The "Axl's Voice" Thread - Please Keep All Discussion Here

[StrangerInThisTown]

1 hour ago, nrobb17 said:

That’s the great thing about opinions, everyone is entitled to their own. I was there and the show was awesome. I’ve not got a complaint. These guys coming back together is the best thing to happen in the music world in a long time and I am very thankful I got to witness it. I only hope they come back again. I’m not here to criticize him like you obviously are. 

And that's okay. There are different breeds of fans - those fans like you who buy tickes no matter what currently to fill up the stadiums, leading to Axl getting away with not improving on certain songs and giving half hearted performances like the one I linked above. It's a vicious cycle that hopefully ends once the majority of fans and the public got over the euphoria of the reunion and when it stops to not matter if Axl would fart into the mic for 3 hours and people would still love it because they got to see these 3 live.

I for one, refuse to buy tickets until Axl ups his game - he's got it in him and can be better than ever like he showed us with ACDC, but doesn't use it because all the shows are selling well still due to the reunion hype. I saw Axl DC and then GNR in Hannover. It was like a whole different person was singing for GNR. The power he had on the whole ACDC set was only there on a couple songs for GNR and the GNR show left me overall so disappointed after seeing AxlDC. Those of you who missed seeing Axl in ACDC last year - you missed hearing the real Axl Rose singing. It was absolutely mindblowing. It's just another reason why I'm sad people leave current GNR shows and are happy with those Axl performances..

Maybe on a future tour he will rise above and beyond again when people will stop going because of the reunion but for a good show and a good Axl, and that's when he will have to start picking up his pace. As I said earlier, now is the time he can get away with those half hearted performances and I don't blame him, tickets sell, #1, so why try hader? And who knows, maybe Izzy or Steven will be there too on a future tour, and that will be the time to buy tickets again. I'm very optimistic about the future, atleast for Axl.

Edited December 22, 2017 by StrangerInThisTown

[Derick]

45 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

he's got it in him and can be better than ever like he showed us with ACDC, but doesn't use it because all the shows are selling well still due to the reunion hype

With DC, 23 show...with GNR 127! Did you think that he can do or keep the same level in DC if it were 127 shows instead of 23 only?

Edited December 22, 2017 by Derick

[StrangerInThisTown]

3 minutes ago, Derick said:

With DC, 23 show...with GNR 127! Did you think that he can do or keep the same level in DC if it were 127 shows of 23 only?

No, it's part of the problem. As I wrote above Axl is not the one to blame, just the circumstances. They needed to play as many markets as possible on this tour because more shows means more cash and you only get to reunite once. On future tours it will be much preferable to fans, and Axl, to have fewer shows with more downtime inbetween so he can give better performances. He can't blow out his voice and then cancel the next show..it would be mayhem in the press all over again.

Edited December 22, 2017 by StrangerInThisTown

[rhb]

On 14/12/2017 at 1:52 PM, shootingstar said:

And I of course agree with your agreeing  especially the highlighted part was a nice way to put it.

But what conclusion can we make out of this?

I would say simply: Axls voice is not as bad as it sounds.

On this song, he clearly uses both types of midrange voice ! Why it happens? Technical mistakes or he is choosing that? If he chooses, the midrange rasp without the "passagio" probably hurts his vocal chords...I don't know...someone could ask him in an interview without offending him.... Anyway I think that with some respiratory and vocal training he could do it better, rasping or not!

[gnfnrs1972]

22 hours ago, nrobb17 said:

I saw them in November and he didn’t suck.  Not even close. He was great.

I know what your saying. I agree with you about actually being at the venue.  Loud music helps drown out his crappy mickey. Any recorded live performance is an embarrassment.... not every song but most.

[trqster]

Another take on the whole Axl's voice/rasp debate: is it just a coincidence that his voice has been consistently best when he's in better physical shape (like '06 and latter '10)...? 

