Is GNR the most underrated band ever?

[Len Cnut]

55 minutes ago, Towelie said:

Chinese >>> Lies.

And I ain't even shitting ya.

Chi Dem is better than Lies?  Nah fuck that man, I ain't havin' that, thats bollocks.  Lies was something I listened the fuck out of as a kid and out of everything GnR does, when I feel like listening to GnR these days I more often than not go back to Lies.  Lies has got it all, snotty arrogance, soppy love bollocks, country shit, racism, humour, brilliant rock n roll, it actually makes a good case for brevity with GnR, shame Axl never caught onto that notion.  The guitarwork on Mama Kin is proper spunk-your-pants levels of good.  Even its Daily Sport front cover is fantastic.  That was that band in their prime, if you don't Lies I don't see how you can like Guns n Roses, thats them in their post Appetite pomp, when they looked and sounded and acted the fuckin' part.  They had the rock and the roll and they played entirely to their strengths on that EP, instead of trying to be fuckin' Elton John or whatever the mad ginger twat was thinking on his various 'experimental' forays.  Lies is just pure fuckin' mischief, I love it.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Len Cnut

[Kwick1]

GnR has the best most loyal fans. I would agree that GnR fans are the most underrated but the most underrated band has to be Soul Asylum. 

[shotsfired cro]

1 hour ago, Kwick1 said:

GnR has the best most loyal fans. I would agree that GnR fans are the most underrated but the most underrated band has to be Soul Asylum. 

Gunners have the most loyal fans - which they don't deserve to!

Banning cameras and audio/video equipment, old school pic cameras, tardy on stage, expensive tix, 25 year old war - to give us halfassed reunion...etc.

Mos4t underated band globaly - The Black Crowes and Smashing Pumpkins. Nothing worse than Gunners, yet TBC, outside of USA - totally irrelevant.  Sold like 40 million records, 39 of which in US.

[Its Tino]

In the world today, Rock N’ Roll is underrated. IMO. 

[gt72]

I don’t think of them as overrated at all.I think of them more of what could’ve been .They were special like lightning in a bottle then they kind of disappeared.I guess to use sports as an analogy they were the best player or team in the league for a few years and had the possibility of greatest ever or a dynasty and then an injury derailed it if u will.But overrated ,nah

[Len Cnut]

18 minutes ago, Its Tino said:

In the world today, Rock N’ Roll is underrated. IMO. 

No its not, its cannonized.  Chiefly because its dead.  But thats OK, everything has its day.

[RussTCB]

1 hour ago, shotsfired cro said:

Most underated band globaly - The Black Crowes and Smashing Pumpkins. Nothing worse than Gunners, yet TBC, outside of USA - totally irrelevant.  Sold like 40 million records, 39 of which in US.

Huge Crowes fan right here. Couldn't agree more. 

[El Guapo]

3 hours ago, Len Cnut said:

nah, Lies is fuckin' class.  That second side especially is fuckin' up there with their best work, at least as good as.  Even Mama Kin and Move to the City are good, very good even.  The guitar is glorious on Mama Kin.  And Reckless Life and Nice Boys, well, for what they are they are great, fast and loose.  I don't think Axl has sounded better vocally than Lies, You're Crazy is a brilliant vocal take, as is One in a Million, Used to Love Her.  I'll defend that band to the hilt when it comes to Appetite and Lies.  And Illusions, when I'm in a charitable mood, look, it ain't nowhere near what they wanted it to be but for what it is its decent enough. 

The problem with trying to make a White album is people will judge it like a White album.

I always felt like that as well, love the Illusions though - these albums are pretty much the Slash show, he's all over it in such a bad ass way with that fat, over the top tone.

Edited July 3, 2019 by El Guapo

[rocknroll41]

1 minute ago, El Guapo said:

I always felt like that as well, love the Illusions though - these albums are pretty much the Slash show, he's all over it in such a bad ass way with that fat, over the top tone.

Yeah. If anything, I’d say UYI2 is underrated as an album. If you take out Get in the Ring and So Fine, you’d be left with a pretty kickass 12-track collection imo. Hell, I even enjoy My World, because I just see it as a joke and don’t take it seriously anyways.

[Kwick1]

3 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

Huge Crowes fan right here. Couldn't agree more. 

I saw the Black Crowes in '91 and rather than face the cop that was yelling at me because I was walking outside holding a beer, I ran to the dumpster. Who was at the dumpster drinking and smoking? The Crowes 😊 I calmly finished my beer and wished them a great show and walked back to the waiting cop. The rest of that night is a memory I don't remember but I didn't wake up in jail. 

