"General Musings" " Thread for all of "Thoughts On" all GnR things in the universe.

[Amir]

1 minute ago, MillionsOfSpiders said:

Not available in my country  

Weird, you in the UK? YouTube Music is available there now. I'm in Mexico currently which is also among the countries that YouTube Music is provided to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Music

But it could be there are different distribution rights in the UK. I think I looked for Oh My God while in Australia on YouTube a few months back and it wasn't there either (my iTunes is set to Australia which is why I likely don't see it there as well).

[bumbleslash69]

What was the general reaction when Oh My God was released?

Nowadays it's just a footnote it seems like. I remember back in the "dark days" between 02 and 06 lots of chatter about it. But nothing too concrete is sticking out to me other than they were calling it a demo for some reason.

[default_]

5 minutes ago, bumbleslash69 said:

What was the general reaction when Oh My God was released?

Nowadays it's just a footnote it seems like. I remember back in the "dark days" between 02 and 06 lots of chatter about it. But nothing too concrete is sticking out to me other than they were calling it a demo for some reason.

At least in my country there werent any talks about it. 

I remember getting a magazine from the biggest rock radio at the time and they mentioned it, but I didnt see anything aside it. No airplay, nothing. 

[Tom-Ass]

57 minutes ago, bumbleslash69 said:

What was the general reaction when Oh My God was released?

Nowadays it's just a footnote it seems like. I remember back in the "dark days" between 02 and 06 lots of chatter about it. But nothing too concrete is sticking out to me other than they were calling it a demo for some reason.

There was no reaction in the US either.. I remember I was excited and went out and bought the EOD soundtrack but I didn't know anyone else who was excited about it.  

[UsedYourIllusion]

On 7/27/2019 at 11:22 PM, Amir said:

Funny, was just talking to @ZoSoRose about OMG and how I paid for the End of Days version on iTunes years ago. Now that whole soundtrack is gone off iTunes along with Oh My God :/

But weirdly, it was uploaded to YouTube Music back in December from GNR:

 

Man, I would really like this track if it had a better mix, the drums are really cranked up and it takes away from the guitars and Axl. I think the dynamic range is just bad, doesn't feel like there's any separation on the instruments and the track is brickwalled

[guitarpatch]

2 hours ago, bumbleslash69 said:

What was the general reaction when Oh My God was released?

Nowadays it's just a footnote it seems like. I remember back in the "dark days" between 02 and 06 lots of chatter about it. But nothing too concrete is sticking out to me other than they were calling it a demo for some reason.

Got played once per day for a few weeks in a top 20 countdown. Prob means Interscope “paid” for some promo behind it to see if it stuck. It didn’t stick

Edited July 29, 2019 by guitarpatch

[DieselDaisy]

They played it on Mary Anne Hobbs' Radio 1 Rock Show here in the United Kingdom and I recorded it on a cassette which became my default copy for a number of years until I finally mustered enough energy to purchase the soundtrack (it was full of new metal rubbish so I wasn't in much of a hurry). Pertaining to popularity, the song sunk without a trace. Rose did two long interviews for Rolling Stone and Kurt Loder about the same time; these were the interviews where all of those song titles were leaked, and the comment ''Physical Graffiti re-mixed by Reznor'' appeared; to all and intents and purposes it was the beginning of the ''new gnr'' thing, the initial media blitz preceding even HoB/Rio3. Well, taking collectively - two interviews and ''Oh My God'' - all of this generated a bit of gossip among the GN'R cognoscenti but little excitement in more mainstream circles. Commercially the song tanked, and the film it was saddled with was not exactly the greatest Arnie vehicle. 

[gnfnrs1972]

I found a version  where someone brought the guitars up front where you could actually hear them and it made the song 100 percent better. 

[zigzagbigbag]

12 hours ago, bumbleslash69 said:

What was the general reaction when Oh My God was released?

Nowadays it's just a footnote it seems like. I remember back in the "dark days" between 02 and 06 lots of chatter about it. But nothing too concrete is sticking out to me other than they were calling it a demo for some reason.

The geneal reaction was „Oh my god!“. 

[Azifwekare]

4 minutes ago, lukepowell1988 said:

I can't deny this

I've been taught just to kill and fight this.

[Sosso]

I still think that the line-up from 1998/99 had the potential to release something as big as UYI. 

[Rovim]

13 minutes ago, Sosso said:

I still think that the line-up from 1998/99 had the potential to release something as big as UYI. 

If you mean "big" as in commercially successful, idk. If it was released in 1999 my guess is it could have sold 5 million copies maybe even more. 7 mill if they promoted it like crazy and it had a hit single.