[Axl owns dexter]

On 12/22/2017 at 11:18 AM, trqster said:

Another take on the whole Axl's voice/rasp debate: is it just a coincidence that his voice has been consistently best when he's in better physical shape (like '06 and latter '10)...? 

I wish we had recordings of his Vegas shows in late 2001. He was rocking a six pack and was in great shape but no freaking recordings (you should all be ashamed of yourselves if you went to those shows!).

[Axl owns dexter]

On 12/21/2017 at 9:08 PM, StrangerInThisTown said:

And that's okay. There are different breeds of fans - those fans like you who buy tickes no matter what currently to fill up the stadiums, leading to Axl getting away with not improving on certain songs and giving half hearted performances like the one I linked above. It's a vicious cycle that hopefully ends once the majority of fans and the public got over the euphoria of the reunion and when it stops to not matter if Axl would fart into the mic for 3 hours and people would still love it because they got to see these 3 live.

I for one, refuse to buy tickets until Axl ups his game - he's got it in him and can be better than ever like he showed us with ACDC, but doesn't use it because all the shows are selling well still due to the reunion hype. I saw Axl DC and then GNR in Hannover. It was like a whole different person was singing for GNR. The power he had on the whole ACDC set was only there on a couple songs for GNR and the GNR show left me overall so disappointed after seeing AxlDC. Those of you who missed seeing Axl in ACDC last year - you missed hearing the real Axl Rose singing. It was absolutely mindblowing. It's just another reason why I'm sad people leave current GNR shows and are happy with those Axl performances..

Maybe on a future tour he will rise above and beyond again when people will stop going because of the reunion but for a good show and a good Axl, and that's when he will have to start picking up his pace. As I said earlier, now is the time he can get away with those half hearted performances and I don't blame him, tickets sell, #1, so why try hader? And who knows, maybe Izzy or Steven will be there too on a future tour, and that will be the time to buy tickets again. I'm very optimistic about the future, atleast for Axl.

Meh. If you go to a show, it's fun and his voice is mixed in and the mickey stuff doesn't stand out as much. Axl is showing up on time, is in good spirits and giving good energy and is back with Slash. I'm good with it can't find a ton to complain about. I just want a few new tunes. I don't even watch youtube vids of new live shows.

 

[IncitingChaos]

On 12/22/2017 at 11:18 AM, trqster said:

Another take on the whole Axl's voice/rasp debate: is it just a coincidence that his voice has been consistently best when he's in better physical shape (like '06 and latter '10)...? 

Axl’s rasp showed up for his big return in 06...remember CD should have been released that year, 10 was the first CD tour after its release in Axl’s mind I‎t was suppose to be a big world event. ACDC the world had their eyes on him so of course he showed up. But really since 2010 he’s been in and out of touring. No big return like 06...just coasting. Not even sure the reunion meant much to him as he treated I‎t as an extension to what he was doing before but ACDC was fresh and new. 

He probably would have lost more weight in 16 if he knew he’d be the lead singer of ACDC..i think I‎t was a last minute thing and the trajectory of his voice in 2016 proved that 

[Lies They Tell]

On 21.12.2017 at 11:01 PM, StrangerInThisTown said:

Songs like YCBM, Paradise City, SCOM and Rocket Queen are unlistenable to me atm. That's where opinions split. You cannot be serious and say this isnt close to sucking..either I got a too high standard or you are ridiculously easly satisfied. I would never show this recording to a friend and say look how good they are.

 

I'm just gonna say my little opinion about this. I think there's a huge difference between sucking and being great. Obviously Axl doesn't sound amazing on YCBM. But he doesn't suck. I mean 99% of earths population would sound MUCH worse on YCBM than Axl does on that performance. It's one of the hardest songs to sing that even exists. So there's just no way I could say that Axl sucks on that performance when I know that 99% of people could not pull that off. In fact if I heard someone sing YCBM like that in a karaoke bar, I'd say that he sounds fucking amazing. But it's easy to say that Axl doesn't sound good, when we know what he's cabable of. But it's impossible for me to say that he suck when I compare him to earths population. In Axl's standards it's a bad performance but it's a great performance compared to what most people would sound like on YCBM.

