearing the “second half” of Chinese Democracy"

He can still put that out. That's no reason to stop reunion, none of them are.

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Why does it have to be that way though? Whether or not CD is his magnum opus, he didn't do anything with CD other than eventually releasing it and touring it alongside classic GNR music. Why would a reunion of the classic lineup (a completely different band and thing than what NuGNR was) disavow his solo project? As much as he doesn't want CD to be viewed as his solo project, it definitely isn't viewed as a GNR project because GNR was the classic/Illisuion lineup, NuGNR was never accepted as an organic evolution of what GNR is (just like VR isn't viewed as an evolution of GNR), it was always viewed as a new and different beast.

A reunion could be viewed as Axl going along with the crowd of his peers and doing a reunion while it's still on the table. But it could also be viewed just as much (if not more) as friends reconnecting and making an effort to do something for their fans

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I still maintain that regardless of what happens with all this reunion news we're still as likely to hear the follow up to Chinese Democracy.

If anyone were up for confusing fans by reuniting with Slash, Duff, and his former bandmates AND release a new album with none of them on it, it's Axl.

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I still maintain that regardless of what happens with all this reunion news we're still as likely to hear the follow up to Chinese Democracy.

If anyone were up for confusing fans by reuniting with Slash, Duff, and his former bandmates AND release a new album with none of them on it, it's Axl.

Yep. And it's all being done under the GNR name anyway. Meaning, I'm sure the label would be happy to release Chi Dem 2 on the heals of a reunion tour to boost sales.

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Gun to my head, I'd take the next album over seeing a reunion show. Album has more "miles". But I agree that one does not necessarily nullify the other.

...They can keep the remix album though.

Edited by sofine11
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Meanwhile, a Chinese Democracy remix album seems significantly less compelling still: It would be hard to imagine anything else quite so inessential in 2015. (Or even in 2008.)

Yes. 1000x yes. Can we never mention this stupid thing ever again on this forum?

Edited by Ant
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I liked that article a lot... and it really reaffirmed my disdain for the proposed Ferrer/Fortus/Duff/Slash/Axl lineup.

I still want a reunion but... No Izzy no DICE, man.

Edited by Ant
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