[Rovim]

3 hours ago, Len Cnut said:

 They had the rock and the roll and they played entirely to their strengths on that EP, instead of trying to be fuckin' Elton John or whatever the mad ginger twat was thinking on his various 'experimental' forays.  Lies is just pure fuckin' mischief, I love it.

Axl came up with November Rain before Appetite was released. He always wanted to be Elton John and with This I Love, he finally succeeded. It is 70% gayer than any Elton John tune you can throw at it. I think one of Axl's strengths is piano based compositions. Estranged is a good example imo. It "forced" Slash to come up with some of his best work, don't you agree?

[moreblack]

14 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

Huge Crowes fan right here. Couldn't agree more. 

They let it fall apart, they could've been today's Allman Brothers.

[Towelie]

3 hours ago, Len Cnut said:

Chi Dem is better than Lies?  Nah fuck that man, I ain't havin' that, thats bollocks.  Lies was something I listened the fuck out of as a kid and out of everything GnR does, when I feel like listening to GnR these days I more often than not go back to Lies.  Lies has got it all, snotty arrogance, soppy love bollocks, country shit, racism, humour, brilliant rock n roll, it actually makes a good case for brevity with GnR, shame Axl never caught onto that notion.  The guitarwork on Mama Kin is proper spunk-your-pants levels of good.  Even its Daily Sport front cover is fantastic.  That was that band in their prime, if you don't Lies I don't see how you can like Guns n Roses, thats them in their post Appetite pomp, when they looked and sounded and acted the fuckin' part.  They had the rock and the roll and they played entirely to their strengths on that EP, instead of trying to be fuckin' Elton John or whatever the mad ginger twat was thinking on his various 'experimental' forays.  Lies is just pure fuckin' mischief, I love it.

I never said I didn't like Lies. I just said that CD was better. I like Lies well enough, I get why it appeals to you like it does. But it's more of a cobbled together, cash-in project, rather than a fully-fledged musical statement from the band. If I want the snotty arrogance, soppy love bollocks and brilliant rock n roll, I'll listen to Appetite over Lies every fucking time.

With regards to CD, it's a totally different beast, arguably because it's a totally different band. But I love a bit of epicness and I'm a sucker for some great melodies, and whilst it's very fashionable to shit on Chinese, songs like Catcher In The Rye, Better and TWAT are absolute belters.

 

[-W.A.R-]

The Gits are what you call underrated.

[Len Cnut]

1 hour ago, Towelie said:

I never said I didn't like Lies. I just said that CD was better. I like Lies well enough, I get why it appeals to you like it does. But it's more of a cobbled together, cash-in project, rather than a fully-fledged musical statement from the band. If I want the snotty arrogance, soppy love bollocks and brilliant rock n roll, I'll listen to Appetite over Lies every fucking time.

With regards to CD, it's a totally different beast, arguably because it's a totally different band. But I love a bit of epicness and I'm a sucker for some great melodies, and whilst it's very fashionable to shit on Chinese, songs like Catcher In The Rye, Better and TWAT are absolute belters.

 

I don’t think it suffers from being cobbled together, I didn’t know it was cobbled together as a lad and it didn’t matter a lick, the fuckin’ thing is bangin’.  Chi Dem, as a GnR album, in terms of its position as a GnR album and its place in that lineage, is absolute pants.  Funnily enough I agree completely with the tracks you mentioned as being the class cuts on Chi Dem, trouble is they’re the only good songs on the fucker and aside from that I wouldn’t take them over anything on Lies.

And as for the cobbled together, nothing sounds more cobbled together than Chi Dem, it sounds like some vague good ideas that Axl had that he got a bunch of highly talented musicians and producers to play on and then pro tools the fuck out of, being elaborate and being a fully fledged musical statement are not the same thing and in this case the former looks suspiciously like an attempt to cover over the fact that the former is not the case, its all icing and no cake.

[J Dog]

3 hours ago, moreblack said:

They let it fall apart, they could've been today's Allman Brothers.

Love the Crowes. This is why blood playing together is both good and bad. Good because of the chemistry and how great they are together, bad because when family starts having inner trouble sometimes it can be really hard to move on.

As for Guns, I’d say they’re rated about where they need to be. Better than most but not up there at the very top.

[UsedYourIllusion]

12 hours ago, acor said:

Yes. If i had to make top12 of Gnr songs, it would be all AfD... BTW- some of songs you mentioned are among the worst songs of GnR IMO (Novemer Rain and both versions of DC especially).

