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http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slash-talks-playing-chinese-democracy-song-better-velvet-revolvers-slither-with-guns-n-roses/

Slash: We did change the intro... that was actually just some idea, something that came actually from another piece of material, and it just somehow morphed into the intro for that song because it was so cool.

What is Slash talking about? Isn't the Better intro just the rhythm part underneath the solo? 

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37 minutes ago, PhillyRose said:

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slash-talks-playing-chinese-democracy-song-better-velvet-revolvers-slither-with-guns-n-roses/

Slash: We did change the intro... that was actually just some idea, something that came actually from another piece of material, and it just somehow morphed into the intro for that song because it was so cool.

What is Slash talking about? Isn't the Better intro just the rhythm part underneath the solo? 

I'm assuming he's talking about the bridge part when he says it's "from another piece of material" 

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1 hour ago, RussTCB said:

I'm assuming he's talking about the bridge part when he says it's "from another piece of material" 

Another piece of material implies a different song altogether ... Unless I'm really misunderstanding his usage of "material" .. Just seemed like an odd comment

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2 hours ago, PhillyRose said:

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slash-talks-playing-chinese-democracy-song-better-velvet-revolvers-slither-with-guns-n-roses/

Slash: We did change the intro... that was actually just some idea, something that came actually from another piece of material, and it just somehow morphed into the intro for that song because it was so cool.

What is Slash talking about? Isn't the Better intro just the rhythm part underneath the solo? 

The intro of live version of better appears in the demo of the song 

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He may have said either about the build-up or his unison bends over it, not about the actual chord progression. 

This topic made me revisit the original recording and there's nothing good in it except for Finck's solo. Production is a total garbage, the way Slash and Duff rearranged this song actually made it good. 

It's a strange situation to have a live recording sounding more powerful than the original track. But that's what happens when you have to fill 32 layers with your unrestrained ideas. Now when I'm thinking about it, it's unacceptable to make hard rock band's guitars fade out like that. All producers of Chinese Democracy failed on that matter.

Edited by Ralphelmo
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4 hours ago, PhillyRose said:

Another piece of material implies a different song altogether ... Unless I'm really misunderstanding his usage of "material" .. Just seemed like an odd comment

I get what you're saying. It is an odd alway to word it, but I'm sure that's what he meant seeing as the part IS in the original song. 

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22 minutes ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

I agree, the "new" intro to better is better. The problem I have with it is that it builds up, then Axl comes in with the "nobody ever told me..." which takes it down from the build up. With the new intro, it would sound better 😃 if Axl went straight into the verse. Save the "nobody ever told me..." parts for the chorus. I'm a big believer in keeping the momentum building, dont release the tension until it's time. Historically guns are great about such things, but they missed this one imo. 

Never thought of that but now I agree. Thatd be great

Also, Better is one of my favorite GNR songs and it was a set highlight for me. The version I got during the second Chicago 2016 show was one of the best live renditions I've heard. It was really good

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Better is such a great song.  Don't care for the industrial sounding opening and ending of the song (but I can see why people would like it, I just feel the base of the song doesn't match the industrial sound of those parts), I really like the opening they gave it.  Would love a studio release of it.  Say, maybe they could release some sort of ChiDem remix album

Edited by Caught_in_a_Coma
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1 hour ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

I agree, the "new" intro to better is better. The problem I have with it is that it builds up, then Axl comes in with the "nobody ever told me..." which takes it down from the build up. With the new intro, it would sound better 😃 if Axl went straight into the verse. Save the "nobody ever told me..." parts for the chorus. I'm a big believer in keeping the momentum building, dont release the tension until it's time. Historically guns are great about such things, but they missed this one imo. 

exactly

thats one of the very many "ingredients" that made GNR songs great along with many others.

Almost every GNR song has very very good dynamics. these sort of dynamics make you like the song and make you want to listen to it (using the words of Axl on early NR) "again and again and again and again and again"

Problem is that Slash and Duff and Axl seem to be completely clueless about how to do that in a song. When you listen to their solo material there is very little to none of that. Their solo stuff has very poor dynamics in too many songs. very little of that building-crescendo-then-releasing-etc dynamics on their songs

Exceptions are few and far between. Neurotic Outsiders and VR are the main ones, but Neurotic Outsiders is basically all Steve Jones (a master on dynamics) and VR songs likely had a lot of unsung input from Kushner.

