Thoughts on Riad N' the Bedouins

[Order of Nine]

2 hours ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

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.    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

I honestly think Axl dosent feel like singing anything after he records it since he insists on recording in such small sections then getting punched in to do the next line. It sounds great to hear it on a recording but it makes for a very unrealistic performance since you can't possibly take a breath. I can hear every time he's had a punch in now I know the process and he's been doing things that way since Appetite. 

[Derick]

I´m (now) definitely part of the club of those who love this song. The drumming and the vocals are the headlines to me! That´s a cool song to drive fast for sure! Anyway,to be honest It took me a while to start liking this song..I was too focused on the other songs of the album like IRS,Catcher,TWAT, Prostitute, SOD, etc..But nowadays definitely I love it!

[SlashisGOD]

It's decent, nothing spectacular. At least Scraped is heavy and Axl's delivery of the lines "nothing's impossible, I am unconquerable" are early 90's Axl to the max.

Riad never did much for me ever. I even like Oh My God better. Riad is better than Silkworms though, whose only redeeming factor is the "All I have I ask of you, I'll be dammed if it's not true" cause I like the way Axl sounds on that part.

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

50 minutes ago, Order of Nine said:

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. 

I never got the mu-metal tag either.  It had elements of that in the very early days but, well, over the course of a decade or so, that got dropped as Axl swung more towards the progressive and orchestral side of things and then of course, the label wanted a more commercial sound, so he had to dial down the weirdness and focus on ballads.  I'm not much into prog rock myself - I appreciate it to an extent - but I am big fan of orchestral rock.  I would love a proper Axl solo album where he's under no GNR pressure and can just let loose and be his crazy musical self.  Be fascinating to see what he'd come up with.  

 

41 minutes ago, Order of Nine said:

I honestly think Axl dosent feel like singing anything after he records it since he insists on recording in such small sections then getting punched in to do the next line. It sounds great to hear it on a recording but it makes for a very unrealistic performance since you can't possibly take a breath. I can hear every time he's had a punch in now I know the process and he's been doing things that way since Appetite. 

Thanks for the insight, hadn't thought about it that way before.  What's a 'punch in'?  I personally have no desire for them to roll this song out on tour.  I don't want to see or hear Axl try to sing this live today.  I feel the same way about most of the deep cuts of Illusions too, hence no desire to see them do Pretty Tied Up, or god forbid, Perfect Crime.  As live performances, leave them in the past where they belong.  Only deep cut I'd like to hear is an instrumental of Locomotive.  That'd go down well.

 

17 minutes ago, Derick said:

I´m (now) definitely part of the club of those who love this song. The drumming and the vocals are the headlines to me! That´s a cool song to drive fast for sure! Anyway,to be honest It took me a while to start liking this song..I was too focused on the other songs of the album like IRS,Catcher,TWAT, Prostitute, SOD, etc..But nowadays definitely I love it!

Yay! Another member of the club.  We're growing!  5 members!  LOL

[Trin9498]

Thoughts? Noise....lots of noise that doesn’t make my ears feel good. 

[gnfnrs1972]

It has a Daryl Dixon trapped in a closet type feel to it.

[Order of Nine]

24 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

I never got the mu-metal tag either.  It had elements of that in the very early days but, well, over the course of a decade or so, that got dropped as Axl swung more towards the progressive and orchestral side of things and then of course, the label wanted a more commercial sound, so he had to dial down the weirdness and focus on ballads.  I'm not much into prog rock myself - I appreciate it to an extent - but I am big fan of orchestral rock.  I would love a proper Axl solo album where he's under no GNR pressure and can just let loose and be his crazy musical self.  Be fascinating to see what he'd come up with.  

 

Thanks for the insight, hadn't thought about it that way before.  What's a 'punch in'?  I personally have no desire for them to roll this song out on tour.  I don't want to see or hear Axl try to sing this live today.  I feel the same way about most of the deep cuts of Illusions too, hence no desire to see them do Pretty Tied Up, or god forbid, Perfect Crime.  As live performances, leave them in the past where they belong.  Only deep cut I'd like to hear is an instrumental of Locomotive.  That'd go down well.

 

Yay! Another member of the club.  We're growing!  5 members!  LOL

It's a very common recording technique, but if you over use it with vocals imho it makes a live performance of it very hard to recreate since all the tracks are backed up next to eachother. You won't hear a pause, at a point someone would take a breath, or start a new sentence or phrase. Or there will be a pause but the vocalist will do the next line with a fresh set of lungs, minus the breath/pause they would take.

It's been a while since I've listened to old guns but I'm certin the outro of Coma may have the most punch ins. 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Order of Nine
Spelling

[Endless2404]

22 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

Yay! Another member of the club.  We're growing!  5 members!  LOL

I also like the song so that's 6 members

[themadcaplaughs]

Probably my least favorite song off Chinese Democracy, but still a good (even "very good") song. I know this song, like all the others on the album, resulted from a variety of different vocal and instrumental takes, but unlike the other songs on the album, it manages to convey the impression of a band hanging out in a room together jamming. We do not really hear that in many of the other songs (the only one I could see having a similar quality would be "Better."). When I saw the final track list for Chinese Democracy, I remember being legitimately surprised they put this song on the finished product, since we had not heard anything about it in so long. 

