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Axl's voice change in 1999


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Hey guys,

I was just wondering when I read this other topic lately about the New Live Era overdubs. I was listening to that stuff and I thought: How can that be?

The overdub-voice on the Live Era recordings sounds not exactly, but quite similar to the old Axl from the 90ies. Still lots of rasps. Not as much, but still good.

And in the same year he recorded Oh my God and Cather in the Rye (we have the demo of that) and his voice sounds like today, totally clean and all that.

How can that be, that his voice changed so drastically in the same year? Was he just trying very hard in the Live-Era stuff to deliver the rasp or did he have an operation in the same year?

What do you think?

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His 1999 Live Era voice always fascinated me because its really unique and in some cases like Pretty Tied Up or Move to the City actually sound fairly good!  

I always just assumed that the change came from the long periods of not singing regularly and working out his voice, maybe its possible he worked hard to deliver the rasp for Live Era or maybe he smoked a shit ton of cigars before he went into the vocal booth haha

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I always thought his vocals on Oh My God were fairly raspy and similar in tone to what we heard in the early 90s.  

The change in vocals is less to do with rasp, though that's a large part of it, but also tone.  They're less nasal and throat driven, with Axl singing using better breathing techniques.  

For me, Axl's vocals have always been something he has far greater control of than most fans give him credit for.  In my opinion he's not unaware of the changes in vocal tones and styles.  His vocals are predicated on his own personal preferences and/or health issues.

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2 minutes ago, downzy said:

For me, Axl's vocals have always been something he has far greater control of than most fans give him credit for.  In my opinion he's not unaware of the changes in vocal tones and styles.  His vocals are predicated on his own personal preferences and/or health issues.

I forgot exactly where it was, but didn't Axl in an interview say that he intentionally made his vocals clearer on Chinese and that he was surprised it wasn't well received? Or something along those lines, I swear I read that somewhere

Edit:  I think it was the China Exchange interview if I remember correctly

Edited by WhazUp
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1 minute ago, WhazUp said:

I forgot exactly where it was, but didn't Axl in an interview say that he intentionally made his vocals clearer on Chinese and that he was surprised it wasn't well received? Or something along those lines, I swear I read that somewhere

Edit:  I think it was the China Exchange interview if I remember correctly

I remember hearing about those comments.  I think a lot of it is Axl trying new things but also wanting to protect his voice.  The style in which he sang back in the late 80s and early 90s was unsustainable.  Look at other sings who use a similar kind of sound.  Other than Chris Cornell, most raspy-screaming male vocalists don't sustain their sound past their late 30s or early 40s.  

I think it's something he can turn on when he wants.  Listen to his guest vocals on Sebastian Bach's 2007 record.  He sounds almost identical to his early 90s vocals.  I think he kept it going in 2009/2010 because he really wanted to do his best for that tour regardless of risk of injury to his voice.  

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Well I just listened to Move to the City and Pretty Tied Up from Live Era and yup, those are absolutely re-recorded w/ Axl's 99 voice. They actually sound really good too. Not sure if the entirety of Live Era has re-recorded vocals but I'm sure It's Alright isn't.

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1 hour ago, Blake Sabbath said:

Pardon my ignorance, but y'all are saying every single vocal on Live Era was re-recorded by Axl?!

You didn't know/hear that?

7 minutes ago, youngswedishvinyl said:

Edit: Sorry the FAQ thread I posted about the live era re-recordnings has been removed from this forum :(

you need this?

http://gnrontour.com/liveera.htm

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7 hours ago, blackmore said:

Hey guys,

I was just wondering when I read this other topic lately about the New Live Era overdubs. I was listening to that stuff and I thought: How can that be?

The overdub-voice on the Live Era recordings sounds not exactly, but quite similar to the old Axl from the 90ies. Still lots of rasps. Not as much, but still good.

And in the same year he recorded Oh my God and Cather in the Rye (we have the demo of that) and his voice sounds like today, totally clean and all that.

How can that be, that his voice changed so drastically in the same year? Was he just trying very hard in the Live-Era stuff to deliver the rasp or did he have an operation in the same year?

What do you think?

Listen to the second half of Rocket Queen. The song in general has entirely re-recorded vocals but nevertheless it's the second half to pay attention to. There's your "mickey" and/or Catcher voice. Stronger than what we're used to but there's the tonality you speak of. So, it was there, but he could also nail some pretty impressive cleaner screams and deep rasp as evident throughout the song.

But yeah, his 1999 voice is in a category all its own because his rasp hasn't sounded like that before or since. The "where do we go" section on that re-recorded Sweet Child O' Mine from the Big Daddy soundtrack is similar to his 1998/1999 Live Era voice.

