Jump to content

Axl's Magnum Opus


Recommended Posts

On 23/09/2018 at 11:04 AM, Stoymatic said:

The General #3? What makes you feel this way? 

98% of us has never heard the song, but it's a major GnR ballad? 

Just curious

You'd be surprised.
Cousin of Madagascar n' prostitute.

On 23/09/2018 at 11:09 AM, killuridols said:

Correction: 100% of us has never heard the so-called "The General" :lol:

i'd say 99%.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, ramsey said:

I have my own thoughts but would like to give a shout out to this thread and the OP. Finally some good discussion and insight be shared and appreciated by all. Not a bunch of arguing, degrading band members, etc. Good work y'all. 

Likewise, i guess the corollary question is:

What would be Izzy's Magnum Opus? Is it in GN'R? Or is it Juju Hounds/Solo work? Maybe it's something like Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Dust N' Bones, who knows. Maybe he doesn't have one(yet?)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, UsedYourIllusion said:

Likewise, i guess the corollary question is:

What would be Izzy's Magnum Opus? Is it in GN'R? Or is it Juju Hounds/Solo work? Maybe it's something like Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Dust N' Bones, who knows. Maybe he doesn't have one(yet?)?

Like a Dog is Izzy’s best album.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To the extent we are using “Magnum Opus” to mean “greatest work”, and/or “masterpiece”, and also trying to view it objectively, and not just each of us chiming in with favorite compositions or albums that are grand in scope, etc.- I think the answer is almost certainly “November Rain” as a song- and the Illusions at the album level. At least in terms of how the majority of the public, and critics would frame/evaluate Axl’s career (separate and different from Guns N‘ Roses which would be Appetite)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He hasn't wri†ten his magnum opus. There is no such thing.
Each song, each album is is a book of memories (although with his iconic status, time doesn't always fade the pages). A scrapbook of certain times and certain lives. The nature of creativity, is that you'll never stop creating until the day you die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Edward Nigma said:

I'd say This I Love is one of the more popular tracks on CD, based on YT views & streaming plays.

So is "Friday" by that stupid 16 year old girl whose parents paid money to make a music video for her

This I Love is terrible and by far the worst track on CD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, RJ88 said:

So is "Friday" by that stupid 16 year old girl whose parents paid money to make a music video for her

This I Love is terrible and by far the worst track on CD

Really? The Worst for a lot of people would be scraped, lyrically, and it sounds like 3 songs on top of each other. I personally hate Riad, to each his own. CD may be the album Axl has always wanted to write, he just had conflict and creative differences before 1996 with his band, but November Rain seems to be his personal baby; although i remember at the Indiana show he called Estranged "his personal baby" or something to that extent during the encore. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23/09/2018 at 9:53 PM, UsedYourIllusion said:

Something from UYI II that makes me feel a similar pattern of feelings with CD was Estranged 

"Maybe we'll find another way,

Find another day,

With all the changing seasons, 

of our lives,

Maybe we'll get it right next time".

Axl seems like the type, 'Do as i say, not as i do'; he tries his damndest to write a track about being comfortable with unrequited love, Estranged, and needing to move on. And yet, i'm not sure if it was his perfectionest nature to try and finish CD (and he wrote those songs about past loves when he still was vulnerable and the feelings were sincere) or he REALLY couldn't move past Stephanie until those songs were finished, and he had a cathartic feeling showing the World his final image of the songs. Not sure if he still missed her or felt grief in 2001/2002, or in 06-08. Who knows. Either way i'm interested to see new songs and new emotions from the band-in the same way they weren't writing AFD-esque songs in '91 and in their solo projects. I wanna see new stuff.

Nice Post man! Sorry that I only got to read it today.

Here's the thing, as far as CD goes, my opinion is that the longevity of the project was a mixture of the Label and the producers telling Axl to work extensively on the songs, so they could gain time to try to set up a reunion. While at the same time, if that wasn't gonna happen, trying to fight the right promotional deal to get hype, on what they always saw as an Axl Solo record.

They knew CD was never gonna be considered a GNR record, and therefore it would never sell like one (the whole band vanished...If it was one member, or two... but it was the whole band except Axl). 

So I think the idea behind rejecting Chinese Democracy several times (when they felt Axl needed to work more on the songs), to me was to gain time, to try to frustrate him and force him to a reunion. Once that wasn't accomplished, they just tried to get the best deal they could to promote the release of the album (Best Buy), and I guess you could say it worked. CD didn't sell as good as a GNR album, but it sold much better than the average solo album, so they were able to recover some of the money that was invested. The rest was probably recovered as well through touring or future recordings, and most recently with the boxset.

