Sean Beavan -- Axl didn't lay any vocals after 2000

[Guest NGOG]

http://www.thepwashow.com/episode-27-8mm-interview/

Sean Beavan: Yeah, I worked on it (Chinese Democracy) from like '98 to 2000, something like that.

Juliette Beavan: It was two years.

Sean Beavan: Two years, yeah.

So, have you heard it? Have you heard the finished product?

Sean Beavan: I did hear the finished product.

And are your fingerprints on it at all?

Sean Beavan: You know, it's funny. I thought, it came out 12 years after I did it or something, but I was surprised 'cause Roy Thomas Baker took over and then some other people were doing some stuff on it, and I figured there'd be nothing on there. It turns out almost every vocal track was a vocal track I did.

Really?

Sean Beavan: Yeah, it's like really crazy. I don't think he sang after I

.

[ManetsBR]

"I don't think..."

The 2008 version of Chinese Democracy (song) has an extra vocal layer that the 2006 version didn't have, which pretty much confirms Axl recorded them on those two years.

[Black Sabbath]

I think Shackler's was done after 2000.

[jimb0]

I think many of the tracks he heard he probably did. But there are things added.... SOD for example. Later Takes not to mention songs that came to fruition after 2000.

[Guest NGOG]

"I don't think..."

The 2008 version of Chinese Democracy (song) has an extra vocal layer that the 2006 version didn't have, which pretty much confirms Axl recorded them on those two years.

For all you know that vocal track could be from 98-00 but was just thrown in late in the process.

The main point of the interview is that the vast majority of the songs on Chinese Democracy may have vocal tracks that are upto 12 years old.

Edited August 11, 2013 by NGOG

[Black Sabbath]

"I don't think..."

The 2008 version of Chinese Democracy (song) has an extra vocal layer that the 2006 version didn't have, which pretty much confirms Axl recorded them on those two years.

For all you know that vocal track could be from 98-00 but was just thrown in late in the process.

The main point of the interview is that the vast majority of the songs on Chinese Democracy may have vocal tracks that are upto 12 years old.

Yeah, but that's been common knowledge as far as I knew. Pretty sure most, if not all, of the vocal tracks were close to first takes.

[Guest NGOG]

"I don't think..."

The 2008 version of Chinese Democracy (song) has an extra vocal layer that the 2006 version didn't have, which pretty much confirms Axl recorded them on those two years.

For all you know that vocal track could be from 98-00 but was just thrown in late in the process.

The main point of the interview is that the vast majority of the songs on Chinese Democracy may have vocal tracks that are upto 12 years old.

Yeah, but that's been common knowledge as far as I knew. Pretty sure most, if not all, of the vocal tracks were close to first takes.

It was always a suspicion. But never have you had somebody so intricately involved in the process say it so bluntly.

[Guest FreeAsAChild]

Axl laid vocals in 06 / 07, according to an interview that was posted here with a sound engineer, who said he had to forego a holiday he was due to go on because he wanted the opportunity to record Axl. He said they were mostly done in one take and that he was very professional.

[Amir]

Extra layer of CD as mentioned, also think Shackler's, Better, Scraped, and Sorry were from after Beavan left (he doesn't get any credit for them in the liner notes). But yeah, on SOD (for the most part, apart from that "Just one more failure" stuff), ITW, TWAT, Catcher, Riad, IRS, Prostitute, you can tell it's from Beavan era.

Not sure about TIL and Maddy. He sings the latter so differently to how he sang it live in '01/'02, so I think he rerecorded vocals closer to '06, and I get the impression it took him a long while to lay down vocals for TIL.

[Ric Nightingale]

He says almost every vocal track, not all of them. We all knew that Chinese Democracy was old, before it came out. It's not a five year old album, as people often mention. Bucket plays on nearly every track, making this over 10 years old. A few touch ups here and there, granted. But I think we have to accept that Axl hasn't done anything of real substance in the studio for over a decade.

[rumandraisin]

We dont know what songs he was working on the 2006 sessions, it could have been Atlas Shrugged (which emember Bumble said was on CD1 until the very last minute) or something. Judging from the demos you can hear songs like IRS and Catcher and others are the same vocal takes. Absurd to think of Catcher we have a vocal part from around 98-99 and a guitar part from 2006...

[Ric Nightingale]

Extra layer of CD as mentioned, also think Shackler's, Better, Scraped, and Sorry were from after Beavan left (he doesn't get any credit for them in the liner notes). But yeah, on SOD (for the most part, apart from that "Just one more failure" stuff), ITW, TWAT, Catcher, Riad, IRS, Prostitute, you can tell it's from Beavan era.

Not sure about TIL and Maddy. He sings the latter so differently to how he sang it live in '01/'02, so I think he rerecorded vocals closer to '06, and I get the impression it took him a long while to lay down vocals for TIL.

