One In A Million being erased from history

[NicDwolfwood]

Unless they remove it from Lies, this is an overeaction at best, No one is erasing shit. Its not that big a deal that they didnt include it in this boxset. why re-open that can of worms for when its not necessary. It'll remain on Lies for those that want to listen to the song.

[killuridols]

28 minutes ago, 1neophyte said:

Uh, that's kind of the point. What is so difficult to understand? Axl is knowingly taking on the character of a "very ignorant person" in the song. The fault is not his for singing the song, but in the brain dead listeners with no comprehension skills. Do you feel the same way about "It's So Easy"? Do you think Axl is legitimately advocating sexual harassment and assault in that song? How about in "Pretty Tied Up"? Is he encouraging drug and alcohol abuse when he sings "Brownstone" or "Nightrain"? Why are you a GNR fan at all if you're incapable of understanding and interpreting art?

This is exactly why there will never be any new music. Axl has given up on the legions of idiots in the world, and just exploits them all for enormous financial gain rather than be the artist that he is. It's just not worth the effort of being an artist when you have to contend with this level of stupidity.

Your level of agression is so high that it inmediately invalidates all of your argument.

Axl is not an external observer of the situation. He is the main character and he is telling his own story, not someone else's. He does this in first person and when he has tried to justify the lyrics, he confirmed that each polemic line has a story behind, which happen to be all things that he actually went through. 

Just because he tried to save face later by making it sound as if he was some sort of narrator, not guilty and not embedded in the situation, it doesnt mean that the song is not a clear representation of his thoughts and experiences at the moment.

"Its so Easy" was written by Duff. I dont think they were advocating sexual harassment and assault in that song. That's what they were doing. Everything is a description of their lives, rather than vicarious experiences. Slash and Axl were being persecuted by the police because they had been accused of rape.

Brownstone and Nightrain are descriptions of their drug and alcohol abuse. I dont find a line that is openly telling someone else to do what they were doing, so I dont know what is your point anyway. None of that has anything to do with OIAM, other than the fact that they are autobiographical lyrics. 

LOL at Axl giving up on making music because his fans dont understand his art  

Sure, his lyrics put Proust to shame! 

28 minutes ago, 1neophyte said:

Oh jeez...you're hopeless. Is there just a language barrier or are you sincerely this confused?

English is not my mother tongue but you trying to put me down for that only proves your inability to use solid arguements against me.

Keep trying.

Edited May 5, 2018 by killuridols

[Silverburst80]

I love it and have my copy of it so they can do whatever. Erasing it would probably just draw attention to it again and what will it achieve?, no-ones gonna give Axl a slap on the back for doing it he'll get shat on regardless.

[Gnrcane]

1 hour ago, tat2d1 said:

When I say "ignorant" I mean it as in the Midwest "redneck" attitude. A lot of the song is about his attitude when he first arrived at the LA bus station and the stereotypes that a Midwest teen grows up believing in.  I know about the incident you referred to, some dude let Axl crash on his hotel room floor and then tried to rape Axl, which at that time convinced him that gays were rapists - a negative stereotype that was often perpetuated in those times. Sometimes a person's personal experiences can cause a person to have an ignorant perspective on something, I guess that's what I meant.

Also, at the time, AIDS was still relatively new and was still seen as a "gay disease" by many people.  That perception didn't really change until Magic Johnson announced he was HIV+ in 1991 (I think).

In reality, the entire outrage about the song is because of the N-word.  "Money for Nothing" uses the word "f-word;" more times and that is still played on classic rock radio stations.  Mark Knopfler always defended it as being a 3rd person kind of thing because he wrote the lyrics overhearing somebody but the song is sung in the first person just like OIAM. "We got to install microwave ovens..." identifies the singer as the person in the story.

As for the song lyrics, the structure isn't all that brilliant.  Axl switches up the order of things that go together I assume to get rhymes to make sense.

In the "Police and N's" get out of my way verse, the "don't need to buy none of your gold chains today" goes with the second group mentioned while "don't need no bracelets, clamped in front of my back" goes with the first (an interesting way to say I don't need to get arrested).

In the "Immigrants and Fs" verse it is the opposite where the first thing mentioned "they come to our country..." refers to the first group.  Then it goes back to the first group with the "talk so many god damn ways" line.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Gnrcane

[killuridols]

3 minutes ago, tremolo said:

Because that’s what most people do. And it doesn’t mean anything other than an outburst of the moment.

