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Axl once described the first half of Use Your Illusion II as having a very southern sound to it, thoughts on that?


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On 10/26/2018 at 5:50 PM, Sprite said:

What is southern rock? If it’s defined as lynyrd skynyrd and the like than there isn’t much there other than a few influences here and there. Probably no more than a band like Van Halen had. I remember reading once axl said he listened to a lot of Lynyrd skynyrd before recording the vocal track to SCOM.. you can definitely hear that southern... yodel? Obviously not a yodel but I hear a similar tone a lot of lynyrd songs have. 

yesterdays first 12 seconds sounds like a slight steel guitar peppered country song. KOHD, 14 years, its all there. 

I think it was an Izzy thing. That ju ju hounds record was basically southern rock. 

Zack Wylde's 1st solo band Pride and Glory is a good example of a southern rock band from that time period. 

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I have a friend who is a music fanatic and pretty much likes everything...except southern rock.

He always felt GN'R leaned too much into that genre with their melodies. It was definitely a conscious effort on songs like Paradise City and Sweet Child. I think it was an unconscious effort on others. Axl sounds totally Van Zant on the verses of Bad Apples, for instance.

 

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I can't remember where I read it but I recall hearing that Axl was listening to a lot of Skynyrd at the time these two records were being written and recorded.

The sounds seems pretty evident to me but doesn't overwhelm the albums.  They were a nice mix of blues, southern twang, punk, and hard rock.   

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Do you guys consider Axl, or Izzy for that matter, southern guys? Strictly from a geographical standpoint I really don't think that they are.  The guys from Skynyrd and the Allmans were all from the deep south.  The sensibilities and traditional values may be similar in some ways between middle Indiana and Georgia/Florida, but quite different in other ways.  Kind of difficult to explain, just listen to Hank Williams Jr.'s A Country Boy Can Survive. But I kind of consider John Mellencamp a southern guy even though he's from Indiana also, he even has a southern accent. Weird. I wonder if Axl or Izzy had an accent then lost it when they moved to LA. 

Edited by lame ass security
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8 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

Do you guys consider Axl, or Izzy for that matter, southern guys? Strictly from a geographical standpoint I really don't think that they are.  The guys from Skynyrd and the Allmans were all from the deep south.  The sensibilities and traditional values may be similar in some ways between middle Indiana and Georgia/Florida, but quite different in other ways.  Kind of difficult to explain, just listen to Hank Williams Jr.'s A Country Boy Can Survive. But I kind of consider John Mellencamp a southern guy even though he's from Indiana also, he even has a southern accent. Weird. I wonder if Axl or Izzy had an accent then lost it when they moved to LA. 

No, Axl and Izzy are not "southern" for sure. But Axl said that this kind of music, Lynyrd Skynyrd in particular, was the most popular in his hometown as he grew up, so much that he hated it; but on the other hand he said that it was so much rooted in him that it came out when writing songs, and even he deliberately wanted to have that feel in some songs.

I'm not very familiar with the various local American accents, but it sounds to me like Axl and Izzy having a distinct accent -or more like a way of talking- in comparison to how people from California talk.

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4 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

I don't hear it. I associate ''southern rock'' with scratch picking and honky tonk blues, neither of which are present in Guns N' Roses.

Guns and even snakepit doesny yo my ears dound southern. When duff mentions in his book that him and axl vetoed some songs because they sound southern id like to know which songs they were referring to.

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I think they meant like Aerosmith songs or Black crowes. A southern vibe. Blues is sort the southern Delta? 

Maybe they were just avoiding band names or specific genres. 

14 Years is a Sweet Home Alabama remake. 

I think there’sa southern vibe to the first 4 songs. I’ll allow it. 

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59 minutes ago, wasted said:

I think they meant like Aerosmith songs or Black crowes. A southern vibe. Blues is sort the southern Delta? 

Maybe they were just avoiding band names or specific genres. 

14 Years is a Sweet Home Alabama remake. 

I think there’sa southern vibe to the first 4 songs. I’ll allow it. 

Aerosmith are not southern rock either! 

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1 hour ago, DieselDaisy said:

Aerosmith are not southern rock either! 

But they are bluesy, which is kind of southern. I sort of see Ted Nugent as southern rock. I think it might be code for music rednecks listen to. If you played Texas Jam 78 you are southern rock.

If I drink JD when listening to a band they southern rock. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_rock

Wikipedia agrees with me. 

Edited by wasted
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4 minutes ago, wasted said:

But they are bluesy, which is kind of southern. I sort of see Ted Nugent as southern rock. I think it might be code for music rednecks listen to. If you played Texas Jam 78 you are southern rock.

If I drink JD when listening to a band they southern rock. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_rock

Wikipedia agrees with me. 

All rock is ''bluesy'' and by extension hails from the Mississippi Delta. By the same logic you could describe somebody as identifiable urban/mid-west as Muddy Waters as ''southern''. Basically we would have to be rather loose in our description of ''southern rock''. 

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1 minute ago, DieselDaisy said:

All rock is ''bluesy'' and by extension hails from the Mississippi Delta. By the same logic you could describe somebody as identifiable urban/mid-west as Muddy Waters as ''southern''. Basically we would have to be rather loose in our description of ''southern rock''. 

It’s not an exact science but there are elements of Aerosmith that could fit the southern rock. 

But it was Snakepit that was called too southern rock which sor like saying stay away from rock n roll, it’s 90s, take a pill and get the MPC3000 out and hire a shredder. 

