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"With Suzy to the left and Sally to my right" - IS "TOO MUCH TOO SOON" A GUNS N ROSES SONG?


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So, is it a Guns n Roses song or not?

Who wrote it?

When was it written? Pre-Appetite? Pre-Illusions?

When was the demo version (that we all know) recorded?

Is there anyone else from Guns n Roses other than Axl playing on that demo?

Have Axl, Izzy, Slash, Duff or Steven ever mentioned this song on interviews, etc?

 

 

Rolling Stone claims that it was demoed for the Illusions albums

Sometime around the early Nineties, Guns N' Roses demoed a number of potential songs spanning various styles with a drum machine when they were prepping to record the Use Your Illusion albums. One of the more curious and catchy numbers to leak from the sessions is a scratchy boogie-woogie rocker called "Too Much Too Soon." The title is a clear reference to one of Duff McKagan's biggest influences — Johnny Thunders, who both recorded a meandering forgettable acoustic tune with the same title and played on the New York Dolls' much-more-rocking Too Much Too Soon album — but the song's jumpy, punky guitar riff, hip-hop handclaps and walking bass make it a fascinating GN'R anomaly.

 

 

"Too Much Too Soon"
 

 

"Hey this bottle's empty, you got 2 bucks?
C'mon, we'll buy a bottle
Alright, I'm headin' to the store and I'm gonna buy smokes
Hot damn"

Every night, I go out and get in my car, oh yeah
I push on the peddle but you know that I go too far
There're parties everywhere that I can see
(ab)usin' myself will be the death of me
Ya see every night I get a call on the telephone, oh no
My sweet little baby beggin' me just to come home
But I know that everyday I gotta have me some fun
With Suzy to the left and Sally to my right
I know that I need just more than one

[Chorus]

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

Let's go

When the night goes on and I seem to see some friends, oh yeah 
Not a buck for the car for the gas goes so fast 
With friends like that tell me who's gonna last 
Well the city's hot but tonight I'm not 
I want everything that everybody's got 
Not a badge in the pan nor a lending hand 
Just give me one more, one last dance

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

Let's go
oh now
oooo yeah
ah ha

Take the car, take the keys
Said my money don't grow on trees
You make me stumble and fall
T'ill I'm bloody at my knees
I climbed back up to find that all my money's gone
Too much too soon not know since it's been so long?
You can drive me to the edge but I really don't mind
Ya see when I'm in my car I leave you behind
There's another girl that's waitin' down the road
When I'm out the door you know that's just where I'll go

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

 
Edited by ludurigan
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16 hours ago, Nikki_Sixx said:

All those songs (even 'Bad Obsessions', 'Yesterdays' and 'The Garden') are part of the same batch of West Arkeen demos.  There were others as well (there's a West Arkeen promo/demo tape around, featuring more of his songs, which don't feature any GNR members, with which he was trying to score a record deal for himself and/or his band at the time), but in the late '80s and early '90's only the ones that featured GNR members were bootlegged.  There's no known recording date, probably around '85 or '86 ( for example 'Bad Obsession' pre-dates 'Mr. Brownstone', which was written in '87).  It's just West Arkeen, a drum machine, and assorted GNR members on selected tracks.  They have nothing to do with GNR, in fact they were bootlegged before the UYI sessions even started.  A few of them were re-worked as GNR songs and released on UYI though.

These are the known West Arkeen demos that feature GNR members :

- Crash Diet

- Just Another Sunday

- Bring It Back Home

- Too Much Too Soon

- Bad Obession

- Yesterdays

- The Garden

 

Hey @Nikki_Sixx, thanks, that was great info!

:headbang:

Yes, it makes a lot of sense.

Still I have a few questions, maybe you know how to answer them... 

Do you have any idea of why would West put Axl to sing on 6 of 7 tracks if he was tryin to score a record deal for himself/his band?

Was it because some of these songs were actually intended for GNR?

Do you know more about this West Arkeen demo? Any other songs on it?

Is Sentimental Movie a West song too? Isnt the Sentimental Movie demo on this same "tape"? Who sings Sentimental Movie? It is West, right? 

===

One other thing I am not sure is about the date.

If I had to bet my money (not that I have any :rofl-lol: ) on it, I'd say these West Arkeen demos are likely from 88 or 89.

No?