It’s a different thing if it’s constant, but it’s not the case.

I have a hard time believing someone will embark in the process of writing, singing and recording a song, out of an outburst of the moment. (Not to mention he had to convince the rest of the band to do it).

He was clearly harboring those feelings for a long time and building his rage inside from all the experiences and his own prejudice he had brought from Indiana to L.A.

[Underhardy]

It should’ve been remastered, and they should’ve included the demo with Axl singing in a softer register. Pity.

[Screamin' Demon]

12 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

Just another case of people trying to erase history in this overly political correct world.  Unless it is a rap song with racial lyrics about white people.. That is ok...

Clearly that is not a "politically correct world" but an anti-white world we live in.

[DieselDaisy]

I'm not particularly fond of the song but this is re-writing history. For all of its squalid puerility , the song was released and is a part of their discography and history.

One thing about these re-release/archival projects is they're supposed to be encompassing collections, containing everything of consequence. You should in theory be able to dispense with all of the old albums and a great many of the bootlegs covered by the orbit of the boxset as it will be all included in one lavish box. It strikes me that this overpriced boxset is completely inadequate to the task at hand. GN'R Lies will still be required for ''One in a Million''. Merely a fraction of the 1986 demos are being officially released. And if you want to see/hear what the Appetite tour looked like, well you're going to have to look elsewhere such as your old ever faithful Ritz bootleg.

 

[double talkin jive mfkr]

not only is lies is by far the best gnr album it is because it's the only time where axl is on piano with the classic 5

axl sounds the best he's ever sounded studio wise on one in a million particularly towards the end, there is no way he could've ever topped the notes he was hitting there on much too high 

 

furthermore the inclusion of piano towards the end is the proof in the pudding that the original 5 had it all and didn't need any other iterations to the lineup 

it is a top GNR song 

as for the content it is the darkest of it's kind and is honest what else can you say, it's true art and not a war cry song 

Edited May 6, 2018 by double talkin jive mfkr

[megaguns1982]

Strange to erase it, why not just bleep out the very few “offensive” words.

[Ratam]

I like this song except the insults,but think that is reasonable decision they not include OIAM , because would be innecessary  and provocative ,i guess Axl don't want his song be take like flag for racists or lunatic people.

[BOSSY78]

3 hours ago, megaguns1982 said:

Strange to erase it, why not just bleep out the very few “offensive” words.

It's not been erased. It's still on the album it was intended for which isn't AFD.

[chester]

The fans celebrating this song are the reason Axl is ashamed of it, he grew up and some of the fans still haven't. Like he said, it's a dangerous song. 

Edited May 5, 2018 by chester

[estrangedtwat]

11 minutes ago, chester said:

The fans celebrating this song are the reason Axl is ashamed of it, he grew up and some of the fans still haven't. Like he said, it's a dangerous song. 

[Nosaj Thing]

Kind of what Disney did to Fantasia.  A damn shame.

Some prefer to erase history, I am one of those who say: embrace it, which is the only and true way to prevent it from happening again.

One In A Million is probably one of the greatest acoustic songs they ever wrote and recorded.  Axl was a racist, ignorant, delinquent kid back then.  We know that, and we have known that for quite some time now.  That did not stop any of us from supporting the band he was in by spending thousands of dollars on the music and live concerts he participated in.  Slash and the rest of the group can play dumb all they want now, but back then they were no better than Axl.  All of them were the same, but the question here is: who gives a damn shit.

[Chris 55]

4 hours ago, megaguns1982 said:

Strange to erase it, why not just bleep out the very few “offensive” words.

Axl said years ago that he'd remove it off all future pressings (and this is a NEW pressing) of Lies because that, and "Look at Your Game Girl" were too easily misunderstood. How is it no one remembers this?

[estrangedtwat]

Probably cause these people arguing and making claims haven't been fans for a long time.