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Just now, wasted said:

It’s not an exact science but there are elements of Aerosmith that could fit the southern rock. 

But it was Snakepit that was called too southern rock which sor like saying stay away from rock n roll, it’s 90s, take a pill and get the MPC3000 out and hire a shredder. 

Nah. Aerosmith, vintage Aerosmith, are a big fat blues based hard rock group. They are - were- a proper east coast rock outfit, Bostonian. Snakepit was blues based hard rock. I cannot recall too much country influence, scratch picking and songs about ''Dixie'' on there.

The Stones dipped into the southern rock genre when Keef was arsing around with Gram Parsons, ''Sweet Virginia'', ''Dead Flowers'' and stuff like that.

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15 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Nah. Aerosmith, vintage Aerosmith, are a big fat blues based hard rock group. They are - were- a proper east coast rock outfit, Bostonian. Snakepit was blues based hard rock. I cannot recall too much country influence, scratch picking and songs about ''Dixie'' on there.

The Stones dipped into the southern rock genre when Keef was arsing around with Gram Parsons, ''Sweet Virginia'', ''Dead Flowers'' and stuff like that.

The definition of southern rock isn’t  dixie or country only though according to wiki. 

But I think in this case they might have been using it to describe bluesy hard rock without directly saying that? It’s like they want to say it’s too rock n roll for 90s but couldn’t. 

 

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10 hours ago, lame ass security said:

Do you guys consider Axl, or Izzy for that matter, southern guys? Strictly from a geographical standpoint I really don't think that they are.  The guys from Skynyrd and the Allmans were all from the deep south.  The sensibilities and traditional values may be similar in some ways between middle Indiana and Georgia/Florida, but quite different in other ways.  Kind of difficult to explain, just listen to Hank Williams Jr.'s A Country Boy Can Survive. But I kind of consider John Mellencamp a southern guy even though he's from Indiana also, he even has a southern accent. Weird. I wonder if Axl or Izzy had an accent then lost it when they moved to LA. 

Axl and Izzy aren’t Southern- but as you say there are a lot of commonalities between certain parts of the Midwest, and the American South. I’ve seen just as many rebel flag stickers, etc. driving around Indiana, and rural Ohio as I have in the Carolinas where I live. I believe Midwest Union soldiers in the Civil War were on record as feeling more in common with their southern adversaries than their New Englander/New Yorker allies, etc. So there is something there.

At any rate, don’t think Axl and Izzy were ever full-time adopters of the Southern lifestyle/mindset, etc., but rather just appropriated a couple of things sound, and attitude-wise (rebel flag, etc.) they were familiar with living in Indiana, and thought were cool at the time, etc.

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PS other Guns-related examples of this phenomenon would be Ashba’s rebel flag tattoo (partial at least), and Gilby’s “southern” sound/style. Those guys are from Indiana/Illinois, and Ohio respectively...

Actually, when you think about it the “South”’s not far at all from the Midwest when you can see Kentucky from downtown Cincinnati, or can be in Arkansas in less than 2 hours from southern Illinois, etc...

Edited by AXL_N_DIZZY
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8 hours ago, AXL_N_DIZZY said:

PS other Guns-related examples of this phenomenon would be Ashba’s rebel flag tattoo (partial at least), and Gilby’s “southern” sound/style. Those guys are from Indiana/Illinois, and Ohio respectively...

Actually, when you think about it the “South”’s not far at all from the Midwest when you can see Kentucky from downtown Cincinnati, or can be in Arkansas in less than 2 hours from southern Illinois, etc...

Good points.  I'm sort of between that southern Illinois/Arkansas region so I know what you mean. I know that Axl is a huge Elvis fan, as am I, and he was pretty much the original southern rocker. I would love to hear Axl do an Elvis impression, I bet it would be awesome, lol.

Edited by lame ass security
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I remember Axl saying that where he was from Skynyrd were so big that after a while you were like fuck this band. 

After the AFD era GNR have operate like a Skynyrd type revolving door 3-guitar band right? 

I can sort of see the south as being more rootsy rock n roll and LA Newyork being more punk glam metal. Slash and Izzy both went more rootsy rock n roll in the 90s which was more punk metal in general. It’s still the case newish big bands aren’t really rock n roll. Like NIN and Radiohead. 

And obviously Axl wanted to make something less overtly blues rock. But there’s still elements of that in Chi dem, Shacklers, Better. 

Better is basically NIN playing a Skynyrd song. 

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When I read the OP and watched the video I took Axl saying that the first half "is like 'the south will rise again" as being the main point he was making. And that to say it has a Southern Rock vibe was meant rather loosely. What is Southern Rock anyways, as others have asked? Charlie Daniels? Dixie Dregs? Tedeschi Trucks Band? Luther Dickinson? Or is it limited to the Hard Rock sounds of a handful of bands when the genres name was coined? Trucks was in Allman Bros who sound very little like Tedeschi Trucks band, but both are very Southern. Or The Dead have a Southern groove and lore but are from Northern California.

I think placing the emphasis on "the South will rise again" is more what Axl was trying to get at. He's being playful about the well worn phrase, but is evoking a cultural, a setting and a history. I believe Axl was speaking specifically about the working class, small town South too - which he would relate to more then Oil Tycoons or Bourbon Magnates. 

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I can hear it on UYI. Not full blown southern rock, but def roots of it here and there. Civil War, 14 Years, Bad Obsession, You Aint the First. I can actually hear just a touch of it on some of AFD and Lies too. It's a good sound when done right. Guns does it very well.

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