Millions

I wanted to make a thread about this track, as I noticed there wasn't one already. I can't believe fans aren't talking about this leak - I'm more excited about this than any of the others. Why? I always loved this track - LOVED it - from when I first heard the live version with Buckethead and Finck way back at Rock In Rio. The thing is, the final release just didn't live up to its potential. I think this track, more than any others, suffered from the obsessive level of over-production and removing parts recorded by previous band-members when they left - I much, much preferred Buckethead and Finck's solo melody over the Martin Luther King speech. The version we ended up with, rather than being this inspiring, epic song, was more like a funeral dirge. Such a waste. 

Hence my excitement at this version leaking. I can', can't, CAN'T wait to hear it. For those who have already listened to it - what do you think? What do you think of Roy Thomas Baker's production? Does it give you much insight into how the album would have been if he remained as producer?

2 things :

1) Thanks to the leaker who brought this stuff to us all. You, my friend, are an absolute legend!

2) Unfortunately, the quality of this material is pretty average to below average. I can see why it was left off Chinese Democracy. Imagine if Chinese Democracy 2 came out next week, and this was the standard of stuff on it - Hardschool, Atlas, etc.... It would be 2 star review time. So yeah, I'm happy we got to hear it, but like a few songs on Chinese Democracy (Rhiad, Scraped) , I wouldn't care much if I never heard them again. 

Guys - I get that we're all demented waiting for new music and desperate for this guy to leak what he managed to get.

But do you really think he should risk his ass to please a bunch of online strangers??? He would get into so much legal shit that it would be crazy. If I was him, I'd be looking out for number one, as the saying goes.

Slash is a classic rock style guitarist. Duff started out as a punk style guy. When you combine that with Axl's love of the big piano ballads, I think they compliment each other really well. Slash and Duff will hopefully reign in Axl's soppy ballads, and Axl's love of crafting melodic rock will stop Slash from going down the generic, plodding rock he's been guilty of a lot on his solo / Myles Kennedy stuff. 

I would just love..... LOVE..... Izzy to be involved in the writing process. 

The one thing that interested me about this recent Looney Tunes thing was to hear that Axl still has that amazing voice when he wants to. It tells me that when he plays live, he sings in a certain style to preserve his voice, but will then revert back to the 100 % vocal style in the studio. So although he may have had surgery, it seems like the cleaner vocal style is at least on some level deliberate.

You can over-analyse it all you want, but at the end of the day most of that is just a lot of shit that doesn't really matter.

Bottom line? The songs just weren't there. 

If there were some rock classics on the album like Sweet Child, Nightrain, YCBM, etc, all the other issues (over-production, different style/sound, long delays, new lineup, etc) would have been forgotten.

PM me please someone!

There are usually 3 or 4 excellent tracks on each of his albums, but a lot of filler, and just meandering solos that go nowhere.

If I was you, I'd just collect the best individual tracks from each album. I'd start with :

Serial Killer (Snakepit)

Slither (Velvet Revolver)

American Man (Velvet Revolver)

Anastasia (Myles Kennedy)

Messages (Velvet Revolver)

Spectacle (Velvet Revolver)

Beggars And Hangers On (Snakepit)

There are more, but this is a good place to start.

Man..... I really couldn't give any less of a fuck about them touring and playing the same old songs we've already heard a hundred times before.

New material, on the other hand?

This sounds like the name of a song to me.

Do you guys have a record deal? Have you released anything 'as yourselves' rather than in the GNR style. I love your music and would like to check out more! 

1) Shackler's revenge

2) Better

3) TWAT

4) This I Love

5) Street Of Dreams

6) Madagascar

7) Catcher In The Rye

8) Sorry 

9) IRS

10) Chinese Democracy

11) Prostitute

12) Rhiad

13) If The World

14) Scraped

Under-rated??? Civil war is acknowledged by fans as a classic. I think most of us would agree with you that this is GNR at their very best. So no, I don't think its under-rated.

23 hours ago, Silent Jay said:

A cover, great idea

How can it be a cover if Slash and Duff wrote the thing? This is great news - a fantastic song and a brilliant gesture from Axl.

How about a bit of positivity?

I see where you're coming from, and would love to have Izzy back.

But realistically - he hasn't really produced much of note since leaving Guns. Maybe 2 songs from his solo career are good enough to be on a guns album. He just doesn't seem to have that spark anymore. 

I thought this story was quite funny (not sure if its true or not.....)

http://metro.co.uk/2016/06/06/axl-rose-is-trying-to-get-an-unflattering-photo-of-himself-removed-from-the-internet-5926223/

Apparently there's some good stuff from the mid 90s in the vault. Polish that off with some of Axl's CD2 stuff, and in one or 2 new songs and we're good to go.

A lot of bands raise the tempo when performing live - compared to the album version of songs. It gives them an extra energy and gets the crowd going.

Why are we assuming this is Frank's decision?

Well, a few folk seem pretty certain that this would never happen, or would be inappropriate due to Scott's fairly recent death. To that, I say it would be a really nice tribute. 

To the others saying there are enough cover versions..... seriously? Slither wouldn't be a cover version like Live and Let Die, The Seeker, etc. Slash was involved in writing the fucking thing. 

And to everyone bickering about it should be this song, or that song....? I chose Slither : a) because its a great song ; b) it would suit Axl's voice ; c) it was a high profile, grammy award winning song, so a lot of casual fans know it already. If we all start bickering and whining about different songs, then it would just be counter-productive.

I get the feeling Axl is still on here from time to time - so maybe he'll see this? 

Hey, everyone - I would love.... LOVE...... if we could somehow pull this off. There seems to be a lot of good feeling right now between everyone - the band and fans, especially. It would be absolutely incredible to hear Axl's vocals on this song. 

Slash and Duff are happy to play Better, This I Love, etc, so it would be nice if Axl would return the favour - don't you think? And I know some fans here would have a different song-choice to Slither - but this makes sense - as well as being a great up-tempo, hard rock track, it was quite a high profile song, so a lot of the non-hardcore fans will know it. 

So let's see if we can get this petition going........

Thanks,

John. 

9 hours ago, Ak1nney said:

It's a buckethead song. The whole song is just a different beast.

Man, its so strange - this is my favourite song on the album. 

I couldn't believe they were playing the song Chinese Democracy with Slash  - what a waste of time, I thought - its a shitty song. But I saw on this site that a lot of folk seem to quite like it, so fair enough. 

A few years back, Paul McCartney pushed for the re-release of  the final Beatles album, Let It Be - without all the Phil Spector over-production. 

I wonder if something like this would be a good idea with these new, stripped down versions of the Chinese Democracy songs. 

I'd love a Slash version of Madagascar, in particular - I think the album version was a real wasted opportunity, compared to some of the earlier live versions.

Come on - do you really think control freaks like Axl and Slash have no input on Frank's choice of drumming style?

I vaguely remember Axl commenting a few years back about re-recording Appetite For Destruction. One of the reasons he gave was that the drumming on that album sounded very dated now. So maybe he has instructed Frank to change the drum style? Its probably not Frank's decision, to be fair. Let's be realistic. 

What do we know so far?

1) Izzy has been writing and recording recently with GNR.

2) He hasn't been confirmed in the new live lineup.

So it seems to me that he'll do what he has been doing lately - showing up to perform live when he feels like it, and when it suits him. This is consistent with his behaviour of the last few years. I'm absolutely delighted with that - I'd much rather have him involved in the song-writing if it was a straight choice.

I honestly couldn't give a shit if he turns up on stage or not.

BUT

I DO care about whether he is involved in the song-writing of a new album. That's the important thing.