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Thoughts on Riad N' the Bedouins


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Honestly, I've tried to respond to this about 4 times.  Keep deleting my post because I can't properly express how I feel about this song.  :lol:  You might be lucky if you get me and two others respond to this thread in a positive manner.  The rest, if anyone else bothers, will slate it.  Poor Riad gets no love but it's my everything.  

Thank you Axl for making it exist.  

Axl once said in a chat that the reason he hasn't sung it for a long time (and that was back then!) was because he didn't feel like it. lol

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Besides the obvious Immigrant Song influence, musically it reminded me of Jane's Addiction musically.

It'd be an interesting one to hear how the current lineup would approach it.

The song is for the most part in the same register vocally too so I reckon Waxy could still make a decent go of it.

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I think this song had a lot of potential as it delivers a certain level of the old guns McRiffery, verses with a great whip and rasp to them and some great moments.... but just quite missed the spot in the mix we get on CD - and that's what it is.... a chopped up mix...

 

It didnt feel settled and mature as an actual song - The first verse kicks in with vigor but totally blows its load far too soon when the 'Oh my savaltion' being seemingly spliced in.... it's just too haphazard in how it's laid out.... and it feels unnatural.... but there are still some great bits in there, like after the 'Oh my savaltion' part, where they drop a great shuffly classic riff and into a fantastic second verse.... i mean, the lyrical twists bouncing its syllables off of the bouncy lick is fucking balls to the wal... but then there's the goddamn 'Oh my savaltion' part again.... i think my bugbear may be with this section..... it just doesnt seem to fit properly and needed some refinement in the writing of how it flows.... the half time feel is ok and the rythmn section is pretty cool.... it just doesnt float my boat....

 

I think the Guitar solo and especially the secondary 'Robot Solo' (around 3m33) in this tune are fucking awesome....

 

it was close.... but the dijointed feel and some of the sound effects lick donkey balls... I don't care where they got the intro noise from... it wasnt a bad intro, the song just tried to go too far too soon i think....

 

Nice topic, it's not discussed much these days... and i'd love to hear Slash and Duff's take on it live!

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Worst song released under the GNR name IMHO, including counting My World. Atleast that was kind of unique and ahead of its time and let us inside the mind of Axl at the time, Rhiad has not one good thing standing out about it, even fucking Nickelback could've released that song and would've probably made it come out better. It shares worst song on CD with Scraped, but that has a badass Slither style dropped tuning climbing riff for part of the verses. Mind you the rest of the song is shit aswell, it belongs in the GNR trashcan of My World, Shotgun Blues and Rhiad. 4 bad songs isn't bad for 5 studio albums.

Edited by StrangerInThisTown
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I love Riad.  Too my ears its the Dont Damn Me of CD.  Its everything Axl promised when making CD - beefier, more progressive (continuing trend from UYIs), new sonics, but still a GNR song.  

The back story of the character Riad is really something.  Like, theres no reason to doubt Axl about it, but whoa - what a crazy world!

I long for honesty in music and lyrics.  I mean a lyric can be such beautiful poetry and still be dishonest.  I think "I dont give a fuck 'bout them cause I am crazy" is as honest a lyric as Axl could write at the time.

I sometimes wonder if the lyrics are drawing a comparison between the shadowy figures of the criminal underworld and the shadowy figures in the music industry. Riad manipulates people and situations to drive his will and profits.  Axl felt conspired against and 'wont bend his will' to the manipulation of the unseen hand of the music industry and ex band mates?

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21 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Worst song released under the GNR name IMHO, including counting My World. Atleast that was kind of unique and ahead of its time and let us inside the mind of Axl at the time, Rhiad has not one good thing standing out about it, even fucking Nickelback could've released that song and would've probably made it come out better. It shares worst song on CD with Scraped, but that has a badass Slither style dropped tuning climbing riff for part of the verses. Mind you the rest of the song is shit aswell, it belongs in the GNR trashcan of My World, Shotgun Blues and Rhiad. 4 bad songs isn't bad for 5 studio albums.

LOL!  I was wondering when this kind of post would arrive.  6 posts in...not bad.  I thought we'd get it much sooner.  I totally respect that people have a wildly different opinion of this song to me.   I've kinda got used to being in the minority for Riad...it's like a funny little club.  So far there's 3 of us...:hahafyou:  

Only part I agree with is Scraped.  That is an abomination, as is TIL.  Those are the two songs I can't bear to listen to, not even the first note.

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15 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

LOL!  I was wondering when this kind of post would arrive.  6 posts in...not bad.  I thought we'd get it much sooner.  I totally respect that people have a wildly different opinion of this song to me.   I've kinda got used to being in the minority for Riad...it's like a funny little club.  So far there's 3 of us...:hahafyou:  

Only part I agree with is Scraped.  That is an abomination, as is TIL.  Those are the two songs I can't bear to listen to, not even the first note.

Oh no - you might break up the club over Scraped!!  lol

Outta likes, but other then Scraped both your posts are awesome!