[F*ck Fear]

I cannot understand how people justify the shitty vocals by saying "when you're at the show it's not as noticable". Poor excuses in my eyes. 

Every show I've been to, Axl has sounded different and it's noticeable. 

In 2002 it was noticeable he was singing in a different style. It was a clean voice but there was power and controlled rasp in it.

2006 his voice was different again. A awesome mix of classic Axl and the 2002 style. 

2010 was closer to what we remember Axl sounding like in the early 90's. Fucking awesome.

I also saw shows in 2011 and 2013, which were about the same.

After hearing how he sounded with AC/DC I was really excited for the Toronto 2016 Guns show. While he wasn't using that style, it was still a good, strong voice.

I would never pay to hear the voice that I hear on not one, but three soundboard recordings from 2017.

[stanleyjp]

Im sure Axl sings like he is doing to save his voice. Some times his bad performances probably is a result of not prepearing (RIR 2011 for example), but mostly Im sure he does it to save his voice.

I saw it personally several times on the NITL tour, when he became motivated for example because of a great audience, he gave us more RASP. The best example is the Gdansk show in Europe. By far the best vocals he did compared to the 6 other shows I attended this summer. Stockholm was another good example.

The same in Los Angeles now on November.., very good performances, not perfect, but he choose to put RASP partly in both Paradise City and Rocket Queen at The Forum. Why? I guess a ) because it's their homecoming and b ) it was in the end of this leg of the tour, and long time untill next leg.

I saw them on November 24th and 25th, and they were by far superior to the shows in the summer. 

Im sure, if Axl could do it without damaging his voice, he would sing like he did in AC/DC (or 2006-2010 for that matter) every night. Its easy to see how much more happy he is when he gives decent performances. But he is a proffesional, with a tour to finish and thats why he is not going all inn every night.

Its only two things I really don't understand: Why is he doing songs he know sounds like shit, for example Yesterdays and Rocket Queen (they "have" to do the big ones like YCBM and PC) when he could replace them with songs like Bad Obsession or Pretty Tied Up that don't requier all the RASP?

And... the only thing that makes me unsure about mye teories: Why isn't he giving 100% on the pro-shots (RIR as an example)? Like... the only really good pro shot we have after 93 is the Rock Am Ring 06 and maybe the Inland Invasion from the same tour. Why did he choose to give it all inn Philly back in 2012, and not in the proshot from London? This I really can't understand.

Edited December 25, 2017 by stanleyjp

[Draguns]

11 minutes ago, stanleyjp said:

Im sure Axl sings like he is doing to save his voice. Some times his bad performances probably is a result of not prepearing (RIR 2011 for example), but mostly Im sure he does it to save his voice.

I saw it personally several times on the NITL tour, when he became motivated for example because of a great audience, he gave us more RASP. The best example is the Gdansk show in Europe. By far the best vocals he did compared to the 6 other shows I attended this summer. Stockholm was another good example.

The same in Los Angeles now on November.., very good performances, not perfect, but he choose to put RASP partly in both Paradise City and Rocket Queen at The Forum. Why? I guess a ) because it's their homecoming and b ) it was in the end of this leg of the tour, and long time untill next leg.

I saw them on November 24th and 25th, and they were by far superior to the shows in the summer. 

Im sure, if Axl could do it without damaging his voice, he would sing like he did in AC/DC (or 2006-2010 for that matter) every night. Its easy to see how much more happy he is when he gives decent performances. But he is a proffesional, with a tour to finish and thats why he is not going all inn every night.

Its only two things I really don't understand: Why is he doing songs he know sounds like shit, for example Yesterdays and Rocket Queen (they "have" to do the big ones like YCBM and PC) when he could replace them with songs like Bad Obsession or Pretty Tied Up that don't requier all the RASP?