Of all the things I've ever heard on this forum, this might be the craziest to me. But, that's your opinion. I'll respectfully disagree though. Especially given the great performances of the UYI songs during the '91-'93 tour. Heck, I even prefer Black Leather, Since I don't Have You, Patience, all of Live Like a Suicide, to Anything Goes and AfD You're Crazy

[NeonKinight]

By no means. 

[UsedYourIllusion]

20 minutes ago, NeonKinight said:

By no means. 

For Gen x people, I think people can either appreciate their impact or know of it-whether they were a fan or not-, but in terms of the younger generations I don't think they have a clue. Same thing with bands like The Beach Boys, (everyone just thinks of the surfing songs), CCR; a lot of people only know one or two hits. Songs like Civil War, Estranged, You Could Be Mine have been lost. Couldn't tell you the last time I heard a track besides Jungle, SCOM, or Paradise City on the radio. Maybe KOHD?

[acor]

9 hours ago, UsedYourIllusion said:

Of all the things I've ever heard on this forum, this might be the craziest to me. But, that's your opinion. I'll respectfully disagree though. Especially given the great performances of the UYI songs during the '91-'93 tour. Heck, I even prefer Black Leather, Since I don't Have You, Patience, all of Live Like a Suicide, to Anything Goes and AfD You're Crazy

In this particular thread you had someone's claiming that CD>>>Lies, but my statement about kickass rocker being better than bloated ballads is crazy???

Edited July 4, 2019 by acor

[jamillos]

I don’t see any sign of them being underrated. In fact, considering the band – in a "significantly modified" lineup – was touring the same stuff/record between 2001 and 2014 without basically any releases apart from the dvd (which was no news for the bootleg hardcore fans), and yet still sold high numbers of tickets, they would be rather on the "overrated" side of the spectrum, although I’m not saying they are overrated at all. But definitely not underrated. 
And to repeat the obvious, they released one studio album in like 20–30 years. 
And judging from the NITL financial numbers, what the hell is underrated about them? 
 

[Len Cnut]

17 hours ago, moreblack said:

They let it fall apart, they could've been today's Allman Brothers.

You got me into The Allman Brothers.  A long long long long long time ago you told me to listen to Live at the Filmore or something, I remember catching it on CD somewhere from your reccomendation, it stayed in my clapped out old car for 3 years and got listened to death, cheers for that.  Never listened to another one of their albums again for some reason but that one was class.

[Silverburst80]

Underrated probably not the right word, they got recognized for what they did. I think they are little underappreciated in a way by some music fans and media. A band like Kyuss or Acid Bath or The Stooges and shit like that is properly underrated

Edited July 4, 2019 by Silverburst80

[EvanG]

I wouldn't call it underrated, but they did kinda become a ''joke'' in the 90's because of Axl's diva behaviour, the ridiculous videos, and typical rock star stuff that wasn't popular anymore after those so-called ''grunge'' bands became big and it was all about relating to the kids and having the guys next door being in a successful rock band. GnR weren't the guys next door with their antics and how they looked like. When Slash was doing the European festivals with Snakepit by 1995 it was kinda like.... ''seriously? that guy from GnR is playing here?'' It was almost like having Bon Jovi on the bill.

[Sydney Fan]

1 hour ago, EvanG said:

I wouldn't call it underrated, but they did kinda become a ''joke'' in the 90's because of Axl's diva behaviour, the ridiculous videos, and typical rock star stuff that wasn't popular anymore after those so-called ''grunge'' bands became big and it was all about relating to the kids and having the guys next door being in a successful rock band. GnR weren't the guys next door with their antics and how they looked like. When Slash was doing the European festivals with Snakepit by 1995 it was kinda like.... ''seriously? that guy from GnR is playing here?'' It was almost like having Bon Jovi on the bill.

Thats true, but also because music was well and truly changing between 92 and 95. By 94 alot of the grunge bands were falling out of fashion and certain alternative bands tea party, urge overkill were starting to become fasionable. I think the movie pulp fiction had an impact with certain indie bands becoming fashionable. In 94 hard hitting bands like prong, pantera were starting to become popular. I think theres always going to be that mystique with guns as what could have been if they could have stayed together post 96. Maybe thats the reason why they do have a due hard fanbase but the illusions period was a good time because of the riots, costume changes and pure craziness they were the last band of that time period that oozed decadence. With guns the time period suited them. The other thing is nirvand hated guns and nirvana were always the darling of certain press magazines. Had kurt not have died would nirvana be able to play to crowd sizes and gross as much as gnr has since the nitl tour?. Guns may have been a joke and i stopped listening after 93 when other music styles were being played on radio , but i still had gnr interest but when slash left in 96 i moved on.