Nice Boy

17 hours ago, Nintari said:

Would not have gone over well. Back in those days, most rock fans hated rap with a passion. Having a rap album in your collection was akin to social death.

That's an exaggeration. Might have been unacceptable in some circles but this was also the era of rap / rock crossovers. Aerosmith and Run DMC. Anthrax and Public Enemy. Ice T's Bodycount. Axl wore an NWA hat often. He did not die a social death for that.  

Hi, I really enjoyed this. A couple of small factual mistakes I can correct though:

The incident where Duff and Axl met in the hotel in London - Duff wasn't on tour with his band, he was there on business.

Also, the thing where Slash got pissed of at Paul Huge's involvement was on the song Sympathy for the Devil. 

actually that's a point, there will be synth on LALD. Forgot to put that on my list.

I think that would be against the GnR ethos? They've usually prided themselves on musicianship and 'keeping it real'/RnR... especially Slash.. though I gather he preferred a 5/6-piece skin and bones band setup.

But seriously, I mean I've seen her bashing the keyboard during Used To Love Her, for example. What could a synth player be doing on such a track? It's just basic guitar based country style simple tune.

I want to point out firstly that this is not an anti-Melissa thread - I'm all for her inclusion!

But I'm curious as to her actual role, as a synth / keyboardist. Because as far as I can work out there are only a few songs on the setlist that require a synth / keyboardist.

So what does she do during the other songs?

As far as I can see, the only songs requiring synth keyboard would be:

from AFD:

Nightrain - Train horn sound effect intro

Paradise City - strings intro

from UYI 1: 

November Rain - string parts etc

Coma - heartbeat sound effect on intro

from Chi Dem:

On the songs they play.

So that leaves a whole lot of songs with no role for a synth player. What does she do?

Have I missed any songs with synth parts?

Also, can someone post a good example of a Pitman "towel solo" please?

I don't think I've seen one properly, they sound awesome lol

ok 

That's me told, lol

Something I have thought about the song November Rain: I think it would have been better if Axl had used his softer voice at the beginning, the same voice as in the beginning of Patience and Don't Cry.

I'm a lover of rasp, but can't help feeling that when used on the opening of NR it just sounds too harsh/whiney for a love ballad (especially live.) I would say: let's hear it with the soft voice at the beginning, then at the end "dontcha know you need somebody" he could still rasp it up.

Thoughts?

Yes. 

Actually there are good reasons to argue that this is a masterpiece, even if you are not especially a fan of the song: its structure is musically very complex and unusual, as was explained to me recently: the last chord sequence is cycling through different keys, The chords are in the same order, yet every time they play through them, they start on a different root note.

on the subject of playing stuff fast: worth noting that Adler used to play damn fast sometimes. I made a thread on the subject once, can't find it now, but was a good discussion.

I actually clocked the bpm differences between Adler and Sorum's playing for Brownstone, Adler was sometimes almost 20 bpm faster than Sorum's usual UYI tour speed.

How do I find my old threads btw? 

That Rolling Stone article missed a key moment out: when Axl burned the Nirvana hat onstage!

(there is wobbly footage of that.)

one thing that occurred to me about this feud the other day: ok so Kurt considered GnR too macho, politically incorrect, and so on. But both Nirvana and GnR had roots in fuck-you attitude punk, which was not politically correct either. In a lot of ways GnR were very similar to the renegade punk bands that Nirvana claimed as influence. So it seems Kurt was being a bit selective when he claimed GnR were out of step with Nirvana philosophically.

Yes Kurt would never have written the lyrics to One in a million. But neither is it true that GnR had "nothing to say" as Kurt claimed. Nirvana could not have written a song like Civil War.

ah it's all good.. i was just jokin.

if any person actually gets pissed off just because another human being has grown a moustache, they need to have a word with themselves!

Yellow raincoats, though = unforgivable

5 hours ago, AtGame7 said:

Do you regret the last 20 years not becoming what you could have been?

As much as it would have been cool to have a bigger back catalogue, I actually think them splitting up and regrouping all these years later actually adds to what they are rather than detracts.

I mean, if they had still been together all this time, what would they be now? Just another run of the mill ageing group. But as it's happened the way it has, we get to enjoy the excitement of the regrouping, and the world is like "ah they are back, we missed you!"

I guess it comes down to the old saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."   

