[Essay] My take on what a 1995-ish GN'R album would have looked like

[OfftheBeatenTrack]

Hey there folks!

So, a while ago (before I was even registered to this forum, actually, ha), I looked into their 94-96 rehearsals and tried to see if I could figure out what might have been on a sixth studio album of theirs, and ended up with this as a result.

Now I'd like to ask your opinions on the issue, if you agree with my assumptions, and so forth. Thanks a lot!

[Sosso]

I'm doing the same thing with the original line-up from 1985 right now. I love those "what could've been" scenarios. 

[Uncle Bob]

So you bassically think a Gn'R album in 1995 would have been "It's Five o' Clock Somewhere"

[OfftheBeatenTrack]

1 minute ago, Uncle Bob said:

So you bassically think a Gn'R album in 1995 would have been "It's Five o' Clock Somewhere"

What other option do I have?

[DieselDaisy]

Izzy and Duff were working on some demos also. I think this was in April 1995. 

[Sosso]

I think that they should made it like KISS back in the 70's. One album for each member. 

Industrial album (Axl, Dizzy, Paul) 

Bluesy album (Slash and Izzy) 

Punk album (Duff) 

[OfftheBeatenTrack]

21 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Izzy and Duff were working on some demos also. I think this was in April 1995. 

Unfortunately, they haven't leaked until now. If they did, that'd be a good reference point, as well.

[StrangerInThisTown]

15 minutes ago, OfftheBeatenTrack said:

Unfortunately, they haven't leaked until now. If they did, that'd be a good reference point, as well.

"The Rose Petalled Garden" by BLS was a tune Zakk said they jamed on with Guns and he later used it for their debut album in like 1999

[DieselDaisy]

I have to believe Rose was drunk when he heard the ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' riff - not necessarily the whole song but just that winding nagging riff - and said to Slash, ''no, I'm not interested''. Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

[killuridols]

6 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

Back then he wanted Reznor riffs, lol

[WhazUp]

5 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

I have to believe Rose was drunk when he heard the ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' riff - not necessarily the whole song but just that winding nagging riff - and said to Slash, ''no, I'm not interested''. Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

My two favorite post-GNR Slash riffs are Beggars, and the slow grinding riff during the second half of Jizz Da Pit.  If even the TSI? lineup played those it would have been absolutely killer

[Blackstar]

1 hour ago, DieselDaisy said:

I have to believe Rose was drunk when he heard the ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' riff - not necessarily the whole song but just that winding nagging riff - and said to Slash, ''no, I'm not interested''. Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

Some aspects of that story are unclear, but, to my understanding, what Axl didn't like was the songs "as they were". It doesn't mean that he (or Duff, because, let's not forget, he didn't like the Snakepit songs either) didn't like this riff or another part of a song.

[EvanG]

Quote

 The "Gilby Clarke situation" would also have to be turned around for this, because he was a big contributor to It's Five o' Clock Somewhere, co-writing a little less than half the album and also contributing backing vocals and rhythm guitar to it.

Not so much, he gets credit for only three songs on this record. And Monkey Chow is one of the better songs on there in my opinion, definitely showed Gilby's ability as a songwriter.

I remember reading online a long time ago about an acoustic record that was written and recorded during those years, which was considered the ''lost album''. I'll presume that's complete bullcrap, but anyone remember that story?

[janrichmond]

3 minutes ago, EvanG said:

I remember reading online a long time ago about an acoustic record that was written and recorded during those years, which was considered the ''lost album''. I'll presume that's complete bullcrap, but anyone remember that story?

Never heard that before

[EvanG]

Just now, janrichmond said:

Never heard that before

I remember it was an article about those years (1994-1996), but I did a quick google search and I can't find anything... it's not true anyway obviously, but it would have been interesting to see where it came from.

[Blackstar]

A Slash interview from that time (1995):

Edited July 31, 2018 by Blackstar

[OfftheBeatenTrack]

4 hours ago, Sosso said:

I'm doing the same thing with the original line-up from 1985 right now. I love those "what could've been" scenarios. 