Personally I think he made a mess of the vocals to Madagascar. I'm surprised he let it out like that. It just doesn't sound right at all.

[Amir]

Extra layer of CD as mentioned, also think Shackler's, Better, Scraped, and Sorry were from after Beavan left (he doesn't get any credit for them in the liner notes). But yeah, on SOD (for the most part, apart from that "Just one more failure" stuff), ITW, TWAT, Catcher, Riad, IRS, Prostitute, you can tell it's from Beavan era.

Not sure about TIL and Maddy. He sings the latter so differently to how he sang it live in '01/'02, so I think he rerecorded vocals closer to '06, and I get the impression it took him a long while to lay down vocals for TIL.

Personally I think he made a mess of the vocals to Madagascar. I'm surprised he let it out like that. It just doesn't sound right at all.

I love those Maddy vocals. They were what first grabbed me about the album when I listened to streams on MySpace and YouTube. I didn't think much of Axl before that, but when I heard Madagascar I had no idea Axl was capable of vocals like that. If it wasn't for those vocals I would have never gotten into CD or GNR.

[dalsh327]

It's also possible Axl re-recorded and re-sang everything note for note.

[Ric Nightingale]

Extra layer of CD as mentioned, also think Shackler's, Better, Scraped, and Sorry were from after Beavan left (he doesn't get any credit for them in the liner notes). But yeah, on SOD (for the most part, apart from that "Just one more failure" stuff), ITW, TWAT, Catcher, Riad, IRS, Prostitute, you can tell it's from Beavan era.

Not sure about TIL and Maddy. He sings the latter so differently to how he sang it live in '01/'02, so I think he rerecorded vocals closer to '06, and I get the impression it took him a long while to lay down vocals for TIL.

Personally I think he made a mess of the vocals to Madagascar. I'm surprised he let it out like that. It just doesn't sound right at all.

I love those Maddy vocals. They were what first grabbed me about the album when I listened to streams on MySpace and YouTube. I didn't think much of Axl before that, but when I heard Madagascar I had no idea Axl was capable of vocals like that. If it wasn't for those vocals I would have never gotten into CD or GNR.

He sounds awfully gruff on the opening verse. I much prefer his early 2000's performances of it. Which makes me think that maybe that song wasn't carrying an early vocal take. I tend to agree that maybe that vocal was laid down 2005-07. IRS and Catcher are certainly from 1999. 14 years ago! Jeez.

[supercool]

who cares ?

it's a bad album

[The Real McCoy]

who cares ?

it's a fantastic album

Fixed.

[magisme]

who cares ?

it's a bad album

Pretty much. This just emphasizes that the process was as fucked as the final product.

[gunsfanoldie]

who cares ?

it's a bad album

Pretty much. This just emphasizes that the process was as fucked as the final product.

You can see why it had so much trouble coming out. People would listen to it and think "this is what took 20 years" and then it would stay in the vaults because all the promoters knew "sorry this just isn't worth the wait".

[TheSeeker]

Axl laid vocals in 06 / 07, according to an interview that was posted here with a sound engineer, who said he had to forego a holiday he was due to go on because he wanted the opportunity to record Axl. He said they were mostly done in one take and that he was very professional.

I think this was the guy who said him and Axl went through the existing stuff, and if there was something Axl didn't like, he said "I can do that better" and they re-recorded a line here and there.

Maybe Axl thought sounding weak like he did in 1998-2000 was honest and enhanced the songs or something.

Edited August 11, 2013 by TheSeeker

[Amir]

Here we go, so it seems like Maddy *did* have those vocals back by at least 2002, or even 99/00 when Beavan was working on CD:

[niceguy]

Do some of you not understand how recording works? You do realize that he could easily have recorded something in 2000 and not actually mixed it in until 2008. There's this thing called "hard drives" which audio engineers use to store recorded sound data.

[Amir]

Do some of you not understand how recording works? You do realize that he could easily have recorded something in 2000 and not actually mixed it in until 2008. There's this thing called "hard drives" which audio engineers use to store recorded sound data.

That's true, but it's also a question of trying to figure out from how the vocals sound what time period they were from. It's obvious on a lot of the tracks from the high-pitched voice that it's '99 Axl, but with others like Madagascar, it's surprising to hear he could sing like that back then.

[wasted]

Thats interesting, in that means Shacklers, Sorry etc were all done by 2000.

this album took 3 years to make.

[Amir]

Thats interesting, in that means Shacklers, Sorry etc were all done by 2000.

this album took 3 years to make.

Beavan doesn't get any credit in the liner notes for Shackler's, Better, Scraped, Sorry, or TIL. Those may likely have been started post-2000.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Amir