Like you mentioned, Bad Obsession was by all accounts written a year before Mr. Brownstone (Axl said that countless times in 1991 shows, right?)

So Bad Obsession must have been written in 1985, since Mr. Brownstone was already being played by GNR on some dates in 1986 (Music Machine, Street Scene), right?

Dont these songs look "too good" to be from 1985?

Then there is the Coconut Teaser Drunk Fux show from January 1988, where they played "Yesterdays", "Sentimental Movie" etc...

 

     

And there are those clips I am sure you must have seen on MTV that show Axl and West in some bar (Scrap bar) playing Yesterdays with an acoustic guitar
 

 

That scrap br thing is circa 1989 according to Mick Walls book 

content?id=IyM2nd4ZswwC&pg=PA163&img=1&p

https://books.google.com.br/books?id=IyM2nd4ZswwC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=west+arkeen+axl+roses+yesterdays+mtv&source=bl&ots=O7y9AzdZvO&sig=a3jDk9ccKZLLCkG9h-hrlIHaMKM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiikPrKs9zRAhVFHJAKHQWkACIQ6AEIUDAL#v=onepage&q=scrap%20bar&f=false

 

So you have them playing these songs in 1988/1989... doesn it seem like they have just written it?

 

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10 hours ago, ludurigan said:

 

Hey @Nikki_Sixx, thanks, that was great info!

:headbang:

Yes, it makes a lot of sense.

Still I have a few questions, maybe you know how to answer them...

Do you have any idea of why would West put Axl to sing on 6 of 7 tracks if he was tryin to score a record deal for himself/his band?

Was it because some of these songs were actually intended for GNR?

Do you know more about this West Arkeen demo? Any other songs on it?

Is Sentimental Movie a West song too? Isnt the Sentimental Movie demo on this same "tape"? Who sings Sentimental Movie? It is West, right?

===

One other thing I am not sure is about the date.

If I had to bet my money (not that I have any :rofl-lol: ) on it, I'd say these West Arkeen demos are likely from 88 or 89.

No?

Like you mentioned, Bad Obsession was by all accounts written a year before Mr. Brownstone (Axl said that countless times in 1991 shows, right?)

So Bad Obsession must have been written in 1985, since Mr. Brownstone was already being played by GNR on some dates in 1986 (Music Machine, Street Scene), right?

Dont these songs look "too good" to be from 1985?

Then there is the Coconut Teaser Drunk Fux show from January 1988, where they played "Yesterdays", "Sentimental Movie" etc...

 

So you have them playing these songs in 1988/1989... doesn it seem like they have just written it?

 

You're right about 'Sentimental Movie', I forgot about that one, I've edited my post, thanks !

You have to wonder, why would he distribute a promo tape if not to a) get his songs recorded by another artist and/or score a publishing deal of some sort, b) get himself a record deal ?

As to why Axl sings on some songs, maybe he understood that his own voice was not suited for some of his own songs.  Maybe the songs that feature GNR member were co-written by them ?

Here's a scan of the tape I was talking about :

btizpvq2kkgrhgookjqejll.jpg

It's a photo from an ebay auction.  As you can see, 'Just Another Sunday' is not on it, however it is from the same sessions.  The other songs do not feature GNR members.  'Walk On By' made in onto the Outpatience album in 1996.

There's no way of knowing what the exact recording date is.  Here's an older topic where Marc Canter pitches in and mentions that they shared the 'Hell House' from sept. '86 to early '87, and Slash mentioned in an interview that 'Crash Diet' was an old demo from '86 or so :

http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/211013-west-arkeen-demo/

Personally, I don't see GNR messing with drum computers in '88 when they were on tour for most of the year, or in '89 when they were starting the UYI writing and pre-production.

You mention they 'sound too good' for '85, but I think they 'sound too bad' for '88 or '89, when they head enough money to rent Mates Rehearsal and not waste time with silly drum computer demos.

The Drunk Fuxx show and the Scrap Bar snippets only prove that those songs were written by then, they could still have been demo-ed years earlier.

Still, this is all speculation, aside from the known facts, I don't know any more about this than you do :lol:

 

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6 hours ago, Nikki_Sixx said:

You're right about 'Sentimental Movie', I forgot about that one, I've edited my post, thanks !

