Nice Boy

I was thinking he should have stopped and fixed it. But i guess he panicked and couldn't face the embarassment of stopping, so just carried on in the hope that no one would notice.

`Agh it's just awful.

not sure if this should be posted in the former members section, and i'm sure it's been discussed before but i haven't seen it. so...

what the hell happened with that Golden Gods 2014 performance when Ashba started playing the SCOM intro solo and it was wayyyy out of tune? Did he use the wrong/wrongly tuned guitar or what? Whose fault was it, his or a guitar tech's?

i can barely watch it as it's so awful, i bet ashba "got the corn" for that one !!!

Yeah but given that it was a low profile song, I just wonder why it was chosen.

Anyway at least the video must have been cheap to make. Just them jumping around in front of a fisheye lens with that stupid bouncing-ball-on-subtitles thing going on. No dolphins, no aircraft carriers or helicopters, and definitely no cakes. 

Okay so it's not the worst of tracks, but it's not great either; a bit of a filler in my opinion. There are probably a dozen tracks off UYI I would consider more worthy of doing a video release for. Plus, was it ever actually played live?

It just seems a totally unlikely candidate for producing and releasing a video for. My guess is that they felt they should put out a more hard rock sounding song after the succession of slowies they'd put out. Just to remind MTV viewers they were still a hard rock band. But still, would you have opted for Eden?

you mean the string broke and whipped him in the face? Ouch!

Black Leather seems a bizarre inclusion. Not that it's a particularly bad track at all, but... does it stand out in their catalogue? And why include that rather than Since I Don't have You, if it's supposed to be a 'hits' album...?

Yeah or a fly or something. Mental reaction he has! I don't think it was cigarette catching fire because that would probably have been visible..

I was just watched the video of the Oklahoma '92 concert - and something odd happens during November Rain: if you watch from about 1:28:30 on the link below, you can see Slash start to panic as he's playing, then he takes both hands from his guitar and starts to frantically rub his face and pull at his hair, it looks weird! It looks like an insect got in his face, or he set his hair on fire with a cigarette or something... anyone know what happened? - after the end of the song you can lip-read Axl ask him "What happened?" but Slash's response is too inaudible to make out... any ideas?

https://youtu.be/bzNXuXqpryM?t=5310 

Well I didn't get it in the time frame you mention... but fwiw: I thnk it was more successful here in the U.K. than in the states (so I've heard.) The tracks on it are fucking awesome. I love the fast paced drumming on Nice Boys, Reckless. That sound is prob my favourite sound of theirs. - The rare recorded version of Nice Boys is worth a listen, if you haven't already. It's even quicker than the Lies/Suicide version.

33 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

I can understand that it's not for everyone, like all things. But I didn't love the album upon the first play through, it took a a few listens. I didn't like dark side of the moon or The Wall the first time either, after a few spins things started to pop out and I started finding songs that I started to really like. Didn't like Shacklers at first, that intro was jarring, now!? I love the song, Better, Street of dreams etc. great songs CD is not a 10/10 record! it has flaws, but it is a good album, and it's probably the gnr record I listen to most... but I'm not saying it's the best guns album or anything like that!

Yes mate I feel exactly the same about Shacklers, i used to think it was wack, now i even love the disco/house type hi-hat drum pattern on the chorus, "donn't ever, try to tellll me..."

it's just my luck i've started to actually appreciate cd just as its 'era' is over, ha.

GnR fan x 6 - Yeah I hear you. Although, when I heard the first Velvet Revolver tracks, Slither and so on, my first thought was, oh that's what I would expect a GnR record to sound like. As much as CD is an amazing piece of music, it doesn't have 'grab you' riffs as such, hence I think it's a grower.

But I totally get that for Axl, the progression of his music has necessarily been the way it has, with CD being the culmination of his broad musical influences. Even before UYI came out, he said in interviews "I just want to bury Appetite" and "I don't want to live my life through that album." Yet 30 years later AFD is basically his legacy in the public eye, and he's spent the last 15 years opening with WTTJ almost every show.. so yeah I think he should be given the support he deserves on his own musical journey, and CD.

