ShirleyRocks

I got Slash (fml)

They spell Axl wrong... Must be a South American quiz.

They spell almost everything wrong, and then there is one of my personal pet peeves, "I'm a women" FFS.

Funny, I watched this video earlier today - it's a comp of a bunch of old interview outtakes and whatnot with Slash, Axl, Dizzy, Duff, and others. in the first interview with Slash, he says the band is trying to get better about getting up on stage on time. In the second interview, he makes excuses, including blaming all the gear. Now he was young and drunk and high then, so I can kind of smh and laugh about it, but I knew back in the day that it was mostly Axl behind the delays. And he was the only one who walked off mid-set. Now to see one of the newer members defend it seems really silly and kind of sad. I wish Axl would get control over some of the demons that make him do stupid things and just keep the demons that make him a good lyricist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMCyGeL5Fsk

It was great to listen to this and hear how they were very much an '80s band. Layne's vocal style was very different in the early stuff and I had to ask if he was influenced by Axl in the later stuff. I shared the demo version of "Rooster" with a friend of mine (it's his favorite song) and he thought it was better than the album version. Impressive stuff. I love studio takes, even when the quality isn't great, because I think it's really interesting to sort of witness the creative process, at least in retrospect. The quality of this stuff blows me away.

No Sweet Child...

No Estranged...

No November Rain.

No fucking AFD. My life might not seem as worth living if that wasn't a major part of it.

The "Music Bank" box set is what you're looking for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Bank

Thanks! I need to get on this. I should have some play money by the end of the month since it's "Workaholic January" for me with my two contract jobs.

So the second album (of maybe three or four in my whole life) that I listened to for six months solid, barely letting any other music in, was Alice in Chains "Dirt" when it came out. The only other album I had listened to for that long before then was ... wait for it ... AFD (which I had on tape, until a friend shot holes in it with a BB gun while on a bender, so I had to buy another one).

Anyway, I had no idea these demos of the AIC album were released. Since Google seems to have changed its algorithms to make all search results really spammy in the last week or so, I haven't been able to find out anything about how this was released or when. Anybody?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyGd-c7yxKU

I saw them live in some club in FL in the early 90s and they were amazing. Plenty of people said Stanley wasn't a real bum, but man... if you got close to him... that bird shit all over him was real and he smelled worse than any of the NYC bums I've ever seen. And of course, they had some hooker(s?) making out with him and getting it on during "Wet Your Lips" and he drank a lot of Midori. It was an amazing show.

Lucky you. Some describe them as the best band you never heard of..

I picked up their only album years ago, and still have, and like it..

It's good they've released some unreleased stuff on YouTube..

Stanley is quite a character, and a good piano player to boot. I thought Stanley was a proper bum, but in recent times, i am getting the impression it was all an act to get into what was perceived as grunge at the time. The reason i say this is, LSD posted a video feat. Stanley with long hair, and he seemed to be all glam rock - and boy (based on that one video) seemed average. The new 'bum' look Stanley really paid off. Seem's they got a record deal based on their live shows. I don't know the full story, but the deal went sour (for whatever reason). Too bad they did stick in there longer, and release a second album..

I've heard Stanley wasn't really a bum, too, but he's probably manic depressive, and maybe cleans up pretty well. It's hard to imagine the pigeon-shit covered overcoat and rank odor were fake, or that anyone not used to that could just don an outfit and not puke to death from it. I lived in NYC for a while and it's the way certain corners of some of the public parks there smell (piss, crap, and old) but concentrated 10x.

Anyway, yeah, I am really glad I saw that show and managed to live that. It's some pretty good, genuine rock 'n f'n roll, even if the real story about Stanley is unconfirmed. Also glad to know you heard positive things about them. Every now and then I'd bust out "The Silent Majority" and I remember my then-bf, who never heard it before, saying it sucked. But he sang like Myles Kennedy, so what did he know?

"While I was still working at Universal in 2005, I met a guy that had been working with Axl, who told me that he had touched over 90 songs, 40 of which were “some of the best songs he’d ever heard. [...]

THAT is what is so frustrating about Axl being my favorite rock singer of all time.

One album in the 15 years he has kept GnR alive..........when there are possible 75 songs still in the vault? And he has a band that is interested in writing new songs.

TONS of material, but he chooses to not share them with his millions of fans.