You have to wonder, why would he distribute a promo tape if not to a) get his songs recorded by another artist and/or score a publishing deal of some sort, b) get himself a record deal ?

As to why Axl sings on some songs, maybe he understood that his own voice was not suited for some of his own songs.  Maybe the songs that feature GNR member were co-written by them ?

Here's a scan of the tape I was talking about :

btizpvq2kkgrhgookjqejll.jpg

It's a photo from an ebay auction.  As you can see, 'Just Another Sunday' is not on it, however it is from the same sessions.  The other songs do not feature GNR members.  'Walk On By' made in onto the Outpatience album in 1996.

There's no way of knowing what the exact recording date is.  Here's an older topic where Marc Canter pitches in and mentions that they shared the 'Hell House' from sept. '86 to early '87, and Slash mentioned in an interview that 'Crash Diet' was an old demo from '86 or so :

http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/211013-west-arkeen-demo/

Personally, I don't see GNR messing with drum computers in '88 when they were on tour for most of the year, or in '89 when they were starting the UYI writing and pre-production.

You mention they 'sound too good' for '85, but I think they 'sound too bad' for '88 or '89, when they head enough money to rent Mates Rehearsal and not waste time with silly drum computer demos.

The Drunk Fuxx show and the Scrap Bar snippets only prove that those songs were written by then, they could still have been demo-ed years earlier.

Still, this is all speculation, aside from the known facts, I don't know any more about this than you do :lol:

 

wow, never seen that tape photo before

amazing!

first thing i thought when i saw the tracklist is could "sunny lovers day" be "just another sunday"?

anyway, great info, and i think yes, your argument is correct

I think they 'sound too bad' for '88 or '89, when they head enough money to rent Mates Rehearsal and not waste time with silly drum computer demos.

thanks mate!

:headbang:

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On 1/23/2017 at 9:52 PM, ludurigan said:

So, is it a Guns n Roses song or not?

Who wrote it?

When was it written? Pre-Appetite? Pre-Illusions?

When was the demo version (that we all know) recorded?

Is there anyone else from Guns n Roses other than Axl playing on that demo?

Have Axl, Izzy, Slash, Duff or Steven ever mentioned this song on interviews, etc?

 

 

Rolling Stone claims that it was demoed for the Illusions albums

Sometime around the early Nineties, Guns N' Roses demoed a number of potential songs spanning various styles with a drum machine when they were prepping to record the Use Your Illusion albums. One of the more curious and catchy numbers to leak from the sessions is a scratchy boogie-woogie rocker called "Too Much Too Soon." The title is a clear reference to one of Duff McKagan's biggest influences — Johnny Thunders, who both recorded a meandering forgettable acoustic tune with the same title and played on the New York Dolls' much-more-rocking Too Much Too Soon album — but the song's jumpy, punky guitar riff, hip-hop handclaps and walking bass make it a fascinating GN'R anomaly.

 

 

"Too Much Too Soon"
 

 

"Hey this bottle's empty, you got 2 bucks?
C'mon, we'll buy a bottle
Alright, I'm headin' to the store and I'm gonna buy smokes
Hot damn"

Every night, I go out and get in my car, oh yeah
I push on the peddle but you know that I go too far
There're parties everywhere that I can see
(ab)usin' myself will be the death of me
Ya see every night I get a call on the telephone, oh no
My sweet little baby beggin' me just to come home
But I know that everyday I gotta have me some fun
With Suzy to the left and Sally to my right
I know that I need just more than one

[Chorus]

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

Let's go

When the night goes on and I seem to see some friends, oh yeah 
Not a buck for the car for the gas goes so fast 
With friends like that tell me who's gonna last 
Well the city's hot but tonight I'm not 
I want everything that everybody's got 
Not a badge in the pan nor a lending hand 
Just give me one more, one last dance

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

Let's go
oh now
oooo yeah
ah ha

Take the car, take the keys
Said my money don't grow on trees
You make me stumble and fall
T'ill I'm bloody at my knees
I climbed back up to find that all my money's gone
Too much too soon not know since it's been so long?
You can drive me to the edge but I really don't mind
Ya see when I'm in my car I leave you behind
There's another girl that's waitin' down the road
When I'm out the door you know that's just where I'll go

Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room
Said it's too much too fast
I don't care if I won't last
Said it's too much too soon
I don't care, get outta my room

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmm! so perfect :heart:

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