I have said that before and i will say it again: THAT new intro to better is exhibit #A on how Slash and Duff are not able to create satisfactory dynamics by themselves. It shows that they are good at creating nice parts but most of the time they don't know what to do with them and end up taking "wrong turns" that basically waste all the momentum and make the songs boring and hard to listen to.

Edited by ludurigan
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48 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

exactly

thats one of the very many "ingredients" that made GNR songs great along with many others.

Almost every GNR song has very very good dynamics. these sort of dynamics make you like the song and make you want to listen to it (using the words of Axl on early NR) "again and again and again and again and again"

Problem is that Slash and Duff and Axl seem to be completely clueless about how to do that in a song. When you listen to their solo material there is very little to none of that. Their solo stuff has very poor dynamics in too many songs. very little of that building-crescendo-then-releasing-etc dynamics on their songs

Exceptions are few and far between. Neurotic Outsiders and VR are the main ones, but Neurotic Outsiders is basically all Steve Jones (a master on dynamics) and VR songs likely had a lot of unsung input from Kushner.

I have said that before and i will say it again: THAT new intro to better is exhibit #A on how Slash and Duff are not able to create satisfactory dynamics by themselves. It shows that they are good at creating nice parts but most of the time they don't know what to do with them and end up taking "wrong turns" that basically waste all the momentum and make the songs boring and hard to listen to.

I think you might be on to something!

You've managed to explain something I've been thinking myself for a long time.

I've always thought that Slash is very good at being a lead guitar player over songs that have been arranged or written by someone else. Not so great when he's the main influence on a song.

His best work has been in a band situation in my opinion - GNR and VR. When there is influence from other people. His guitar playing is more tasteful in those situations.\

He can come up with great riffs and solos but seems to struggle to put them together in to a great song consistently.

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16 hours ago, DK6 said:

I think you might be on to something!

You've managed to explain something I've been thinking myself for a long time.

I've always thought that Slash is very good at being a lead guitar player over songs that have been arranged or written by someone else. Not so great when he's the main influence on a song.

His best work has been in a band situation in my opinion - GNR and VR. When there is influence from other people. His guitar playing is more tasteful in those situations.\

He can come up with great riffs and solos but seems to struggle to put them together in to a great song consistently.

yeah i believe that too

give slash a proper rock n roll song with nice chord progressions and great dynamics and he will add the most tasteful licks over it and he will solo all over it like nobody else can do in the business. he is the very best at it, seriously

ask slash to write and structure a song with nice chord progressions and nice dynamics and it is very likely you will get yourself great riffs lost within a turd song

 

Edited by ludurigan
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5 hours ago, ZoSoRose said:

Also, Better is one of my favorite GNR songs and it was a set highlight for me. The version I got during the second Chicago 2016 show was one of the best live renditions I've heard. It was really good

This! Better and Shadow was the highlights at the Oslo show I saw this summer, Better in particular has so much power!

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11 hours ago, Ralphelmo said:

He may have said either about the build-up or his unison bends over it, not about the actual chord progression. 

This topic made me revisit the original recording and there's nothing good in it except for Finck's solo. Production is a total garbage, the way Slash and Duff rearranged this song actually made it good. 

It's a strange situation to have a live recording sounding more powerful than the original track. But that's what happens when you have to fill 32 layers with your unrestrained ideas. Now when I'm thinking about it, it's unacceptable to make hard rock band's guitars fade out like that. All producers of Chinese Democracy failed on that matter.

Slash and Duff didn’t rearrange shit. The song has exactly the same structure, the only difference is the intro, which came from the very same song. And that intro itself is nothing special, really.

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9 hours ago, D.Z.I. said:

Slash and Duff didn’t rearrange shit. The song has exactly the same structure, the only difference is the intro, which came from the very same song. And that intro itself is nothing special, really.

That Is your opinion. Many people thought the intro that Slash and Duff came up with improved the song. 

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