doakes

Do y’all think we’ll ever hear the original Nu-GnR General demo?

Since this is a Brain composition, I can’t imagine much is different other than the Slash lick on the intro and solos.

8 hours ago, JimiRose said:

Someone on YouTube has a couple isolated tracks the this i love orchestra thing is so good Lenny Maidana

 

Wow! That bass line!! Never heard or noticed that before. Dark and moody! Kinda reminds me of She Wants Revenge. The crunch of the rhythm guitar too. The orchestral strings are beautiful, but I'd love to hear a more prominent guitar remix with those alternate vocals.

Is it possible that Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube, etc. run their own normalization which affects the compression/ mastering?

My Hard Skool cassette sounds a lot better to me than the stream.

On 11/3/2023 at 9:10 AM, Amir said:

I get so emotional watching this 🥲

On 11/3/2023 at 10:36 AM, Cosmo said:

Damn, this had me in tears. 

Wow!! Same here.

It's kind of oddball, slightly cheesy even lol, but extremely touching and sentimental.

The video has completely won me over on the official version of the song. As @Amir said earlier, there is a certain attachment we get to the demos, similar to GnR-- But the video treatment/ package on this is transformative.

I can't get through singing along without cracking at this point. The final shots are crushing... Those images of the boys in reverse, as the strings collapse into the close of their last bow.

I too am a bit underwhelmed. I’ve been fascinated by the demo for some time and have been anticipating this release, as I am a big fan of what they did with Free as a Bird and Real Love.

Personally, the demo’s melody, lyrics and structure are beautiful!! One of my favorite Lennon compositions. The actual release feels slightly adulterated though. I don’t mind the treatment on John’s vocals, but the rawness of the tape demo had a certain charm I wish they’d just left.

The “Now and then— I miss you” chorus on this release is quite moving and lifts the song to a new place. That alone is worth the price of admission… The bridge from the demo “I don’t want to use you… abuse you” has unfortunately been scrapped.

Do we know how much if any of George is actually on this track? I saw the “making of,” where Paul discussed having some of George’s tracks from ‘95 but mentioned adding a slide guitar as a tribute. It’s a little disturbing to question if all the lead guitar is a mimic…

All in all it is tastefully done. Not as piano centric or true to the original as I would have hoped for… The strings are a grand touch. Cassette’s on its way.

It’s a bittersweet “goodbye” from the Beatles. 
 

15 minutes ago, AlexisGolnas said:

I cant stop listening to The General. I love it.

I dont know if it would be better without the distortion at the chorus or not but still i find it very powerful.

If it’s performed live, hearing it pure without the distortion will give it a new wrinkle. Let the studio track be a studio track with all the bells and whistles
 

I love the vocal effects on this track. On the “brick walled” prechorus, I thought something went wrong with the speakers, then the instrumentals just KICK IN and the less distorted chorus consumes you like a wave. Honestly makes me wanna cry when I hear. There is authenticity and anguish there…

powerful indeed

Wasn't Soul Monster one of the titles on the Village Instrumental demos? 

3 minutes ago, THELINESMAN said:

Just want Nightrain 2.0 now tbh 

Out of curiosity, would something like Rock the Rock suffice? Or a faster pace?

21 minutes ago, Spoon87 said:

Why they haven't put this out for streaming on every platform available now that the leak is out there is completely beyond me. 

Make it available for everybody in the best quality possible asap! We'll be happy waiting for the vinyl! Just do something!

Exactly— We’ve been waiting this long for Perhaps on vinyl.

Just now, rumandraisin said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned but the band have acknowledged the delay on Instagram with an apology saying it was due to the 'quality'. 

It is more likely than not that they wanted to tinker more... However-- (Hate playing devil's advocate) but there are plenty of issues with pressings these days. Even if they did tinker with something months ago, the turnaround time for new pressings and cut masters would have been affected.

Missed the boat either way not having this out for Halloween!

Release the fucking thing TUESDAY online and radio!!!

FUCK.

Both shocking-- but I think magnificent?

As all have stated... Gotta sleep on this. I would have much preferred to have unwrapped my Perhaps vinyl this weekend, listened and played these over Spotify as well. Got to come back to these in the car... 

This catharsis needs releasing... I love the vocal effects on the General. It's very schizophrenic. The whole thing is so creative. A strange lack of resolution on the final strings of Monster, after the soothing finale...

The artist might not like hearing this, but those vocals on Monster remind me of Michael Jackson.

These are the risks that should be taken.

I still see the General as the R Side on the US store. Where did you see this absurd (acoustic) bs?

I’m HUGELY disappointed but keeping my order, as am keen on physical media. This absurd acoustic business may cause me to reconsider though..

This definitely impacts my desire to see them at the Hollywood Bowl. I wouldn’t have gone just to see this mysterious new song, but I’m tired of the let downs. Fuck.. was really looking forward to getting that vinyl. 

In other news… Looks like the Beatles will beat GnR to the punch on the next release.

https://pitchfork.com/news/the-beatles-final-song-now-and-then-announced/amp/

18 minutes ago, BreakDown2014 said:

There's some very amateur sounding lead guitar stuff on the Rough MIxes CD #1 versions of TWAT and Madagascar...