Edited by Propaganda
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23-9-2018 at 12:48 AM, UsedYourIllusion said:

The anniversary of UYI got me on a binge, and i just listened nearly to GN'R's entire catalog. For us, we might  feel like Chinese Democracy is Axl's Magnum Opus, but is it really? Not talking about the quality of the album; is it as Slash suggested, 'the album he's always wanted to write'?

 

Chinese Democracy might be flawed, or as one reviewer put "perfectly imperfect" but you can feel Axl laying his soul into that album, and expressing the last 15 years of his life up until that point. But, how does that fit in with UYI? Civil War, Estranged, Coma, November Rain; in the ballads from UYI he's largely expressing the same feelings. I'm not sure, if you asked him, which song or album he would pick as his best/favorite work. Considering how his outlook has changed over time, i'm sure in 1991 he felt it was November Rain. After the reunion, when all is said and done, looking back on things, it seems hard to pick an album, let alone a song. 

I've always felt Use Your Illusion are collections of (mostly) great songs, but as albums they're very flawed. 

First of all, as albums they lack direction. It's not as much of a vision or a real collaboration, but rather input from many sides. 

Secondly they're too long. Most really strong albums are 45 minutes. Some long albums and a very few exceptional double-albums still manage to be listenable as an album without losing your attention. 

Thirdly, as a result of point 1 and 2, they don't flow well as albums. Sections of them do, for example I've always loved tracks 10-16 on UYI 1 as a whole. 

Fourthly they're not exactly all-killer-no-filler. There are too many weak songs on them, and opinions differ on what they are. 

And lastly, the production is getting quite heavy/busy. It's not a major issue here yet, but you can see it happening compared to AFD and Lies. 

 

In many ways CD suffers from the extrapolations of these issues imo. 

Again, the UYI's have a lot of great songs and for that I love them. But as albums they're definitely flawed imo, despite that I love most the material. In fairness - What they do have going for them is mistique. The artwork, the fact that there's two and the complexity of it all make them fascinating. As a kid I loved that about them. I remember borrowing them from the local library (yeah kids, before the internet days you had to make an effort for your music) for a first listen and it was like holding something grand in your hands. And that's a powerful thing, despite the flaws. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/24/2018 at 4:17 PM, UsedYourIllusion said:

Likewise, i guess the corollary question is:

What would be Izzy's Magnum Opus? Is it in GN'R? Or is it Juju Hounds/Solo work? Maybe it's something like Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Dust N' Bones, who knows. Maybe he doesn't have one(yet?)?

Double-Talkin Jive is such a sick song.  I think Axl's voice adds a lot to the song as well.  If I were in control, I think I'd rein it in a bit, but I wouldn't want Double-Talkin Jive without Axl on backing vocals

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Caught_in_a_Coma said:

Double-Talkin Jive is such a sick song.  I think Axl's voice adds a lot to the song as well.  If I were in control, I think I'd rein it in a bit, but I wouldn't want Double-Talkin Jive without Axl on backing vocals

That riff always gets me. Think about how the UYI records could have been if they would have played a couple shows, maybe the 91 leg and then recorded all the tracks based off of live versions? Stripped down, no added production. Just raw GNR

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Caught_in_a_Coma said:

Double-Talkin Jive is such a sick song.  I think Axl's voice adds a lot to the song as well.  If I were in control, I think I'd rein it in a bit, but I wouldn't want Double-Talkin Jive without Axl on backing vocals

Out of interest - what do you mean by rein it in a bit. Do you mean the live version?

The live version of this song is probably my favourite GNR song. Always my go-to on any new bootlegs - have to check the quality of the DTJ :headbang:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, DK6 said:

Out of interest - what do you mean by rein it in a bit. Do you mean the live version?

The live version of this song is probably my favourite GNR song. Always my go-to on any new bootlegs - have to check the quality of the DTJ :headbang:

I mean the album version and I think I spelled rein in incorrectly (it's one of those words where the same sounding word has different meaning depending on how you spell it).  I love Axl's backing vocals to Izzy on Double Talkin Jove, but if I were in control I might tone it down just a tad, like when Axl says "no more patience man, you dig what I'm saying? Punk?" I wouldn't have Axl say that "punk" part.  I'd have him stop when he says "you dig what I'm saying?"

Edited by Caught_in_a_Coma
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...