Rough Mixes CD #3 Full Leak Discussion Thread **NO LINKS, NO ASKING / HINTING FOR LEAKS**

[DK6]

So who is drumming on oklahoma? Sounds amazing! 

I love this cd of leaks. Such an interesting direction to take.

I feel like an album going with this style would have been great but very divisive.

[brad_k]

First listen through the songs, Oklahoma is fucking insane!

[The_General_13]

Honestly it is not what I expected (it is not a bad thing), with the descriptions they gave of songs about Erin or with delicate themes I thought they were going to be ballads. Most of these instrumentals more like AFD than Chinese. Today I will listen to them more in depth but they do not obsess me at all because I think that Axl's voice is missing

Edited September 25, 2019 by The_General_13

[Azifwekare]

Dummy was described by 'insiders' as having the same lyric repeated over and over again, which as an instrumental, it obviously doesn't. So don't believe everything you hear.

And no, none of these songs are The General. That was written by Brain and Extrakd over a bucket of General Tso's chicken (hence the title), after these songs. People are so desparate to hear this mythical song that they're seriously reaching and convincing themselves that literally every song that leaks would become The General. 

[djtripp20]

Am I the only one that feels like the weakest part of these songs is Axl? I mean back in 2002 all we were talking about was how bad Axl sounded. He had no power, no rasp, and sounded like Mickey Mouse. Yeah the sound of these instrumentals are HUGE! But then again the instrumental of Rhiad sound great too. It's the whiney Axl vocal that makes you go ehhh. I wish he recorded these songs with that voice from 2006 on. It just had so much more growl. I'm surprised he kept the recordings from 99 all the way through release.

Also, moment of appreciation for Bucket. Holy shit. His work is unmistakable.

Edited September 25, 2019 by djtripp20

[JAxlMorrison]

7 hours ago, Gnrfan2001 said:

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet

Billionaire was dated 10/15/00. Brain joined mid 2000s and in these mixes he’s just laying down drum tracks on the first album stuff. And he wrote The General.

Really doubt it

 

Brain joined in 2000.

[Blackstar]

12 minutes ago, Azifwekare said:

And no, none of these songs are The General. That was written by Brain and Extrakd over a bucket of General Tso's chicken (hence the title), after these songs. People are so desparate to hear this mythical song that they're seriously reaching and convincing themselves that literally every song that leaks would become The General. 

 I think the joke "It's definitely about Slash" has gotten old and should be replaced by "It's definitely The General". 

[Lies They Tell]

14 minutes ago, Azifwekare said:

And no, none of these songs are The General. That was written by Brain and Extrakd over a bucket of General Tso's chicken (hence the title), after these songs. People are so desparate to hear this mythical song that they're seriously reaching and convincing themselves that literally every song that leaks would become The General. 

I don't know how many people are actually saying that any of these songs is The General. But 14 Years for example was originally two different songs, until they decided to mix those together. Everybody knows that The General was written by Brain, but obviously not everything about it was written by him. So when Brain had written the first rough version of the song, Axl could have decided to mix some elements of these songs into that one. Nobody knows. Not you or me. But people like to speculate. It's fun!

[rebeldhipi]

1 hour ago, DK6 said:

So who is drumming on oklahoma? Sounds amazing! 

I love this cd of leaks. Such an interesting direction to take.

I feel like an album going with this style would have been great but very divisive.

Josh Freese in Oklahoma

[Finck2006]

26 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

 I think the joke "It's definitely about Slash" has gotten old and should be replaced by "It's definitely The General". 

Finally someone said that

[Axl_morris]

I assume hard school and state of grace are superior quality to the previous versions?

[RussTCB]

Son of a bitch. What an awesome CD.

[StrangerInThisTown]

It's fun to listen to these so much talked about tracks like Oklahoma. Listening to people being surprised how it sounds just goes to show that really wanting to listen to a song just because of the title is pretty stupid. You have no idea if you'll like it or not. Every song has an equal chance of you liking or not liking it regardless of the title it has until you listen to it. Devious Bastard, Dummy and Oklahoma are all killer.

Edited September 25, 2019 by StrangerInThisTown

[thomase]

1 hour ago, RussTCB said:

Son of a bitch. What an awesome CD.

i agree with you it is awesome wish they were released in 2000/2001 it would been a number 1 hit

Edited September 25, 2019 by thomase

[StrangerInThisTown]

37 minutes ago, thomase said:

i agree with you it is awesome wish they were released in 2000/2001 it would been a number 1 hit

Good music doesn't equal success. There's TONS of good albums and good bands that went nowhere. It's why bands "sell out" and go in a more commercial direction instead of fullfilling their artistic vision. I'm not so sure an album with those songs released under the GNR name would have been such a hit. It's so far removed from the original sound and people wanted Slash in the band not someone else.

But Axl Rose solo record? I think it would have actually sold more and would have established a long fruitful Axl solo career we would have got because it would have, 100%, been received well. It's great music, just doesn't fit the GNR vibe people wanted.

Edited September 25, 2019 by StrangerInThisTown

[papashaun]

I actually like this version of IRS on the mix better than what ended up on the album. Seems to have a more catchy/groove to it. 