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13 minutes ago, James Bond said:

Listen to the second half of Rocket Queen. The song in general has entirely re-recorded vocals but nevertheless it's the second half to pay attention to. There's your "mickey" and/or Catcher voice. Stronger than what we're used to but there's the tonality you speak of. So, it was there, but he could also nail some pretty impressive cleaner screams and deep rasp as evident throughout the song.

But yeah, his 1999 voice is in a category all its own because his rasp hasn't sounded like that before or since. The "where do we go" section on that re-recorded Sweet Child O' Mine from the Big Daddy soundtrack is similar to his 1998/1999 Live Era voice.

But why didn't he use this voice anymore in 2001 at the live shows? When I see the footage of Rio, you can clearly see that he's at times really trying hard to get some rasp out of his throat.

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2 hours ago, blackmore said:

But why didn't he use this voice anymore in 2001 at the live shows? When I see the footage of Rio, you can clearly see that he's at times really trying hard to get some rasp out of his throat.

If you listen to the end of Oh My God from the Rio show when the band cuts off and Axl keeps singing for a minute you can hear that the rasp is trying really hard to be there and he even succeeds for a minute. I don't think anybody really knows what else happened other than that Axl comment that he tried to sing cleaner on the album.

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Axl's 99 voice was fucking killer, I will always be confused what happened between that and Vegas/Rio. 

I think it's possible he's trying to preserve his health or voice but at the same time his mid range is unattainable by post '11 Axl. We haven't heard one example since '10 of that classic mid range voice so it's fair to say it's gone. But @downzy theory is plausible beause this last year with AC/DC he was pretty killer in comparison to GNR. Who fucking knows with Axl :shrugs:

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38 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Axl's 99 voice was fucking killer, I will always be confused what happened between that and Vegas/Rio. 

I think it's possible he's trying to preserve his health or voice but at the same time his mid range is unattainable by post '11 Axl. We haven't heard one example since '10 of that classic mid range voice so it's fair to say it's gone. But @downzy theory is plausible beause this last year with AC/DC he was pretty killer in comparison to GNR. Who fucking knows with Axl :shrugs:

Jungle is a song that has a fair amount of mid-range notes that he consistently sings like his former self.  It helps that a) it's one of GNR's best known songs that really demands a lot of vocal power, b) is usually early in the set.  I do think the mid-range is the most difficult for him, but it's not as though it's no there when he needs it and really wants it.  

If one were to chart Axl's vocals from any given concert with the y axis representing rasp/power and the x axis representing time, the result would probably look like a slightly wide U.  Obviously a few exceptions, most notably Paradise City at the end, but I don't think it's an accident that his vocals fall into a consistent pattern from one show to another.  

Then compare a GNR show with an AC/DC show, which is two hours, next to know vocal break, and in many ways a more physically demanding setlist.  The show I saw in Philly back in September had Axl putting up 10s all night long.  

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3 hours ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Axl's 99 voice was fucking killer, I will always be confused what happened between that and Vegas/Rio. 

Me too. 

When you say, he's saving his voice, I'm not sure of that... Because there are lots of videos of several performances where Axl is trying really hard to get some rasp and nothing's happening. Then I wonder why it still worked in 1999. It's all a mystery to me. 

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he says it in the interview of china exchange about using the clearer voice and how people didn't respond to it well 

 

the clean voice is necessary for probably 60-80% of axl's time performing otherwise he would shoot his voice to shit plain and simple 

there are moments where he has appeared possessed by energy and brought out the old rasp very sparingly such as in london 2010 with duff on nice boys and you could be mine along with out to get me during steven's appearances 

he also had some very good rasp on jungle the second night in mexico city last year along with think about you when he first retuned with izzy in hamerstein 2006 i believe 

other than that i can't really pin point major returns to the peak era axl rasp other than those moments where he becomes possessed with the power to go back in time usually at the beset of being around his old band mates 

 

the other anomoly is when he has performed some of the black and back material with acdc where the rasp is inexplicably frustrating and otherwise amazing to hear 

 

Edited by double talkin jive mfkr
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44 minutes ago, double talkin jive mfkr said:

there are moments where he has appeared possessed by energy and brought out the old rasp very sparingly such as in london 2010 with duff on nice boys and you could be mine along with out to get me during steven's appearances

 

Once he hit his stride in 2010, it sounded exactly like you'd expect an older Axl Rose to sound, he brought the vintage voice to tons of shows that year. Bucharest 2010 may actually be the best whole performance he's ever done. (*waits for people to say 'but nuGNR :cry:....'*)

There are some songs he almost always sounds great on and OTGM is one of them. WTTJ, Nightrain, Thunderstruck, etc. But he's proven over the years that he can sing all the songs with rasp when he wants to, and he's proven that he can tour consistently with a mostly raspy singing style, so I really don't think the clean voice is needed 60-80% of the time. I think he chooses to use it that often because it's more comfortable. It doesn't sound as good but he gets paid regardless. :shrugs:

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