[wasted]

There aren't any references to drugs or drinking or the wilder side of life on CD.

Why do think that is? Is it good or bad thing?

There is no Mr. Brownstone or Bad Obsession on CD. At some point I thought Better might be the rehab song on CD, not really convinced now.

[slips]

there was a time

[sweetness]

Who cares? Clearly Axl has other concerns, I don't think it matters at all, drugs haven't been much an issue for him in the past 20 years. Is there a rule that says every rock album has to have at least a few songs about drugs? No, and even if there was Axl wouldn't follow it

We could have predicted this 7 years ago, as much as I think of him as one of the few quintessential rock stars the world has seen he was never much of a junkie. We know he's had a few drunken rages, but if Axl Rose has a drug problem I'd say he's been doin a pretty good job of hiding it

[Dazed&Confused]

Axl doesn't really bother with drugs and never really has if various accounts are to be believed.
The album is all about Axl and it wouldn't make any sense to write about drugs basically.

[ThinkAboutYou]

slips, on 03 November 2009 - 05:35 AM, said:

there was a time

[wasted]

I've always thought of TWAT as an Ode to Coke, but it's probably just about a chick.

I'm not really sure what I think about the lack of overt drug/drink references. The songs are loose enough to cover just about anything really.

I wonder what Axl's take on this whole prescription pills issue is.

[hudsonsaul]

Probably cause axl isn't a kid anymore and through the old songs him & the old members of gnr gave probably said their peace about drunks and alcohol.

If any old the old guys were still writting lyrics about drugs, booze, and strippers they would look right old losers in my book, still acting like they were in their teens hahaha

[doakes]

Well Chinese Democracy is without a doubt their most mature release.

You won't find heroin and yeast infections here!
----
However I do have a feeling, through all of the interviews, that Chinese Democracy II will just be vicious, nightmarish, take no prisoner type stuff.

[wasted]

Suppose CD came out of a serious situation but find it hard to believe Axl doesn't have a few shots of Jager or down a bottle of Moet here and there.

Maybe CD II will bring back the stds and crack anthems.

[emilus_]

Nah you're forgetting Street of dreams: "Everywhere I go I see youoouu".. sounds like he' s on some hallucinogenic shit there.

[wasted]

Even though there aren't any direct drugs references the album sounds very chemical.

[Longpig]

emilus_, on 03 November 2009 - 09:42 AM, said:

Nah you're forgetting Street of dreams: "Everywhere I go I see youoouu".. sounds like he' s on some hallucinogenic shit there.

No.

I think the subject matter had to change both with age and also with the direction of where Axl wanted to take the band.
If the scope of Axl's vision of Gn'R remained with drugs / girls / alcohol etc... then maybe he wouldn't have clashed with Slash and the old guys as much.

I think the direction of the music took Axl away from that kind of subject matter, at least in the same sense as the earlier work.
The reference to drugs are more reflective on CD. They seem in the past or about other people. So the intensity is not there to get the same kind of songs as brownstone and Bad obsession, because in these songs the events were much more recent or actually still going on when the songs were written. So I think there are references but in a much different context or from a different perspective.

LP

[seely]

Axl has matured since the Appetite days, the songs reflect it, he's past the point of singing about Sex, drugs nd Rock and f'n' Roll, thats best left to young people,
and how on earth do you consider better a 'rehab' song?

[Crowebar]

"Cocaine in the hall" - From T.W.A.T.

It's a reference to somebody. I'd have to put my money on Erin or Stephanie if I was a betting man.

It'd be nice to hear Axl's explanation of what the songs are about but I doubt he's going to do that possibly due to stupid fucking lawsuits.

This post has been edited by Crowebar: 03 November 2009 - 08:28 AM

[mcalldp]

"Social class and registers,
cocaine in the hall,"

There's a drug reference for you. I think that Axl is in a different time in his life now (obviously) and drugs don't play the part they may have at one time. Even this lone reference is given in a song that's written from the perspective of looking back on things and things change. Cd is by far the most layered, matured effort yet and as it should be; there's no reason do keep doing the same thing. Drugs, it seems, are not part of the current influence and at this stage of his life, I would actually be worried if they were.

This post has been edited by mcalldp: 03 November 2009 - 08:27 AM