UYI had Estranged, November Rain, YCBM, Civil War, etc. Huge guns. I prefer the 2002 line up mostly because Brain and Bucket joined. I think Bucket especially made it more interesting but I still think Paul helped Axl a lot when it came to coming up with a good foundation for a song and was probably a very important element in new Guns.

To answer the OP's question:

I remember watching the movie thinking it was really boring and a waste of time but then when it was over and Oh My God started playing during the end credits I thought it sounded pretty cool. After listening to it again I felt that Axl had something. I could get on board with this musical direction. I love this tune and still listen to it today.

I think perhaps Axl got a little too excited and released it cause Jimmy Iovine told him he should or some shit. This tune actually needed more work imo and should have been included on the album. Great drum parts by Josh and Dizzy got to help with the chorus hook which is neat.

Great Axl vocals with a killer delivery and the lyrics are pretty dark. Also got that classic drama fueled Axl vibe like a car chase which I like.

[AXL_N_DIZZY]

Personally, I love “Oh My God”. Probably one of my Top 10-12 Guns songs. Very unbridled- and I think does represent the sound Axl was pushing for- and therefore has a certain courage/honesty to it artistically IMHO. Certainly can’t argue with the personnel (Navarro, Freese, Finck, Stinson, etc.)- particularly from a late 90s POV.

Unfortunately, it was mostly panned by critics upon release, and Axl was not inclined to really stand behind it for whatever reason. I guess much like Chinese itself- it seemingly caught the band in a weird spot with Finck having returned to NIN, and with no plans to tour. So it was never really clear how they were supposed to build on it if they even wanted to. It was cool to hear it played at RIR III though. Thought the Bucket line-up did a good job with it...

Edited July 30, 2019 by AXL_N_DIZZY

[Edward Nygma]

On 7/28/2019 at 4:22 AM, Amir said:

Funny, was just talking to @ZoSoRose about OMG and how I paid for the End of Days version on iTunes years ago. Now that whole soundtrack is gone off iTunes along with Oh My God :/

But weirdly, it was uploaded to YouTube Music back in December from GNR:

 

I wanted to listen to this but it's not available in the UK. I'm assuming its a higher quality version than ones on YouTube. It's not available on Spotify either. 

[RussTCB]

39 minutes ago, Edward Nygma said:

I wanted to listen to this but it's not available in the UK. I'm assuming its a higher quality version than ones on YouTube. It's not available on Spotify either. 

GN'R streaming is so odd. OMG is available on Spotify in the US but not in other countries. Then songs like Bad Obsession come and go now and then from the US Spotify but seem to be constantly available in other countries. So weird. 

[Voodoochild]

4 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

GN'R streaming is so odd. OMG is available on Spotify in the US but not in other countries. Then songs like Bad Obsession come and go now and then from the US Spotify but seem to be constantly available in other countries. So weird. 

Correct. The End of Days soundtrack only has 4 songs available in Brazil Spotify, OMG is not there. And this YouTube video is not available to me either.

For some reason, I couldn't find the Live Era album in the GNR profile on Spotify. But if I search for the album, it's still available there.

[soon]

The first time I heard omg first thought was “he should have had me mix and engineer this” And then I thought about how hyped it was that Navarro played the solo... but to this day I don’t hear a guitar solo!!?? Do I have the official version? I hear that section where there’s Load-era Hammett “adding colours and vibes” shit, but no solo

[Voodoochild]

1 hour ago, soon said:

The first time I heard omg first thought was “he should have had me mix and engineer this” And then I thought about how hyped it was that Navarro played the solo... but to this day I don’t hear a guitar solo!!?? Do I have the official version? I hear that section where there’s Load-era Hammett “adding colours and vibes” shit, but no solo

The solo is short, mudded in the mix and kinda weak, but as far as I know, it's still there.

[soon]

9 minutes ago, Voodoochild said:

The solo is short, mudded in the mix and kinda weak, but as far as I know, it's still there.

Huh, so there is! I had a chance to have a listen after reading your post. I only remembered second section of the solo (after axl sings a bit over the solo).

The real ripping is under the part where Axl sings, wish more of the solo was like that. But yeah, theres way more of a solo then Id recalled. Thanks!

[rumandraisin]

I liked bumbles disco leaks on the newer version of omg, drums were redone too, being Brain not Josh. 

Sad that it's the only realease featuring Josh. 

S

[Voodoochild]

33 minutes ago, soon said:

Huh, so there is! I had a chance to have a listen after reading your post. I only remembered second section of the solo (after axl sings a bit over the solo).

The real ripping is under the part where Axl sings, wish more of the solo was like that. But yeah, theres way more of a solo then Id recalled. Thanks!

Hey, no prob. I'm listening again too.