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8 minutes ago, soon said:

Oh no - you might break up the club over Scraped!!  lol

Outta likes, but other then Scraped both your posts are awesome!

You HAVE to tell me what it is about Scraped you like. :lol:  Seriously, what is it?  Even time stamp your favourite parts, I'm willing to listen...I can't believe you like Scraped. lol  

Edit: no, we'll not let Scraped break up the Riad club! lol

Edited by MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle
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4 hours ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

You HAVE to tell me what it is about Scraped you like. :lol:  Seriously, what is it?  Even time stamp your favourite parts, I'm willing to listen...I can't believe you like Scraped. lol  

Edit: no, we'll not let Scraped break up the Riad club! lol

Hahaha! It's maybe my least favourite outta the tracks I like (IRS and ITW dont do it for me) but I do enjoy it.  In my mind it is paired with Riad in style and vibe.:smiley-confused2: 

Maybe Ill have to start a Scraped thread after this one goes a bit more.  I remember having shocked laughter the first time I heard the vocal intro and shaking my head like "thats our Axl"  And all those bleeps - those are the money bleeps! :lol:

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10 minutes ago, soon said:

Hahaha! It's maybe my least favourite outta the tracks I like (IRS and ITW dont so it for me) but I do enjoy it.  In my mind it is paired with Riad in style and vibe.:smiley-confused2: 

Maybe Ill have to start a Scraped thread after this one goes a bit more.  I remember having shocked laughter the first time I heard the vocal intro and shaking my head like "thats our Axl"  And all those bleeps - those are the money bleeps! :lol:

OK, just because its you, I'm giving this one another go.  LOL  Not convinced it's got a Riad vibe, but I'm going in with an open mind.  I'm quite partial to Axl's bleeps so we'll see...

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13 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

OK, just because its you, I'm giving this one another go.  LOL  Not convinced it's got a Riad vibe, but I'm going in with an open mind.  I'm quite partial to Axl's bleeps so we'll see...

Cool, haha!  Yeah, brush up on Scraped for when the thread appears!  Focus on those bleeps... its all in the bleeps lol

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It is a tie between this and Shackler's Revenge for turd of the album on CD. there are others floating in that Chinese toilet bowl, but these are the biggest. The intro sounds like a shit sci-fi film, the verse lyrics are garbage (how the man that penned Coma, Locomotive, Don't Damn Me etc. etc. produced this I'll never know) and the chorus is just an elongated whine. The guitar solo does start off quite well, but falls over when the "robot solo" kicks in. They should have bumped this for Oh My God on the album.

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I love the chord progression under the "salvation" and "lies" lyrics. And I love the vocals and drums. Great drumming, IMHO, that song has the best drumming of ANY GnR song period. It has good energy as well that I feel came from the drums and the overall pace of the song. And most important to me is the mood of the song which I really enjoy. 

Bumbles solo, as unique as it may be, just doesn't do a whole lot for me. The tone of the guitar is to compressed. (one of my biggest gripes of the album was way to much compression on the guitars) I like the fact that it's out of the box and unorthodox but I prefer some more structure and melody over ear candy. 

I don't know why the song gets so much hate, I think the only songs that fell flat on the album we're Scrapped and If the world. If they would have stuck with a more classic delivery and production of ITW and recorded it like Don't Cry it would be a classic. 

 

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8 minutes ago, Order of Nine said:

I love the chord progression under the "salvation" and "lies" lyrics. And I love the vocals and drums. Great drumming, IMHO, that song has the best drumming of ANY GnR song period. It has good energy as well that I feel came from the drums and the overall pace of the song. And most important to me is the mood of the song which I really enjoy. 

Bumbles solo, as unique as it may be, just doesn't do a whole lot for me. The tone of the guitar is to compressed. (one of my biggest gripes of the album was way to much compression on the guitars) I like the fact that it's out of the box and unorthodox but I prefer some more structure and melody over ear candy. 

I don't know why the song gets so much hate, I think the only songs that fell flat on the album we're Scrapped and If the world. If they would have stuck with a more classic delivery and production of ITW and recorded it like Don't Cry it would be a classic. 

 

Glad you mentioned the drumming.  I don't have an ear for drums and even I could tell the drumming was awesome, that combined with Tommy's snarling bass is what really makes Riad for me.  

@janrichmond Out of likes, but welcome to the Riad Club. You can bring Slash with you at least in spirit..:slash:

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1 minute ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

Glad you mentioned the drumming.  I don't have an ear for drums and even I could tell the drumming was awesome, that combined with Tommy's snarling bass is what really makes Riad for me.  

@janrichmond Out of likes, but welcome to the Riad Club. You can bring Slash with you at least in spirit..:slash:

The whole album I would classify as prog rock, ESPECIALLY the production, mixed with some GNR esqe ballads. But that song in particular is completely prog rock to me especially with the drums and the rhythmic changes. All the people saying "nu metal" are clueless imho. 

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