Same,

My latest project is a what-if album from 1988 with all the songs that were written by then, shaping up nicely, ahaha

GUNS N' ROSES - GN'R LIES (1989)
Side One:
01 You Could Be Mine - written in late '86
02 The Garden - written in 1985
03 Perfect Crime - played live in 1987
04 Don't Cry - written in 1985
05 Back Off Bitch - written in 1982
06 Knockin' on Heaven's Door - covered since 1987
Side Two:
07 Used to Love Her - written in 1987
08 Patience - written in 1987
09 Bad Obsession - written in 1984
10 November Rain - written in 1985
11 Yesterdays - written in 1984
12 One in a Million - written in 1987

[Draguns]

1 hour ago, EvanG said:

I remember it was an article about those years (1994-1996), but I did a quick google search and I can't find anything... it's not true anyway obviously, but it would have been interesting to see where it came from.

The only thing that I know about that era is what Matt Sorum said that they had 7 completed songs and 7 songs they were working on. 

[SlashisGOD]

Would be very interesting to hear those 7 songs

[killuridols]

2 hours ago, EvanG said:

I remember reading online a long time ago about an acoustic record that was written and recorded during those years, which was considered the ''lost album''. I'll presume that's complete bullcrap, but anyone remember that story?

I dont remember anything about acoustic, but The Outpatience bassist once mentioned the "new GN'R album" that was in the making around 1995-1996.

I translated the excerpt that I found online in Spanish here:

 

[Gunner927]

Honestly, I think IF it would've happened, it probably would've turned into another UYI-esque double album. Axl has his songs, Slash has his, Duff has his, maybe Izzy or fucking Paul Tobias has his.

I'll say this: I really, really, really want to know what Soma City Ward would've sounded like with Axl. Such a mean fucking song as far as the instrumental half goes, and that solo is one of my favorite Slash solos ever.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Gunner927

[Sydney Fan]

4 hours ago, Gunner927 said:

Honestly, I think IF it would've happened, it probably would've turned into another UYI-esque double album. Axl has his songs, Slash has his, Duff has his, maybe Izzy or fucking Paul Tobias has his.

I'll say this: I really, really, really want to know what Soma City Ward would've sounded like with Axl. Such a mean fucking song as far as the instrumental half goes, and that solo is one of my favorite Slash solos ever.

I don't know. Theres an interview that has been posted in the forum from 96 where Slash was conducting the interview at the Sunset Marquis where he says he wanted to go back to a straight rock album like appetite. That's where Slash's head was anyway but he and the rest of the had no idea what Axls idea was for an album which Slash comments in his book. Just shows how fragmented the whole band where.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Sydney Fan

[EvanG]

It bugged me that I can't find the article I was referring to, so I tried to find it again, but all I can come up with are these quotes from another forum.

 

"We're aiming at '96 [for the next record] and we'll probably be doing a lot of recording, and trying to put a lot of things between now and then. [...] We may work with Brian May on a project upcoming... [...] And we're hoping to pull that one off. We get along with Brian really well." (Axl, Rockline, 01/03/94)

"We're really into letting Matt go more off on his own in terms of drumming for GNR. [...] When he goes off on his own creative sense it's pretty amazing. I want to facilitate that getting out. I want Matt to just explode on the next record." (Axl, Hit Parader, 1993)

"Slash as been working on a lot of things, working on a lot of riffs with the band. I've just been working on where my head's at on things so I can approach the next record in a way that lets me go to farther extremes. If I'm going to express anger, I want to take that farther, and if I'm expressing happiness and joy I want to take that farther too. We really haven't really sat down to collaborate on songs yet. I wrote and recorded a new love song that I want on the next record called This I Love, that's the heaviest thing that I've ever done. Other than that, we're not even sure how we're gonna approach writing for this next album. Last time Slash would write his songs, I would write mine and Izzy would write his, and then we'd put ‘em all together. Well, this time there's no Izzy, and Slash isn't writing just his songs - it's gonna be more of a collaboration thing. We don't know if we're gonna be writing with Gilby or somebody else. We know we want to play with Gilby, but we're not sure about the writing."-- Axl, Hit Parader, 1993

"This I Love' is actually an old GN'R song that the original GN'R wrote and recorded for the 'Illusion' records. I like that song a lot.. it took a couple of weeks to find all the tapes because they finished recording 'Use Your Illusions' on the road and one tape was in Paris (June 1992) another in London (August 1992) and another in Sydney (January 1993), I believe." (Dave Dominguez, Sp1at, 04/21/05)