[papashaun]

37 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Good music doesn't equal success. There's TONS of good albums and good bands that went nowhere. It's why bands "sell out" and go in a more commercial direction instead of fullfilling their artistic vision. I'm not so sure an album with those songs released under the GNR name would have been such a hit. It's so far removed from the original sound and people wanted Slash in the band not someone else.

But Axl Rose solo record? I think it would have actually sold more and would have established a long fruitful Axl solo career we would have got because it would have, 100%, been received well. It's great music, just doesn't fit the GNR vibe people wanted.

I've always thought if Chinese Democracy was released under "W.Axl Rose" as a solo album, instead of a GnR album, it would have done great commercially. Axl made a huge mistake releasing under the GnR banner.....Much like Van Halen 3 should have been an Eddie Van Halen solo album.  This would have been well received as a solo album I believe, and an actual GnR Reunion/new album may have came to fruition much sooner. 

[Nick85]

Why did SOG & Hardschool sound so much better in last nights leaks? Weren't they taken from the same disc initially?

[Nizaraul7]

20 minutes ago, papashaun said:

Axl made a huge mistake releasing under the GnR banner

Time and again we keep discussing this point..
Axl -alongside original members- made GNR what it is today, one of the greatest bands in music history.
If other members leave, why the heck would he throw away everything he worked his ass so hard for?

Nearly no rock musician, as great as he might have been, made a great solo career, with very few exceptions here and there (Clapton, Ozzy, Sting)

Plus, I just don't think Axl sees it that way. Many songs from CD era, including recent leaks, have seen very important contributions by nuGNR members. Not everything was Axl's.
So the reason CD is not a W.A.R solo effort is that it's NOT a solo effort.
We might discuss whether any alteration of nuGNR was worth it or not, whether it was a good idea to go for a certain member, be we can't call CD a solo effort, for it's not!

[STPGNR4EVER]

Can anyone imagine waiting years to hear the vocals of the instrumental tracks off of this cd?? It's gonna be a huge nightmare..if anyone thought waiting for the 2008 official album was long ..well..the anticipation is gonna be rough to bare:(...so this is kid of a bad thing to hear these instrumentals as it will be unfulfilling for a very long time possibly!

[gnr5]

56 minutes ago, papashaun said:

I've always thought if Chinese Democracy was released under "W.Axl Rose" as a solo album, instead of a GnR album, it would have done great commercially. Axl made a huge mistake releasing under the GnR banner.....Much like Van Halen 3 should have been an Eddie Van Halen solo album.  This would have been well received as a solo album I believe, and an actual GnR Reunion/new album may have came to fruition much sooner. 

I agree with you, even though Axl didn't write everything by himself it would have still made more sense to release as a solo record, or different band name. It would have put Axl at a whole new level and it probably would have opened the doors to a 2006ish reunion

[axljungle]

For me Oklahoma and Devius Bastard are the more interesting new tracks, want to hear with Axl vocals. But my favourite is Hardschool.

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

16 minutes ago, gnr5 said:

I agree with you, even though Axl didn't write everything by himself it would have still made more sense to release as a solo record, or different band name. It would have put Axl at a whole new level and it probably would have opened the doors to a 2006ish reunion

He would have gotten a lot better media coverage and good vibes from the audiences. Granted he may not have been able to headline as many festivals under his own name but he probably would have found it much easier to release music and do things a normal recording artist does.

[Voodoochild]

11 hours ago, bassplayer1993 said:

For all these years the track I've wanted to hear the most was always Oklahoma... Wonder if it was part of the 96 sessions. Sounds very GNR. The bass sounds very much like Duff. I wonder if he wrote the parts and Tommy re-recordef them. Excellent instrumental. Very GNR sounding. What surprises me is that there's barely any solos on these tracks. I also wonder if the big solos get done only after the vocals so that Axl can choose to fill which parts he desires with vocals first and then the guitar player gets the space that's left for himself.

I agree, Oklahoma sounds very good. About the lack of solos: I think it's pretty much what you said. And maybe Axl didnt want to get any pre-conceived solos before he actually started working on the tracks with all the bells and whistles, which can be translated to lead guitars and Pitman's goofy FX. That may explain why those tracks are mostly guitar-driven.

7 hours ago, lukepowell1988 said:

Devious could be can the devil do mommy and me ?

 

I dunno why just feels kind of fitting that one could be the other 

That was just a joke, IMO. Axl never really called any piece of music with that title. And even if he had, he said it was just something orchestral (or was just instrumental? I don't remember) and nothing for the band. So no, Devious is not the same thing.

[life_247]

16 hours ago, BucketFinckFortus said:

I'm afraid yes, iirc most of the band didn't even meet during that time, GNR future was really uncertain. Axl probably had some ideas going around, recorded lyrics and vocals on tracks that are missing (not only the ones released on CD) and that's it.

So basically i think RTB continued in 2001 with Brain redoing the Drums and BH guitar work. They also obviously finished better into a full song at some point as at this stage it was a early demo. Axl probably did some more vocals etc.

Then in 2002/3 they did all the orchestrations and stuff probably post that aborted tour etc. But then Bucket left in early 2004 and they didn't do a whole lot until 2006 - hence Tommy put out that solo album in 2004 and went and toured it etc.

So i think the real inactive years were probably mid 2003 until 2006.