If there's one thing to be said for GnR - in all its incarnations - it must be that it is one heck of a musically versatile band. I've made this point to people who scoff and say 'GnR were/are shit'. Even someone who doesn't like their music can't actually deny that they were/are musically diverse. 

Does anyone remember this release? 

I bought it on cassette in early 90s. It was basically a long interview with I think Slash and Duff, and maybe Steven. All I remember of it is: the interviewer had a sort of middle eastern accent; Duff and Slash speak about life in L.A. and how harsh the cops are, one of them speaks about getting nailed for jaywalking and then says "we've got a dong.. er, a dong? I mean we've got a song called Out Ta Get Me about them.." haha.

I can't find a download or stream for it online. Anyone remember this release and/or have a link to listen to it again please?

I think Chinese Democracy is a great album!

When it was first released, my response was pretty much just 'meh'.... I didn't think it sucked, but the whole style seemed so far removed from original GnR that it was too much of an adjustment to embrace it. But over a long period of time, the songs slowly crept up on me - recently I found to my surprise that one of them would play 'in my head', and I would be like what's that..? Oh shit it's off Chinese! So now I listen to it, or at least the first part especially, CD, Better, Shacklers, Street of Dreams, TWAT etc, and the songs are actually really good, the whole album deserves a lot more credit than it was ever given. But it was always going to be under rated given the circumstance. But I think given time now, it has been musically vindicated. I even move around a bit and pull a crunchy 'rock face' when the songs are cranked, lol.

Anyway - one thing occurred to me about how I, and others, initially gave the album a luke warm reception. I'd forgotten that I had exactly the same feeling when UYI came out. I distinctly remember getting home excitedly and putting UYI 2 in the cassette player, pressing play, on comes Civil War and the rest, and I was like.. "wtf is this shit? It's nothing like Appetite.. what's with the pianos.. sounds like soft rock.. blah blah".... but soon enough UYI is a classic. Not in the vein of AFD, but classic in its own way (ok with quite a few fillers.) But looking back at the whole catalogue, it's obvious to me now that all of the albums are amazing in their own respects.

So in summary, I think Chinese is definitely a 'grower', and yes it can be regarded as excellent musically, and perhaps classic. And I say I'd never thought I'd say it because my favourite sound/era of GnR is the exact opposite, the pre-AFD fast punk type tracks, Reckless Life, Shadow of Your Love and so on.

And now we have (some of) the boys back together.. (hold your breath lol.) So nevermind the negativity, I'm fuckin stoked to be a GnR fan, it's good times for us  

*hopefully, haha

ah thanks, i'm not the only one then!

hey all

Okay so I know this is quite a niche question, but it's something I've always wondered about so thought I may as well try to find an answer..

Has anyone noticed that on the Lies recording of Used To Love Her, there is a curious little sound, something like a woman speaking, during Slash's solo?

You can hear it if you listen very closely at 2.30 mins on the video below.. it's very short though so you have to listen real closely. It sounds to me like a woman saying something (maybe 'Slash!') but I'm not sure..

Any theories on this?

Tone down the bulky jacket, loose trouser leg combo and he will look great.

Yeah. I know it's a bit petty to go on about his appearance but i don't think the baggy jeans and big jackets thing works.

i quite liked those basketball tops he used to wear in early millenium

is there any videos/recordings of "dont damn me" live?

I don't think it was ever played. But I heard others only played once or twice. Like Garden of Eden, The garden, Locomotive, Anything Goes, and Breakdown

Anything Goes was played a lot more than once or twice, it was a regular on the set list for the very early incarnations of GnR. Although the arrangement and lyrics were different to how it was eventually recorded for AFD.

As I've said before - it seems pretty obvious to me that the GnR song "you're crazy" is based on The Seeker. Listen to The Who version ok Seeker and then listen to Crazy on GnR Lies. The Crazy riff is a variation on Seeker. Even the lyrics are similar, both talk about lookin' /searchin for something.. my guess is they used to jam Seeker, and Crazy was born out of it. Same as how Used To Love Her is just a rework of Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers.