"We started going to Slash's house. [...] He has a little studio there and we had a batch of songs. But, ya' know what? Without Izzy, we just weren't writing the old way. We had a bunch of great songs, but the way we used to write wasn't all sitting in a room and trying to force ourselves to be a family. We just were. But there was a point up there where it was looking good and we started cranking out songs, but it just started falling apart." (Duff, Metal Edge, 06/99)

"So we jammed together for just over a week [in January 1995], we jammed over a whole bunch of shit and came out with three pretty cool ideas." (Zakk Wylde, Kerrang!, 01/28/95)

"Even when Zakk Wylde and Slash played together, there were a couple of songs in which there was a natural progression and they were very rocking. You can imagine, they were really hard songs. As hard as I like them, yeah! But I can't tell you what they sounded like, there was not a definite sound." (Duff, Popular 1, 07/00)

"In April, 1995, Duff calls me again: 'I'm trying to compose new songs for the guys in GN'R. Come and give me a hand.' It made five and that I'd left Guns but I said myself: 'Well shit, after all, why not?' Duff and I wrote ten pieces in the space of week. We even recorded them as demos." (French Izzy interview, 2001)

"F: There's rumors about Izzy getting back...

Slash: Izzy agrees with writing stuff but he's not interested in touring... He doesn't want to deal with Axl y'know? The Rockstar thing... Like me, he just wanna play... We never thought GNR would become so big..." (Slash, Sao Paulo Journal, 07/21/95)

"When the Sex Pistols were rehearsing for their 1996 reunion tour [set to begin on 06/21/96 in Finland], Pistols mainman John Lydon claimed to have heard 'some folky nonsense' emanating from the next room, only to discover it was actually Axl and co hard at work." (Kerrang, 08/21/99)

"Axl and I have been meeting recently and everythings progressing." (Slash chat, 07/30/96)

"[slash] also enthuses about the new material Guns N' Roses have been writing. Apperently, the band members are currently trading tapes amongst themselves [before the actual recording sessions]. "It's amazing stuff," he says." (Slash, Kerrang, 09/21/96)

"For the last couple of years, [Axl] started to go, 'Okay, I'm going to play guitar and actually learn what these notes are.' It's an innocent guitar, not unlike Izzy (Stradlin, ex-GN'R guitarist) was, but Axl's got a lot more musically than Izzy ever did.'" (Duff, Addicted to Noise, 08/30/96)

"Right now, [Axl's] playing guitar and it's like he plays that instrument for 10 years." (Matt, 1996)

"The songs are really good, and I have a good vibe about it. I wouldn't want to go out and do a bad Guns N' Roses record." (Slash, Kerrang, 09/21/96)

"We have been doing mostly Axl's material." (Slash chat, 10/16/96)

"Even if we don't sell any copy of the next album, I will be very proud of what we did. But I don't worry about it, I know that what we are doing right now is great. [...] We are working on rock songs that last only 4 minutes (laughs). We already did 7 songs and we will write 7 others. [...] It will be a single album with 10 or 12 songs." (Matt, 1996)

"The record will be all up-tempo rock songs ("No ballads," McKagan said firmly) and it will be just 12 songs, with a release planned for next spring." (Duff, Addicted to Noise, 08/30/96)

"It's gonna be an angry record, but that's what we were built on." (Slash, Kerrang, 09/21/96)

"This is not as sophisticated as Illusion, but not as wild as Appetite. It's in the middle. Maybe more groovy. Musically, we are all better. I never heard Duff play like that." (Matt, 1996)

"I think that some of the riffs that were coming out of [slash] were the meanest, most contemporary, bluesiest, rocking thing since Aerosmith's Rocks. The 2000 version of Aerosmith Rocks or the 1996 Aerosmith Rocks by the time we would have put it out." (Axl, press release, 08/14/02)

 

And this 96 interview where Slash talks about new songs:

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by EvanG

[The Holographic Universe]

13 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

I have to believe Rose was drunk when he heard the ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' riff - not necessarily the whole song but just that winding nagging riff - and said to Slash, ''no, I'm not interested''. Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

There are at least 3, maybe 4 songs Axl could have made great from that album. I agree with your assessment.

[tattooedmarvel]

14 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

I have to believe Rose was drunk when he heard the ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' riff - not necessarily the whole song but just that winding nagging riff - and said to Slash, ''no, I'm not interested''. Talk about cutting your nose off despite your face!! That riff is a monster, an absolute Slash classic. 

This is the same Axl Rose who included My World on Use Your Illusion 2...