Others suggested that the song would not work live, and the few live performances from 2001/2002 bear that out. For whatever reason, no live performances of that song ever clicked. Nothing was technically "off," but it just sounded like the band did not jive well. I had the pleasure of seeing the band in Vegas on January 1, 2001, and the majority of the new songs ("Oh My God," "The Blues," and "Chinese Democracy") received as big a response as any of the old stuff. "Riad n' the Bedouins" and "Silkworms" fell completely flat; as in the most I remembered hearing was some obligatory clapping at the end of the song. "Silkworms," at least according to Axl, was meant to challenge fans, so you can argue that a muted response was probably expected. At one point, however, I have to think Axl felt "Riad" was one of the album's big hitters. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

I really, really, really want to like it. But the version we got on the album makes me just...not. We talked about this on another thread recently but I’m just not a fan of the Axl vocals (too 2002-esque) and I am not a fan of Bumbles solos.

But the actual structure, lyrics, and most of the instrumental are fucking great. I just wish that they did a bit more work to this song, since as it was, it felt like filler on Chinese.

One major pro is that Riad is a great, 4 minute, OG Guns style, rock song. This, Scraped and debatably IRS are the only ones like that on Chinese.

[RussTCB]

Having seen the song performed live, I can tell you it wasn't an enjoyable experience. I like the studio version but it was really bad to sit through in concert. 

[F*ck Fear]

The song is awesome! Axl's vocal delivery is fantastic and the bass sounds great too. Probably could have scrapped the intro and kept Buckethead's guitar solo, but other than those things, it's pretty fucking cool!

[Gackt]

It's a solid rocker  that transition into the solo and outro is killer, and would make for a great replacement to Sorry in the setlists.

[F*ck Fear]

I understand how fans of the original Guns wouldn't like Riad or Scraped, but myself personally I perfer both of these tracks to songs like Shotgun Blues, Get In The Ring.

Saying My World is better than Riad is laughable.

 

Edit: On topic, I wish they would have played Riad live more during the 2002 NA tour. That and Oh My God would have been awesome on that leg as the band were tighter by that point.

Edited January 4, 2018 by F*ck Fear

[Gordon Comstock]

@MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle Scraped isn't that bad. I like the vocals more than the Riad vocals (although, Immigrant Song impersonation > Aaaa-aaaay's ). It's odd because it's sort of Axl's 'uplifting' song, but it's weird to hear him acknowledge what I assume is his former bandmates during a chorus seemingly about his new band.

the vocals in the background of the chorus are:
I'd give anything to know
How you live with yourself
I would have never made it so far
All by myself...

 

Have you played around with the Rock Band multitracks at all? Wait what was this thread about again?

[Order of Nine]

2 minutes ago, F*ck Fear said:

I understand how fans of the original Guns wouldn't like Riad or Scraped, but myself personally I perfer both of these tracks to songs like Shotgun Blues, Get In The Ring.

Saying My World is better than Riad is laughable.

 

Edit: On topic, I wish they would have played Riad live more during the 2002 NA tour. That and Oh My God would have been awesome on that leg as the band were tighter by that point.

I think Riad is better then alot of Illusion's songs, 

You ain't the first, dead horse, bad apples, shotgun blues, get in the ring, breakdown, bad obsession, 

[F*ck Fear]

2 minutes ago, Order of Nine said:

I think Riad is better then alot of Illusion's songs, 

You ain't the first, dead horse, bad apples, shotgun blues, get in the ring, breakdown, bad obsession, 

Removing Dead Horse, Bad Apples, Breakdown and Bad Obsession from your list I agree.

I'll take any song from Chinese Democracy over the likes of,

Shotgun Blues, Get In The Ring, You Ain't The First, So Fine, The Garden, My World

[Order of Nine]

2 minutes ago, F*ck Fear said:

Removing Dead Horse, Bad Apples, Breakdown and Bad Obsession from your list I agree.

I'll take any song from Chinese Democracy over the likes of,

Shotgun Blues, Get In The Ring, You Ain't The First, So Fine, The Garden, My World

I think illusions should have been one album.

Now that I'm thinking I like Riad more then double talking jive too

[jmapelian]

One of if not the worst song by Axl Rose 

7 hours ago, Endless2404 said:

Express your opinion about Riad N' the Bedouins and why do you think it wasn't played after 2002.

Probably cause ir sucks ass

[Gackt]

Say what you will about the song, but all opinions should direct to "but the verse riff is one of the band's best"

Gonna direct people to listen to the demo if they haven't already:

 

[fernomenoyde]

I love Riad because i love Inmigrant Song.

I remember Axl talking about thinking on a new song and then getting into the studio just to realize it was Zeppelin. Well, i think is some kind of tribute to Zep and that's just nice.

[Sisyphus]

A pretty good song buried somewhere in the mishmash of all the layers. Weird title.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Sisyphus

[default_]

I think is a weird song.

11 hours ago, fernomenoyde said:

I love Riad because i love Inmigrant Song.

I remember Axl talking about thinking on a new song and then getting into the studio just to realize it was Zeppelin. Well, i think is some kind of tribute to Zep and that's just nice.

It doesnt sound like Zep at all lol Just because of the "Ahhh ah ah" on the intro? Nop nop nop. Not at all.

[TheGeneral]

I think Riad has a very bad "timing". The "Oh my salvation..." part is waaay too soon. Sounds like if in Nightrain they would jump to the chorus right after the "I can tell you honey..." part. Way too short.

The opposite is another song from Chinese. I think Sorry takes forever until we get to the chorus. The chorus kicks ass but the way to the chorus is just too loooooong...