¿Has anyone else though about who could it be? My guess is either Paul Tobias or Axl himself, since Axl even played some pieces of Madagascar in RIR 2001 and is listed with "Guitar" credits on the CD booklet too for both of those songs.

I don’t recall the lead guitar work from those demos but was recently thinking about the odds of Axl’s guitar on the other demos.

it was probably Sebastian Bach or an ex-member who described Axl’s rhythm guitar tone, in a very gnarly way— Made me wonder if he’s playing on State of Grace, Dummy or others 

On 9/23/2023 at 8:17 AM, highvoltage said:

Anyone else? These guys fuck pretty hard.

https://youtu.be/iW4Gdsnr2Bg?si=mlvdt3r6mz-QWLh8

Damn! And Fuck they Do! Glad I saw this.

On 9/27/2023 at 12:42 AM, 22frets said:

 

 

What song is this from?

22 hours ago, Amir said:

GNR Trivia 🤓 : With this gig, Perhaps has now been played live more times than Scraped. Three more performances and it will have been played live more times than Locomotive, and by the end of this leg of the tour it will be played more times than Prostitute, The Garden, and Back Off Bitch. Absurd also recently surpassed Shackler's Revenge (111 performances vs. 106).

Interesting!

Makes me appreciate having seen Prostitute live a couple times. I was never enamored with the studio track, but it was a highlight of the Staples Center show in 2017-- Axl turned it up to 11 on the choruses of Prostitute and his voice broke through different gargling, raspy screams. Some of the most emotive vocals I may have ever seen.

Surprised Shackler's was played that many times. Although they did "endlessly tour" even back then. I was looking back on some of those live Shackler's performances recently-- Bumblefoot was a such tremendous force in NuGuns! It would have been cool to see Slash and Ron play/duel together.

6 minutes ago, eddiedingle said:

Haven't heard it yet.  Did Axl record new vocals or are they  from leak from years back?

Sounds like there’s new vocals on the verses and background in the chorus. I’m surprised the chorus lyrics are more intelligible than the demo. 

1 hour ago, kingcanyon said:

Looks like it

Saves me a trip to the bar

11 hours ago, Trin9498 said:

revisited some of the instrumentals since they are on YT now.....I like Oklahoma

For when it was recorded, it really does sound like what the natural graduation of GNR would’ve been at that time.

It’s got a banger of a chorus, post-Nirvana Hard Rock—Sounds like a Velvet Revolver song that never was.

The coda of Oklahoma is simply gorgeous too..  Reminds me of Locomotive a bit.

UYI III

It’s interesting how the praise for Slash’s work wavers between pages on this thread.

I’ll admit— some of what I’ve heard in the last few years has been uninspired (from the whole band in general), but Slash’s TWAT solo here is tremendous and heartfelt. An earnest attempt to be true to Buckethead’s work on the album but his tone here may transcend the album’s.

There is almost a Chris Isaak-feel where the guitar is just weeping at the very end. It’s fucking beautiful. 
 

They seem to be really feeling it. Axl’s looking healthy. Very driven. I’m looking forward to what’s coming down the pipe.

Wow. Fairly similar but of course there are only so many chords and combinations of progressions.

What are the odds that the band heard either one of the above mentioned songs?

I've never heard either one of those, nor of the artists themselves.

Nothing to do with Sweet Child O' Mine but Rock 'n' Roll Doctor by Black Sabbath is very similar to Bad Obsession. Axl's named that Technical Ecstasy album as one of his favorites on the Trunk interview.

Didn't Slash mention somewhere that the chugging Zero the Hero riff by Black Sabbath inspired Paradise City?

3 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

No, it isn't. AI could absolutely create music that seems novel, like having been programmed to understand musical trends and what makes good music "good", without it necessarily being able to feel things and think. These are two very different things. 

Are you able to discuss the merits of AI "arts" without going completely Skynet on us? 

I don’t think we can discuss the merits or the dangers, unless we all acknowledge the common denominator of “machine learning.”

The AI will get better with every task we demand from it, whether seemingly benign or however grand in scale.

Not even counting the implicit biases programmed into the machine, we need to be careful what we teach AI, curb our enthusiasm and absolutely consider the larger implications of machine learning and human reliance on an ever increasing artificial sentience— Especially when using AI for “creative” purposes. 

Let’s just have AI create MyGNRForum members that will continually spam this message board with endless topics advocating for unoriginal, uninspired, high tech plagiarism!

I refuse to listen to any of it. I understand the novelty and attraction to play with AI, but I fear that we’re dooming our entire existence with every little “fun” or “convenient” task we give AI.

“It’s all fun and games until...”

If you examine the risk/reward: Will the frivolity and newfound luxuries be worth it, if we’re reduced to rubble? 

At BEST, AI will be exploited by Capitalists and render millions of workers obsolete and lead to further poverty and redundancy.

The good news is, with Axl being as successfully litigious as he is, hopefully he leads the way for artists and sues anybody and everybody involved in any and all unauthorized reproductions and amalgamations of his voice, that are copied from, sampled from and loaned from copyrighted albums, without his permission.

I could see @Dexter winning a landmark case, that in turn might help save humanity… or at least postpone August 29, 1997 a little further down the line.