And... the only thing that makes me unsure about mye teories: Why isn't he giving 100% on the pro-shots (RIR as an example)? Like... the only really good pro shot we have after 93 is the Rock Am Ring 06 and maybe the Inland Invasion from the same tour. Why did he choose to give it all inn Philly back in 2012, and not in the proshot from London? This I really can't understand.

Rocket Queen is one of their staple songs.  He still sounds good for the best part of the song, which is the last 3 minutes.

[trqster]

On 25/12/2017 at 6:07 PM, stanleyjp said:

 

Its only two things I really don't understand: Why is he doing songs he know sounds like shit, for example Yesterdays and Rocket Queen (they "have" to do the big ones like YCBM and PC) when he could replace them with songs like Bad Obsession or Pretty Tied Up that don't requier all the RASP?

And... the only thing that makes me unsure about mye teories: Why isn't he giving 100% on the pro-shots (RIR as an example)? Like... the only really good pro shot we have after 93 is the Rock Am Ring 06 and maybe the Inland Invasion from the same tour. Why did he choose to give it all inn Philly back in 2012, and not in the proshot from London? This I really can't understand.

Very good points sir!

He should definitely switch a few UYI songs in the setlist. Bad Obsession would be a killer!

Yeah the Philly '12 remains one of the less talked about misteries in the Nu'GnR era. That night Axl's voice was almost perfect and seemed to be pushing himself to the limit. Then at the London O2 proshot show he seemed to barely use any rasp at all giving a wishy-washy performance. WTF Axl!? 

'12 or '92...?

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by trqster

[MrSoftie]

The clean chest voice mid range voice is still here... I found it, at 1:28

 

[Pedrolg]

The more I listen to the Forum soundboard the more I find to like about Axl's performance. He sounds good all the way up to jungle, jungle included. His usual weaknesses appeat in songs such as TWAT, YCBM, but he adds rasp and reaches for the high notes on the outros. The voice cracks that plagued him in 2017 seem to be almost gone.

I don't think his voice is gone anymore, he ended 2017 on a 2016-ish level, with a bit of tiredness in the equation, but rasping stuff such as Paradise City, something he had not done in years. I wonder if he got dragged into rehearsals or recordings with AC/DC late 2017 and that had something to do with his return to form.

[shootingstar]

On 2017-12-20 at 10:40 PM, IncitingChaos said:

Sweet Child hasn’t been good vocally since 06 or maybe 10 and even in the 90’s I‎t was a miss after 88. 

You look at 06

hes not singing I‎t in the same range he used in the original recording. He’s more relaxed vocally and I‎t sounds good. Singing with a weak falsetto that he does now is a shame to the song. If you isolate his vocals on a recording now it’s terrible 

his annunciation on the phrases is off, his voice sounds weak (honestly not as bad as i anticipated) but he has a vocal style that would suit the song better live imo 

 I look at what he does with YSMANL for acdc and he used a very different voice. You can see how he could fall into that falsetto sound he uses for SCOM but with acdc he put some depth and power in his vocals. I‎t makes for a better performance 

 

I agree on pretty much everything you say, but not that YSMANL is comparable with SCOM. The latter goes in a lower tune than YSMANL - in that mid range he has hard to handle.

[Georgina Arriaga]

Please, I have a question...I know the people who visited this thread have enough knowledge about Axl's voice....

In the song Salt of the Earth with the Stones, what kind of voice is that? Is like you said "his natural voice"? At the end of the song, the high notes are from him or from the ladies in the chorus?

 

[TheGeneral]

Ah, been waiting for that topic to come back.

Just want to give my opinion:

Axl/DC rasp was just amazing.

I would prefer the clean(ish) 2001 voice on all songs to that Mickey/Rasp mix we have now. That way all songs would sound okay and not like now "Jungle sounds awesome but YCBM sucks"

I prefer 2011 Mickey to 2017 Mickey. 2011 didn't hurt in my ears, 2017 kind of does.

I don't get why he sings songs like L&LD,November Rain or SCOM with the Mickey voice. His normal deeper voice would sound really good on these.