Here's the quote, from Rolling Stone, January 2000:

Rather than simply create a work that's negative and vengeful, though, Rose seems anxious to make something ''positive.'' Along these lines, he recently decided to remove the two most controversial GnR tracks, ''One In A Million,'' from 1989's GNR Lies - with it's lyrics disparaging ''hooray for tolerance!s,'' ''immigrants'' and ''hooray for tolerance!s'' - and the cover of Charles Manson's ''Look at Your Game Girl,'' which ends 1993's The Spaghetti Incident?. While he's always been reluctant to explain or justify his art, Rose has come to believe that ''they're too easily misinterpreted.'' Starting in February, the tracks will be deleted from future pressings.

It took him damn near 20 years but he finally took the song off the album.  This isn't a shock to anyone that's been following the band all this time.  This song was unofficially disowned by the time LIES was released....Axl refused to play it live after those first two times.  It wasn't brought up again until this interview where he said he wanted it taken off the record.

 

Around that time, Marilyn Manson was going to release it, but in the end, he too didn't feel like standing up to the pressure, and his version has never been released in any form.

From October 1998:

Another song which Manson and band have covered for use on a future single is the equally controversial Guns ‘n’ Roses track ‘One In A Million’, on which singer Axl Rose stated: ‘Immigrants and hooray for tolerance!s, they make no sense to me/They come to our country and spread some f**king disease’. The lyrics caused outrage back in ‘88, so much so that Rose was forced to make an awkward public apology for the offense caused to America’s black and gay populations. Manson views the song - and the storm of protest which followed - with a wicked fascination.

"It’s interesting to me that Axl Rose would write a song like that and then back down in the press and not be able to defend his statement," he says. "If you’re going to have the balls to make that kind of statement, then you should be able to back it up. So I figure I’ll say it and then show him how it’s done properly. These people really don’t know how to do anything right!" Manson huffs. "I have to take up all their slack for them. I’m not doing it because I agree with their statements, but because someone needs to do it properly."

And if there is fresh outrage when your version of ‘One In A Million’ is released?

"Go bother Axl Rose, he f**king wrote the song!" Manson cackles. "It’s not my f**king problem!"

 

[Blackstar]

But he never removed the song from the album (obviously he changed his mind after what he said in 2000). It's still there.

[estrangedtwat]

How many times has it been repressed or reissued since then?  It's not exactly a hot seller.  Maybe stock has just been sitting around in warehouses all this time and this is the first time they've actually had a chance to physically remove it?

[Blackstar]

The 2000 article said* something about "next February", which probably suggests that it was going to be repressed at that time. It's impossible that Lies has never been repressed since then, as it contains one of the band's biggest hits, Patience.

And of course it has  been on all the streaming/downloading services like itunes, spotify, etc. If Axl wanted to remove it, it wouldn't be available there.

* He wasn't even quoted saying it himself in that article. From the wording it seems someone else spoke on his behalf, most likely Doug Goldstein.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Blackstar

[RONIN]

There's some good arguments here for/against the inclusion of this song. I like OIAM for what it's worth. 

The entire band (minus Axl) didn't want it on Lies though - remember? They all publicly disowned OIAM - Izzy, Duff, Steven, and Slash. They also disowned My World and Look at your Game Girl.

Axl put those songs into the albums without the band's approval (and reaped the whirlwind). Maybe he's become a team player now by omitting OIAM from the box set?

Edited May 5, 2018 by RONIN

[Len Cnut]

10 hours ago, janrichmond said:

I know you would  but what if it said Pakis instead of hooray for tolerance!s wouldn't yer old man go mental?? Or is he like you?!? 

I dont think the man could recall an entire rhyming couplet out of the entire history of popular music even if he wanted to   Might raise an eyebrow I suppose but I can’t imagine he’d give a monkeys.  I listened to The Slits, they used the word ‘paki’ in a song Shoplifting.

[Sergeanur]

What are you people saying? Look up for Appetite singles - all stuff from LIES was on B-sides except for One In a Million. That's the only reason why it's not in the box set.

Jeez.

[DeadSlash]

18 hours ago, Sanomatovic said:

I had a dream 2 nights ago that they were going to release OIAM but the lyrics were about puppies lol

Kittens and puppies, That's right! Stay out of my way!

Don't need to buy none of your, pet treats today

[estrangedtwat]

LIES is represented in this set as "EPs N Shit" or whatever the title is.  That would include Live Like a Suicide, Live From the Jungle, and GNR Lies.  Which was always referred to as an EP, never a proper album.

OIAM is the only song from GNR Lies omitted.  I think it's very clear why.