Okay first of all I want to make clear - I don't intend this to be a "who is better" thread, because God I've read enough of those tedious arguments for one lifetime! Always with the same shit, 'Steven has great swing but sloppy' 'Matt is steady like a robot but no soul' etc etc etc....

What I am interested i here is just what a big difference there is in the actual speed that they drummed certain songs - and that Steven often played stuff wayy faster than Matt. Why is this? I checked out the bpm of a selection of Mr.Browstone recordings, and whilst Matt pretty much always plays it at about 107 bpm (by my measurement) Steven's was on average about 120 bpm. But below I've posted 2 examples which have such vastly different speeds, it's like they are different songs! Matt playing it in Prague 1992 at a very slow 104 bpm, as opposed to Steven at Giants Stadium 1988, drumming the same song at a roadrunner 130 bpm !? That is a vast difference. Steven always played it a lot faster... anyone have any sensible answers as to why this is? Any drummers here have input on this subject?

Just listen to the speed of the drumming on these intos: Matt @ 104 bpm / Steven @ 130 bpm !

MATT 104 bpm

STEVEN 130 bpm

That Sailing performance was EPIC and I'm convinced one of those once in a life things...so not really sure about wanting to hear it again. Axl simply can't even go near that level anymore.

It's just like this Nice Boys performance back in '10 with Duff, which was also EPIC and unrepeatable.

forgt about that one. this nice boys is beter imo than any one he's ever done.

Wow, first time I've seen that, amazing! One of my fave covers of theirs. That vid has given me faith in post 2006 nu Guns ! haha

Axl has ended '14 in a very high note concerning rasp - the last Vegas show was as good as it gets in that department - hopefully we'll have Axl's mighty rasp present more often from now on...

Gotta love the RASP!

He sounds a bit like Brian Johnson from AC/DC there. More Daffy Duck than Mickey..

maybe he should start a WASP tribute band, seeing as he is such a fan . Could call it RASP.

Ah I'm glad the thread was appreciated, was a bit concerned the reaction might just be 'cool story bro', lol

Anyway.. on the subject of Extreme's part in the show.. have you noticed that when Brian May introduces them he says something like "this is one band that perhaps understand what Queen was about more than any other.." When I first heard that I thought, Extreme? What has their sound got to do with Queen? Totally different! - But.. the more I've listened in retrospect, it's obvious that their front man Gary Cherone has a voice more like Freddie Mercury than any of the other singers on the bill.. sorta clean, powerful, operatic.. if you think about (and listen to) Gary doing the Queen songs as opposed to Axl, Gary sounds a LOT like Mercury. I personally think Axl was the wrong choice for 'We Will Rock You'. If you imagine Gary Cherone singing that it would be much more natural.. Axl was a great choice for Bohemain Rhapsody's ending though. When he storms on stage from nowhere, spinning round like a madman when the song goes into the head banging part at the end, god I remember watching that at home and going 'YESSSSSS!!!!' , was so excited, haha And also I think that was very much a key moment for the whole Axl 'anti-gay' thing, to see him and Elton John embracing each other and singing 'Nothing really matters', that was THE moment that sealed an important new credibility for Axl on the whole matter.. I think that was really significant and it was no coincidence that the show was staged like that, Elton knew exactly what he was doing. ... actually there is an interesting Eddie Trunk interview with Axl and Baz in 2000-something when Axl talks about when he met Elton backstage at that concert, he says that Elton made a point of saying he was unashamedly gay etc, Axl says that he just brushed over it and said ok cool, how shall we do the song then.. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting! ... While we're on the subject, have you noticed how often Axl says (in post-One in a Million interviews), when asked about influences, he always says Queen, Elton John, a lot.. I wonder if that was a conscious decision to highlight them as gay artists, a bit like the wearing of the NWA hat etc...?

ok rant over, I'll hand over the soapbox now, lol