I love the Patience-end/Madagascar/Out Ta Get Me deep-rasp he debuted around 2017.

And at last, hate me but I think 2009/2010 was way better than 1987-1993. The rasp was back and he knew how to use it and not over do it this time. I also love the 1999 rasp we can hear on the re-recorded SCOM or the entire Live Era album and prefer this to 1987-1993.

Bring it on, tell me how wrong I am with my opinions lol

 

[IncitingChaos]

33 minutes ago, Georgina Arriaga said:

Please, I have a question...I know the people who visited this thread have enough knowledge about Axl's voice....

In the song Salt of the Earth with the Stones, what kind of voice is that? Is like you said "his natural voice"? At the end of the song, the high notes are from him or from the ladies in the chorus?

 

That’s Axl’s natural tone. He was trying to Blend in with Jagger by not being as nasally as he normally is like on Lies. He could still sing like that, it might sound slightly different with age but it’s very much in his natural register and it comes with ease for him. The only issue is that vocal style wouldn’t work on a faster song Bc of breathing issues. But it goes to show you what a naturally beautiful voice Axl has. He could have been a great acoustic artist. 

Sounds like Axl’s high notes on the end 

[Georgina Arriaga]

Thank you @IncitingChaos.....I love his voice in that song

[Gordon Comstock]

1 hour ago, TheGeneral said:

And at last, hate me but I think 2009/2010 was way better than 1987-1993. The rasp was back and he knew how to use it and not over do it this time.

I honestly think Bucharest 2010 might be his single best concert, period. He sounds almost perfect, consistently, for over 2 hours. Just an unreal vocal performance.

[IncitingChaos]

17 hours ago, Georgina Arriaga said:

Thank you @IncitingChaos.....I love his voice in that song

Yea it’s a voice that would make you stop what your doing and see who it’s coming from. The moment he started singing on that song it became about him. 

The mickey/clean voice he uses is so far from his natural voice that it took him a long time to develop it and he worked to get his voice like that. It would be like a singer with a naturally high voice to become a baritone. It would sound odd and probably not be very good. 

Thats why many feel Axl should stay closer to his natural low voice. Some mistake his mickey voice for Axl losing his voice but it’s a style choice and a poor one at that. 

17 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

I honestly think Bucharest 2010 might be his single best concert, period. He sounds almost perfect, consistently, for over 2 hours. Just an unreal vocal performance.

I’d say LA 06 is better but I think both were perfect based on where his voice was at that time so it’s really just a matter of preference 

[Georgina Arriaga]

10 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

The mickey/clean voice he uses is so far from his natural voice that it took him a long time to develop it and he worked to get his voice like that. It would be like a singer with a naturally high voice to become a baritone. It would sound odd and probably not be very good. 

Yes, it's strange that he thinks he sound good.... is this clean voice thing that he refer in the China Exchange Interview, when he he said that it is "good for him"? how do you explain Axl/DC then? I came back to GNR thanks to his performances in AC/DC

[IncitingChaos]

54 minutes ago, Georgina Arriaga said:

Yes, it's strange that he thinks he sound good.... is this clean voice thing that he refer in the China Exchange Interview, when he he said that it is "good for him"? how do you explain Axl/DC then? I came back to GNR thanks to his performances in AC/DC

Axl’s well aware people don’t like that clean voice so he couldn’t perform With ACDC using unappealing vocals. 

I think the clean voice goes back to 02. His VMA interviews he talks about rebuilding a band that was so big into something else and not being sure it’s ever been done like that. I think his mind set was we are the same band but new people on instruments, so he changed his “instrument” to fit into this new band and distinguish itself from what was the classic band. 

06 was a correction to 02 as he was trying to get back to a classic sound versus a new experimental Buckethead gnr. And then 09-14 was just depression...all the phases starting with anger then the “fu*k this” phase of 11-14 haha

Edited March 13, 2018 by IncitingChaos