Crazy. And sad.

but again, they could just be ideas or snippets, no idea if they are actual full blown songs

Yep, I'd be willing to bet there are 90 tracks, not 90 songs. And for every finished songs, there are lots of tracks that form the basis of it while bands are working tracks out. Knowing how meticulous and obsessive Axl is, 90 tracks could equal two songs

And honestly, I'm surprised none of it has been leaked. Tons of materials the Stones did in the 70s leaked out onto bootlegs, and that's when it was a lot harder and bulkier to duplicate audio.

one of the best things about doing events to raise money for charity is that the event generates awareness of the cause, so not only do more people donate, they might volunteer, know someone who needs the charity's help and refer them, and they might donate again after the event. Charities need all the publicity they can get to build up operating funds. Just giving money "under the radar" doesn't have any of these important bonus side effects.

And the fact is that Slash loves to play, so why would he say no to causes he believes in?

Yeah I think he'd have done it for a little while then found something else. Probably a really little while.

"25 Celebrities You Didn't Know Had Bigger Penises Than You"

Domestic abuse is the big one.

One thing that always bugged me was the lyrics to One in a Million. yeah yeah I get it. Trust me I know the story about the song I don't need some Axl defender flying in here to explain to me the song. The FACT is Axl is such a great lyricist that I wish he'd have been a bit more tactful with the lyrics on that song because in my mind it's one of their absolute best songs. It's his best vocal performance I think but sadly it's marred with not only controversial lyrics(cause controversial lyrics can be good) but it's loaded with bigotry and racism whether it was his intention or not it's there so I think that's a shame that such a great song is in a sense ruined by the immature, hateful lyrics.

You just put into words what I really couldn't for all of these years since it came out. It's one of my favorite GnR songs, and one I turn to when things get really shitty and I need to tap into something rebellious (like Money Man by the Stones when I'm less angry but being rebellious) but it's a song I feel so closeted by because the lyrics say awful things about some of the people I love. I'm extra-torn because I have actually experienced some of the events in the song (getting off a bus, guitar in hand, with some ... guy coming up to me trying to sell gold chains out of his jacket, but in Buffalo, NY) so a lot of the song is part of my experience, and it wasn't just that moment but ... I'm not a person who uses or believes in some of those words. All of that said, I have at least one gay friend who loves the GnR Lies album with real intensity and at least doesn't find that "F word" used in it problematic at all. But the whole song could have had the same impact and same level of honesty without just a few certain words.

I could never get up on stage and sing that song, even though the overall feel to it is something that is really at my core. It's a song that has really intensely become a part of my life, especially when times get tough, but I feel like I have to keep it under wraps because it contains things that are hurtful to people I love.

I wish he'd picked different targets for the song.

I loveit. They only need 76 people to sign on and make it happen! Yeah! Only 42 more to go and we'll have the two of them together in no time!

I'm not a MJ fan (couldn't stand him growing up) but he had a thing for bringing in the notable hard rock guitarists (Eddie Van Halen) and other famous musicians at the time. One odd thing is that these videos, and the one dalsh327 posted, show that he worked with MJ enough to have worked out some routines and interact with him enough to share some creative ideas. But in Slash's book, I got the impression they met briefly and Slash was left to do the work while Michael went off and did who knows what. There are probably details about that which hit the cutting room floor from Slash's book, but it's one of the parts that didn't quite jive with reality. That said, maybe the part in Slash's book was about their first encounter, because he does say in the vid dalsh327 posted that he didn't have much to do with MJ for that one. When I read Slash's book, it really sounded like all MJ wanted to do was buy people to buy him more fame.

If you go back and listen to AFD and remember how young they all were, despite being a superficial tool, Adler sounds amazing on that album, and really knew exactly when and where to add punch. It's brilliant, and part of the amalgamated sound of that amazing album, and they all did it together. That album was a product of all of them, and their youth, their anger, their drive. He just didn't progress from there.

I really like a lot of the Walking Papers stuff and Loaded. I've recently put some of it on my phone's SD card and when it comes up on shuffle, I'm like, "What's this? I like this? What is it?" and it's one WP or Loaded song or another. So I need to put that into heavier rotation.

When VR came out, I was thinking, "I am really into all of the bands all of these guys have been in to one degree or another, so I really should love this" but not of it really ever grabbed me. And trust me, I am a huge Slash fangirl. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that none of it really hooks me in.