And yeah, the mix is shitty. I was very disappointed when I first heard it, even tho I really liked the song overall. The guitars are very compressed and brickwalled. There's almost no soundstage (stereo separation), no real difference in tone between the left and right guitars. The wah guitar througout the chorus and some other parts are cool, but IMO it's too much and it takes a lot of Axl's voice space.

Even the intro (is that Paul Huge?) sounds so processed and low, it's almost lost in the mix, mudded under the keyboard layers. Navarro's solo is kinda in the left channel, but it's also very poorly mixed. I wonder if we would ever get the original Robin solo in a demo. I didnt like Bumble's take on it at all. 

But the biggest problem is the drums. I love Josh Freese's performance, but the mix sucks, it's too muffled. It's almost like there's no snare. You can really tell the difference when you listen to Brain's performance live, specially the Las Vegas 2000/1 version. Even the very low quality Bumblefoot demo has a more proeminent snare sound. 

32 minutes ago, rumandraisin said:

I liked bumbles disco leaks on the newer version of omg, drums were redone too, being Brain not Josh. 

The wah guitar in the disco section is Robin, from what we could hear in the Las Vegas performance. I like it, but sounds a bit strange without the original Paul arpeggio sound.

[soon]

42 minutes ago, Voodoochild said:

Hey, no prob. I'm listening again too.

And yeah, the mix is shitty. I was very disappointed when I first heard it, even tho I really liked the song overall. The guitars are very compressed and brickwalled. There's almost no soundstage (stereo separation), no real difference in tone between the left and right guitars. The wah guitar througout the chorus and some other parts are cool, but IMO it's too much and it takes a lot of Axl's voice space.

Even the intro (is that Paul Huge?) sounds so processed and low, it's almost lost in the mix, mudded under the keyboard layers. Navarro's solo is kinda in the left channel, but it's also very poorly mixed. I wonder if we would ever get the original Robin solo in a demo. I didnt like Bumble's take on it at all. 

But the biggest problem is the drums. I love Josh Freese's performance, but the mix sucks, it's too muffled. It's almost like there's no snare. You can really tell the difference when you listen to Brain's performance live, specially the Las Vegas 2000/1 version. Even the very low quality Bumblefoot demo has a more proeminent snare sound. 

Listening to it on headphones makes it a bit cooler of a mix, but yeah its so murky. I can see what they were going for wth the guitars in the verse and had they produced and mixed that part better it would be a very powerful part, imo. You make a really good point about all the guitars sounding the same.

Im not sure who's doing what in the intro, sounds like you are more up to speed on the track then I am. The keyboards are so sinister and I like that, again just need more clarity and a pocket of their own. Seems clear that they had the opposite philosophy - that they wanted everything to sounds as a single mass of sound.

Robin denies appearing on the released track. Axl calls the released track a demo. So Im really confused about Robins role in it all.

Very strong point you make about the drums and snare in particular. Im thinking that "the beautiful people" may have been a reference point for that tone. Imagine what a nice crisp snare sound alone wouldve done for the over all song!

[guitarpatch]

2 minutes ago, lukepowell1988 said:

Think its more to do with odd international licensing than it is the band/Axl.

International licensing and soundtracks do complicate things. We also know the past issues with West Arkeen written songs.

Not much GNR can do on their end. You’re talking about international streaming rights on distribution agreements to appear on soundtracks that were made 20 yrs ago and an estate trying in some fashion to possibly protect royalty revenue that has seen a decline over the years (not that Id agree with that strategy). 

No lawyer fee would be worth reworking agreements for those songs compared to what they generate income wise. 

[RussTCB]

25 minutes ago, lukepowell1988 said:

Think its more to do with odd international licensing than it is the band/Axl.

 

7 minutes ago, guitarpatch said:

International licensing and soundtracks do complicate things. We also know the past issues with West Arkeen written songs.

Not much GNR can do on their end. You’re talking about international streaming rights on distribution agreements to appear on soundtracks that were made 20 yrs ago and an estate trying in some fashion to possibly protect royalty revenue that has seen a decline over the years (not that Id agree with that strategy). 

No lawyer fee would be worth reworking agreements for those songs compared to what they generate income wise. 

Yeah. I wasn't saying it's GN'Rs fault at all. I just notice those oddities more because it's GN'R lol. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

Just now, RussTCB said:

 

Yeah. I wasn't saying it's GN'Rs fault at all. I just notice those oddities more because it's GN'R lol. 

Owning the CD’s/Vinyl > Streaming Services for these very reasons. Sucks that where I live I have no room for them and have to be at the mercy of the streaming services. Nothing beats owning the material just so you never can have it taken away from you.