3 minutes ago, Silent Jay said:

During the Chinese Democracy tour Frank simply followed the same patterns as Brain, Brain teached him how to do Brownstone.

ah seen... so it was Brain who instigated the new patterns.. well I can sorta understand that at the time they wanted to give a few signature elements to give the impression of nu GnR being a new thing; but now, it's a classic themed tour, so.... classic drumming it should be imo.

I do like the small things they have done to keep the classic theme.. the logo, the band's look, even Axl's style and attire/wardrobe look more like how you might expect the 80s Axl to have turned out 20 years later.

As in, no handlebar moustache, sideboards or yellow raincoats, lol   

Ah good.

Listening to the full Vegas show now, I definitely hear that he does quite a lot of extra rolls and fills on some tracks, like Patience outro.

i've no problem with that at all.. it was just the Brownstone and RQ intros I think sound better in the classic patterns, as they are such classic recognisable funky grooves.

From the muffled footage I've seen/heard it seems he is drumming Brownstone intro with the classic pattern rather than with the extra fills like he did on ChiDem tours, am I right?

I do prefer the classic intro.. if anyone has a link to a good quality audio of him playing the intro from the recent shows, feel free to post it up!

No, doing cover tunes is a totally different thing to doing songs that were composed by a band that was sorta the other side of a divide at one point. Cover songs are neutral, whereas CD or VR songs have (or had) a partisan aspect to them. Hence why it's more of a controversial proposition for Axl to sing e.g. Slither than say, The Seeker.

yeah he might have wanted to play them. Sure he's fine with it. I just mean that he is compromising by playing stuff he had no hand in writing. Whereas I don't think Axl would be as easy to convince to do Slash/VR songs.. especially as they aren't GnR songs, as you say. 

It's an interesting point. At first I thought, maybe they'll do Slither or something, as a tribute to Weiland.. but on reflection i don't think Axl would compromise himself to sing Scott's lyrics - especially as they are presumably about his own personal addictions and problems ("here comes the water, to wash away the sins" etc.) - So even though Slash has compromised by agreeing to play CD songs, I doubt Axl will reciprocate and agree to do VR stuff. - But if they did end up doing VR stuff, I don't think it would be an insult to Weiland at all, on the contrary I think it could be a fitting and emotional tribute.

Yes. Even for someone who has witnessed a lot of friends and colleagues drop off from overdoses and shit, those three passing away will have affected him a lot.

Yep.

Prior to the re-grouping, I often thought maybe the only thing that would get Axl and Slash in the same room would be someone's funeral, maybe even Adler's... but things are on the up anyway. 

Duff look so damn healthy these days? (if a little facially weathered, in the RnR tradition.) Of course he replaced the addictions with commitment to exercise etc... 

I wish Axl would take a leaf outta Steve Tyler's book on the keeping in shape front! But I'm not complaining. The guys look and sound great overall, I'm buzzing at the moment with all that's happening.  

Something I have thought about for a while - does anyone else think the recent passing of a number of high profile Rock N Roll artists has had, or is having an effect on this GnR regrouping?

What I mean is, take for example Slash - in a matter of months he has experienced the passing of several people who were a big part of his life - Bowie, Lemmy, his former frontman Scott Weiland..

I think that even if it's not the case that these events actually influenced the decision to re-group, they could very well solidify a feeling amongst the core 3 that life is too short to let past gripes getting in the way of getting together and creating the magic again, both for themselves and the fans. They need each other and we need them. Without wanting to sound morbid at all, I think the guys are realising the aspect of their own mortality; but out of that something positive is emerging and the vibe is good between the guys. Long live GnR!

28 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

They weren't "members" of the band and they only contributed to a couple songs.. That over bloated part of the tour was only for one year. Thankfully... They got it right in 1993 when they stripped it back to 6 and the shows were amazing.

Whether they are an official member or not, what practical difference does it make, if they are on stage playing, they are part of the band. The whole membership issue is a moot point anyway; e.g. Matt Sorum being described as "additional musician" on Live Era.

4 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

You left out Ashba.

Nope, (s)he's right there at the bottom.

GnR has had plenty of female musicians on board in the past, why are some people getting so upset? 

Tracy & Roberta, Cece Worrall, Anne King and Lisa Maxwell all made great contributions to this band in the UYI era. The extended 'Move to the City' in Tokyo is awesome and shows how versatile the band as a whole were.

Welcome her. Now is a great time to be a GnR fan. Be thankful for what we have, it's awesome, and no yellow raincoats or out of tune Ashba SCOM intros to be seen!!