I really like some of the sounds on Apocalyptic Love, but I have a hard time getting past Myles' voice. I just don't like it. One ex-bf had a similar sound, and, as in love with him as I was at the time, I didn't like hearing it from him, either. Really, I'd take Slash playing with Fergie over Myles almost any day.

Freak out? Really?

Exactly. MJ was so pissed off he had Slash come back and do it again.

And like... you just cut his sound if you don't like it. Hasn't anyone seen the Blues Brothers?

C'mon, guys. Look at all the smiling and how lame the security guards are and how well-placed everyone is. If they wanted him off the stage, they'd have removed him.

I'm into a lot of garage-y stuff myself, and I like it. I agree with some of the other comments, but the fact alone that I was willing to listen to it twice and still have it playing in my head means that the flaws are minor. For the most part, the guy's voice is OK - it has its strengths and weaknesses. Some nice catchy hooks with the guitar. Good stuff.

If DJ didn't wear a hat and smoke cigarettes, he'd get far less hate.

If he didn't have such a striking image, it's possible no one would pay any attention to him at all.

It is 100% fine to be motivated by money when it comes to your livelihood. I can honestly say I only go to my job because they pay me.

Then I'm pretty sure I don't want to buy your records

Haha. I'm not in the music business. But I doubt I'm in the minority. Most people would stop going to work if the paychecks stopped.

But that isn't the point. There is a difference between buying a product made by someone who doesn't care about it and buying a quality product that has love, excitement and energy poured into it. Might not make a difference if I'm buying a comb, but even a pair of socks is better when the company puts some effort into the materials and design and has motivated workers. You get a better product when people care about something, and music is art. Anything fake about it always comes screaming through.

I saw them live in some club in FL in the early 90s and they were amazing. Plenty of people said Stanley wasn't a real bum, but man... if you got close to him... that bird shit all over him was real and he smelled worse than any of the NYC bums I've ever seen. And of course, they had some hooker(s?) making out with him and getting it on during "Wet Your Lips" and he drank a lot of Midori. It was an amazing show.

It is 100% fine to be motivated by money when it comes to your livelihood. I can honestly say I only go to my job because they pay me.

Then I'm pretty sure I don't want to buy your records

The NYC rental story seems to have some traction by Googling his name. I'm surprised there is that much interest though.

I have a personal aversion to signature model guitars anyway ("Look at me - I want to be just like this guy!") but I can't see this being a hit. I wonder if the deal with Gibson is more like the way small-time book writers have to make with a publishing company, where they have to guarantee the sales of a minimum number of books. The minimum is usually enough to pay for the cost of the first run of the books. I have no idea if guitar makers do this. Maybe there is something also in conjunction with Seymour Duncan going on as their name is really prominent on those pups and I haven't noticed much other branding on other sig models.

Also, FWIW that matte finish is cheaper to produce (one day in the factory) than a full gloss finish (three days in production).

We're on Axl time now.

That's probably a lot of it, and the impression I get is that Axl is really big on over-thinking everything, to the point where nothing is ever good enough to be considered done. IIRc, those were the original excuses for being late on stage: he had to get his voice just right or whatever. It's like a sense of perfectionism turns into procrastination.

Duff's book is a different sort of book than Slash's. It is not really a typical chronological 'music bio'; it is not really a book about Guns N' Roses - GN'R are the least interesting thing in there. Duff's book is about, the descent into, and recovery from, addiction.

This, and something else really jumped out at me when I read his and Slash's book back to back: one was clearly written by a man who had sons, and another was clearly written by a man who had two daughters. Duff's book even starts out with a story about not knowing how to handle issues with his own young girls. So in that sense, I felt like Slash's book was - maybe honest isn't a better word, but bigger on disclosure. I think Duff held back things he didn't want his kids reading. It's a story about growing up and almost dying. Slash's book is about rock n f'n roll and all the debauchery, drugs and baggage that went with it. I loved it. Duff's is maybe more inspirational, but I had fun reveling in sleaze with Slash's book. They're both very smart guys.

To me Steven's book was really superficial, but that's Steven, and it gave a lot of insight into everything going on.

And after reading this thread, I read "Last Remaining Slut" online. Wow. Crazy, disturbing, sad, but worth reading. I was surprised to find in reviews on Amazon that it's required reading for some courses. It made "I'm with the Band" seem tame, but in so many ways, it is. Anyway, thanks for sharing the link to it.